Could a celebrity personal trainer be the answer to reignite F45?
Two years ago, Gunnar Peterson walked into his first F45 Training class in LA.
“I walked out, and I went ‘you guys are missing the market’,” recalls the Los Angeles-based personal trainer, well-known for working with the Kardashians, Angelina Jolie, Rebel Wilson, Ben Affleck and Sofia Vergara as well as athletes from the NBA and NFL, including Tom Brady.
Gunnar Peterson is the new chief of athletics for F45.
The so-called celebrity trainer, in part known because of his work with the rich and famous and in part because he has become somewhat of a celebrity in his own right, wondered why it wasn’t everywhere. He didn’t realise that, with a couple of thousand franchises around the world, it already was.
“I said ‘where have I been?’ It was so on point.”
Today, Peterson has been named the chief of athletics for F45.
It’s another big name for a big brand in fitness, which started in Australia in 2013 and now has investors including David Beckham and Mark Wahlberg.
The functional high intensity classes are Peterson’s “own kind of training”.
“They’ve scaled the way I train people, which I’ve never been able to do.”
What he can do, he says, is add his unique twist to the training style.
“I’m not walking in like Wizard of Oz … I’m joining an already accomplished team and adding my two cents,” he says.
“I’m sure I’ll add different pieces of equipment. I’m an equipment junkie. So if I can get that green-lit, I’ll throw in a couple of different pieces that are versatile. Let’s call them stocking stuffers. They’re small, they’re effective, they bring joy, but they’re not crazy prices.”
As far as evolving or reviving the brand, Peterson insists there is no need.
“It’s a great product and a great way to train – you can train if you’re 13 years old or 83 years old,” he says. “F45 was successful long before I got here… I’m adding to what’s already there, I’m not reinventing anything.”
The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in July 2021. By November, share prices fell 23 per cent, and have fallen further since then. Fans of F45 love the high-energy, intensity and variety of the workouts, which are all done and dusted within 45 minutes, as well as the sense of community.
After nearly nine years in business, F45 is facing fierce competition from newer players, including fellow homegrown fitness groups Body Fit Training (with which F45 has had a legal stoush with) and 12RND Fitness, and the imports Orangetheory and Barry’s Bootcamp.
Some critics say that F45 high-turnover, fast-paced model values profits over people and means those who are less fit or new to training are more likely to get injured, while the classes – which are designed by the global athletics team and streamed across all studios – can put the in-house trainers in the position of being little more than cheerleaders. Though franchisees are schooled in visual consistency – from the way F45 uniforms and studios look to the sales and promotional material – multiple people I spoke with say the quality of trainers at different studios varies greatly, with some outstanding and others offering little or no correction on poor form.
“I don’t think we need to go to fisticuffs about it, but I would say that the coaches are trained, and they give viable feedback,” says Peterson. “They are upbeat, but it’s not hokey. They’re giving legitimate performance cues. In terms of getting injured, they make really clear announcements at the beginning of class about how to regress the movements.
“The haters are going to be out there… but you can’t pay them any mind.”
Any form of high intensity training requires adequate recovery time between sessions (Peterson suggests two-to-three classes a week, mixing it up on the other days), something that may also be important from a performance and metabolic health perspective.
From a muscle mass growing standpoint, it’s not the best option for bodybuilders, Peterson says, and he wouldn’t take his dad to a class, “because he doesn’t like loud music”. Otherwise, “it’s so thorough,” he says.
“You see pro athletes in there with people who are trying to drop 50 pounds (22 kilograms). There are ways to navigate the movements where you’re going to benefit from the class.
“I have this written in the window of my gym: ‘explaining to people why I like training like this is like explaining to you what water tastes like. The best thing for you to do is to taste it’.”
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