17 Gym Event Ideas to Skyrocket Your Member Acquisition in 2025

One of the biggest challenges - and biggest opportunities - for a gym business is to simply get potential members to visit your premises.

Once the prospective member is on site, they can familiarize themselves with your gym, meet your friendly staff, try out your classes and equipment, and generally get comfortable with your setup.

That’s why successful fitness businesses often use gym event ideas to attract new members. It’s a powerful way to get non-members to visit your gym and get a sense of your offering, in a non-pushy, non-salesy way.

But what exactly do these events look like? In this guide we’ll offer up 17 gym event ideas designed to help you sell more gym memberships and build up your fitness community.

Why gym events are key to marketing and member acquisition

The fitness industry is an incredibly competitive space. Not only do you face stiff competition from other local gyms - independent and franchise, general and boutique - you also find yourself increasingly competing against online-only rivals.

Gym events are a very human and tangible way to set yourself apart as a fitness business. An event can be something as simple as a free trial, reducing the intimidation that new members can feel, and increasing their excitement about undertaking their fitness journey with you.

The effectiveness of events as a marketing and sales tactic is backed up by the numbers:

• 85% of consumers are more likely to purchase after attending a live marketing event.
• 78% of event organizers identify in-person events as their organization’s most impactful marketing channel.

Some events can be an effective way to increase the loyalty of your current members too. They help you to foster a sense of community by encouraging your members to mingle with one another. They help to instill a sense of commitment to your gym, and help you to drive word-of-mouth referrals.

Best of all, special events can be a whole lot of fun! They’re a great way to meet new and like-minded people, forge friendships, and find new workout partners. Hire a professional photographer or videographer, and events create endless marketing content for platforms like Instagram and TikTok too.

In short: events are well worth doing. The next question: what exactly do these events look like? Here are 17 examples that can serve as a bit of inspiration for your gym.

17 gym event ideas for 2025

1. Grand opening fitness fair

Maybe you’re about to open a new gym business. Perhaps you’re expanding or relocating your current gym. Such a momentous occasion deserves a momentous event, in the form of a grand opening and by inviting complementary businesses to set up stalls, you can turn your opening into a fully fledged fitness fair.

On top of potential members, you can invite:

• Body and fitness experts to offer attendees advice on reaching their goals
• Fitness food companies who can share expert nutrition advice and give out free samples
• Fitness brands to sell clothing, equipment and accessories
• Local fitness influencers to bring some clout to the event

You can also ask these stall holders to promote the event on their own channels, gaining access to their audiences in the process. You might even consider inviting local media, to put your name up in lights on TV, in the paper and on the radio.

2. Fitness competition

Host a single-day fitness competition that resonates with the sort of gym members you’re seeking to attract, whether cardio challenges, timed fitness circuits, relay events, strength competitions or combat sports.

Make it an open invitation event that anyone can get involved in. Promote prizes to incentivize people to take part. Consider choosing a relevant local influencer to be the face of the event, and get them to promote it to their audience.

After the competition, develop a tempting introductory membership offer for the participants.

3. Charity workout fundraiser

It feels good to do good. This makes charity events a powerful tool for gym owners looking to attract new gym members. These events can temporarily transform your gym into a not-for-profit that helps out those in need, giving potential members a feel-good-feeling in the process.

Organize a workout or a competition where the entry fee goes to a worthy cause. Choose a charity that will resonate with your target audience, and prioritize local organizations, which can help you get the word out through local media.

These charitable gym community events help to give you a reputation as a gym worth supporting - a business that gives back, and that a member can feel proud to be a part of.

4. Influencer-led workout session

The right fitness influencer can be an incredibly valuable partner for your gym business. They can grant you access to a very specific, relevant and engaged audience that they have earned the trust of over the course of years.

By partnering with a local influencer, and getting them to use your gym to host a group fitness session or workout class, you enjoy the benefit of that trust by proxy: “if this influencer likes this gym, it must be good!”. You could even get the influencer to run regular free training sessions to maximize the partnership.

How do you find the right influencer? Simple: just ask your current members who they follow online.

5. Virtual reality fitness challenge

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology has been around for a while now, over which time it has become obvious that these tools won’t be replacing traditional gyms any time soon. But they can be used to enhance your offerings and events.

