As we turn the page on the month of January, millions of Americans are working to keep up with their fitness-related new year’s resolutions. They’re going to the gym, dieting and trying to shed those extra holiday pounds.
With that in mind, Southern California fitness entrepreneur Anthony Geisler— curator of iconic boutique fitness brands including StretchLab, Pure Barre, YogaSix, UFC Gym, Rumble Boxing, Club Pilates, and CycleBar— shared his perspective on 2025’s hottest fitness trends.
Above all, lean muscle is in and bulk is out, says the 48-year-old fitness expert from Irvine, California.
“I think we’re going to see a lot of weight training brought into boutique verticals. Last year, I experimented with adding weight training to a ballet barre class and it was the most popular workout we launched,” Geisler said during a recent Zoom interview. “People are asking, ‘How do we get that lean muscle mass back?’ That big bulky look isn’t in anymore. It’s the healthy, fit look that you see out there that people are going for.”
Last week in DC Geisler discussed these trends with incoming Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Talking to RFK Jr. and hearing his ideas, I’m expecting positive changes to the way people eat,” Geisler said. Kennedy has been a vocal opponent of ultra-processed foods and additives and has called out corporate influence over government food policy.
“If those guys have their way over the next four years, we’re going to see Americans being forced to eat healthier,” Geisler said, “because a lot of the bad stuff is just going to be illegal. Eating better—and our children eating better—is important, and something everybody on both sides of the aisle should agree on.”
Geisler pointed to the growing embrace of “biohacking,” a do-it-yourself form of wellness that focuses on daily behaviors and incremental changes to one’s lifestyle to achieve desired physiological outcomes. “You see biohacking pioneers like Gary Brecka and Dave Asprey grow their following dramatically the last few years and their methods being embraced by major influencers and celebrities, respected voices,” Geisler said.
Asprey, known as the “Father of Biohacking,” echoed some of these predictions, telling the Washington Post last week he believes RFK Jr.’s influence as HHS Secretary will “even the playing field” for companies like his own against mainstream entities in the healthcare industry like big pharmaceutical companies.
It’s a trend that Geisler expects won’t be losing momentum any time soon.
“People are getting a lot smarter about their bodies,” he said. “People are getting serious about biohacking. They’re starting to figure out that it can help them achieve their fitness goals and creating lean muscle mass.”
At the same time, GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) drugs will remain popular, but these weight-loss shortcuts have their downsides, Geisler said. “GLP-1 drugs are suppressing caloric intake, but it’s no different than duct tape. As the body burns fat, it burns muscle. You can’t just take these drugs and not do anything else; you need to work to build muscle or you’re asking for a whole other set of problems.”
Geisler also sees cardio workouts becoming increasingly unfashionable as gym-goers instead embrace weight training and interval training. He noted a popular health club chain that recently took out about half of the treadmills at its gym in Irvine and is emphasizing weight training. The entire upstairs of this gym is geared toward free weights and has become a space for people to do strength exercises.
Geisler’s predictions are informed by decades of professional experience and having run over 3,000 locations in multiple countries. His successes in the uber-competitive space have been the result of savvy and calculated risk-taking. In the early-2000s, he was a member of a small boxing gym called LA Boxing. Realizing its potential, he purchased LA Boxing in 2001 and grew it into the largest boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts chain in the country, selling over 200 franchises before he sold the company to UFC Gym in 2013. He bought Club Pilates in 2015 and continued to grow his portfolio of fitness brands around it.
“People are starting to figure out that they need to be doing something metabolic. They need to be doing something that increases strength, not just aimlessly burning calories,” Geisler said. “So, I think you’ll see some more weight-focused programs coming to market. You’ll see fewer treadmills.”
Ultimately, “It’s all about diet and exercise at the end of the day, and that exercise component is no longer just cardio,” Geisler said, referring to High-Intensity Interval Training. “It is lean muscle-mass weight training. So, I think we’ll see that across modalities like pilates, boxing, barre, and even cycling.”
DISCLAIMER: No part of the article was written by The Signal editorial staff.
