As More Women Lift Weights, Gyms Might Never Be the Same
Crunch, Planet Fitness and other chains are bulking up on strength training equipment to satisfy a new cohort of patrons.
A dozen people are in motion at a Crunch Fitness in a Midtown Manhattan basement, sneaking in a lunch-hour workout. A young woman at a gleaming silver squat rack balances an iron bar across her back, two bright-red rubber weights on each end. A few yards away, a young man flicks through his phone between dead-lift sets. Behind the lifters is a sea of gray-painted machines designed to build leg muscles, including new plate-loaded hack squat machines. Across the expansive bottom floor of the three-story gym, a few more members crunch and curl and pull weights around.
Upstairs, several new high-tech treadmills sit mostly idle.