You can use VR/AR tech to gamify workouts and hold fun competitions. You could recreate a stage of the Tour de France on an AR-fitted bike, for example, and host a race. AR/VR tech can also allow you to host events across multiple sites, with competitors linked up over the internet.

6. Healthy food tasting event

Nutrition is every bit as important as exercise in terms of reaching body goals, so a fitness food fair is a fantastic (and delicious) opportunity to demonstrate your gym’s commitment to holistic health.

If you’re looking for fitness event ideas on a budget, this is a great option, as you can partner with local health food brands who bring their own goods for the tasting, and who gain access to a captive audience of relevant customers in return. These partner businesses can also help you with marketing the event, by promoting it on their own channels and bringing their own followers in.

7. Marathon training program

Does your gym cater to endurance athletes? A marathon-specific fitness class or training program, which offers people tips on going further faster, can be a great way to promote your business within the often tight running community.

You could offer these events in the lead-up to a local race, initially with group workouts then upselling people to personal training sessions.

8. Family fitness day

One of the primary reasons that members stop going to the gym is because family life has become too hectic. By marketing yourself as a family friendly fitness business, you can gain access to this valuable and often overlooked customer segment.

Host a family fitness day, filled with kid-friendly workouts, and childcare services that allow the adults to enjoy their own classes. Hand out party bags to the kids and swag bags to the parents, filled with branded items.

Remember to follow through with your family-friendly promises, by offering the same kids' classes and on-site childcare on an ongoing basis.

9. Wellness technology showcase

Modern gym members are becoming increasingly tech savvy. The rise in wearables has shown them the value of workout data, while smart gym equipment offers PT-level training insights on-demand.

Host an event that showcases the latest and greatest in fitness, health and wellness tech: wearables, smart equipment, fitness apps, recovery tools, sleep trackers and more. Invite tech brands to showcase their wares, and host talks that position your gym as a thought-leader in the fitness industry.

10. Social media fitness challenge

While in-person events are particularly powerful brand awareness and member acquisition tools, online events can be effective too, and can potentially reach a far larger audience.

Consider creating a week-long fitness challenge, where participants upload their progress to social media and hashtag the content.

Inspiration can be taken from Nike’s 2015 #BetterForIt campaign, which encouraged participants to post photos and videos showing their workouts, fitness achievements or transformation stories, using the hashtag #BetterForIt. With 200,000 posts in the first few months on Instagram alone, it showed the power of social media as a community building and branding tool.

11. Guest instructor bootcamp

While the line between fitness influencer and celebrity trainer is increasingly blurred, take a moment to consider potential guest instructors who may not have got their start on social media, such as TV and radio personalities and retired professional athletes.

Invite these guest instructors to host open-invite bootcamps for non-members. The opportunity to meet a local celeb can be just the incentive a fitness enthusiast needs to give your gym a go. If you’ve secured a particularly high profile guest, you could even make it a ticketed event.

12. Obstacle course challenge

If you run a general gym that caters to a wide variety of different members, it’s wise to avoid particularly competitive events, and instead combine fitness with fun.

An obstacle course challenge can be just the ticket: tugs of war, sled push relays, wheelbarrow races, balance beam walks, net crawls and plank hold competitions are the ideal mix of competitive yet inclusive and fun, and can showcase the community and camaraderie that a potential member can expect at your gym.

13. Nutrition workshop

Modern members are increasingly looking for more holistic health experiences. If you can offer such a service within the four walls of your gym, you provide a compelling reason for them to join.

A nutrition workshop is a great way to demonstrate your commitment to health and wellness. Bring in a nutritionist to host sessions focused on different fitness and body goals: strength, endurance, peak performance and more. Encourage audience participation through Q&A. Finish the event off with a compelling offer for new members, to help them put the knowledge they gained into action.

14. Member success story night

Social events are valuable ways to enhance the sense of community within your gym, but they can also be used to build your community too, by attracting new members.

Take member success story nights. These evenings see current members sharing their fitness journeys, providing inspiration to those who are just starting out. Often held at night and off-site, these events offer everyone the chance to relax and get to know each other outside of the gym, which can be a valuable experience for potential members who are looking for a gym with a sense of community.

15. Holiday-themed workout

November and December tend to be quieter months on the gym calendar. With the holidays on the horizon, people simply have other things on their mind, and are often out of town. They then return with a vengeance in January, New Year’s resolutions in hand.

You can combat this lull by designing holiday-themed workouts that attract members through the last few months of the year: a Thanksgiving calorie burn, a WOD (workout of the day) advent calendar, New Year prep workouts. Black Friday is also the ideal time to offer some super tempting membership deals.

16. Fitness career day

A lot of fitness fans have aspirations to make a living as a trainer someday. You can help give them a leg up by hosting workshops for these future professionals. Fitness career days can feature talks from gym owners or personal trainers, stalls for health and wellness brands, and exercise classes that focus on the trainer’s perspective, explaining the whats, whys and hows of running a class.

Hosting fitness events for aspiring trainers isn’t purely altruistic though - you’ll also promote your gym as the go-to spot for anyone who is truly passionate about their fitness. You can gain access to the best up-and-coming professionals, and you can secure new members too, as fitness fans experience the joys of working out at your gym.

17. Local sports team collaboration

As distinctly local businesses, effective gym promotions will often have a local flair. One of the most effective ways to boost your gym’s reputation in your area is to partner with a local sports team for regular training sessions, based on the fitness goals of the athletes. In the process you can sell your fitness studio as training experts, and potentially sell memberships to those local sportspeople.

The benefits of hosting fitness events with local sports clubs can go further too. You could trade training for marketing, placing your name on the team kit or on billboards at the club, turning the team’s supporters and staff into potential members.

How to plan and promote your fitness events

Now that we’re armed with a few engaging event ideas, let’s turn our attention to how to host a fitness event, or perhaps more precisely, how to plan gym events for member acquisition. While different occasions will require different preparation, the following seven steps are a great place to start:

1. Set your goals and budget: Define the event’s purpose (e.g. member engagement, lead generation) and allocate a realistic budget.
2. Choose a date and venue: Select a time that suits your audience, and whether you’ll host it at your gym, a local park or community centre.
3. Define the event format: Bootcamp, fun run, charity challenge, wellness workshop? Choose your preferred option, and plan activities, guest trainers or prizes accordingly.
4. Create your promotional assets: Design flyers, graphics and email invites that feature your brand prominently.
5. Promote across channels: Use social media, email, in-gym posters and your website to spread the word. Collaborate with local influencers or partners if relevant.
6. Drive sign-ups: Use online forms, early bird deals or giveaways to encourage registrations.
7. Follow up post-event: Share photos, thank attendees and offer exclusive follow-up deals to convert new leads.

Gym management software like GymMaster can be hugely helpful in a number of these steps, from marketing to new member signups.

Measuring event success

Fitness event KPIs should reflect both event engagement and real-world business outcomes.

New memberships or class sign-ups are the primary indicators of direct ROI. But metrics like event attendance numbers and no-show rates also give insight into the effectiveness of your marketing and planning.

Track social media engagement - impressions, likes, shares and comments - to get a sense of how much exposure your brand has enjoyed from the event. Use Google Analytics to review website referral traffic from event promotions (e.g. social posts or emails) to monitor traffic spikes and conversion rates on event landing pages.

Post-event, send a feedback survey to attendees to gauge their enjoyment and gather feedback. Finally, if you offered exclusive event promo codes, monitor redemption rates to see what drove action.

Taken together, these metrics offer a full picture of your event’s impact.

GymMaster: Capitalize on gym event ideas to boost engagement

Getting people to visit your gym is a huge step towards making them a member. Creative gym event ideas can also be an effective way to build community and your brand - but only if the event is planned and run well.

We’re here to help. GymMaster’s Marketing and Retention Tools can help you to ensure that your next event is an undeniable success. Our solution can:

• Send automated, personalized email and SMS messages to both current and potential members.
• Monitor email open, bounce and unsubscribe rates, and track social media performance with the Facebook Pixel.
• Create discounted memberships or concession passes in seconds.
• Track and guide leads through your sales funnel.
• Accept new sign-ups directly through your gym’s website.

By taking a strategic approach to event marketing, you can use these occasions to become a well-known fitness and health brand in your area, and sell more memberships than ever before.

Ready to enhance your marketing and membership game? Let’s get to it.