Reflections for 2026 and 5 Themes for Studio owners

You may, or may not, have listened to the reformerpilates.com podcast. Either way, we have just released our final episode of 2025. Across the first seven recordings, a number of themes emerged with surprising consistency, patterns that feel worth pausing on as the industry looks ahead to 2026.

No reflection, of course, is complete without a neatly packaged phrase. Ours takes the form of five letters:

T O R I D

This is not a misspelling of torrid. Although the UK enjoyed respectable weather in 2025, the year was hardly “parched by intense sun”. Instead, these letters form an acrostic, five themes that surfaced repeatedly in conversation and, taken together, offer a useful framework for the year ahead.

T is for Tribe

Every guest, studio owners, instructors and technology founders alike, returned to the same idea: the distinctive strength of the reformer Pilates community. Community is the word most often used, but it may not go far enough. Tribe feels more precise.

Tribes follow. They endure. They take pride in belonging. They represent their people.

Georgia of Studio 281 offered a vivid example, recounting how her business adapted through the adversities of Covid, reshaping itself to survive at all costs. That instinct, to protect the group even under pressure, is tribal. So too is her mantra: “ordinary people doing extraordinary things”. Tribes, after all, tend to have mottos.

Your tribe is the consequence of your actions and your brand. Conversations with Shiniqua and Georgia of Outskulpted distilled just how critical brand clarity is, not merely to acquire an audience, but to retain it. As they reflected on their journey and their next phase of growth, one truth stood out: their brand and their tribe had become indistinguishable. A brand without followers is just a logo. A tribe gives it meaning.

O is for Opportunity

Growth in reformer Pilates has been pronounced and sustained. The obvious question, then, is whether the bright flame has begun to dim, or whether there is still room to expand.

The data suggests the latter. In 2025, the global reformer Pilates market was valued at $7.29bn and is forecast to grow at roughly 8.5% year on year for the next decade. Hardly a sector in decline.

Every guest echoed this optimism. Few more convincingly than Michael King, who has witnessed almost every fitness trend since the 1980s. His conclusion is reassuringly pluralistic: “It’s not one size fits all. There is room for all types of movement.” In other words, growth does not require uniformity.

Opportunity also emerged in a different form. Rachel Lea, CEO of Arketa, spoke about the role of AI in removing the operational burden many studio owners never intended to carry. Platforms that acquire, manage and retain your tribe allow founders to focus on what drew them to wellness in the first place.

Perhaps most refreshing was her insistence that opportunity does not always mean doing more. Sometimes it means doing less, and earning more. Growth at all costs is a seductive idea. Disciplined attention to profitability is the quieter, often wiser alternative.

R is for Resilience

From the outset, the podcast aimed to present an unvarnished picture of studio ownership. The reality is demanding: managing property, teams, landlords, software, marketing, retention and investment decisions, often alone.

Studio ownership can be isolating. While partnerships featured prominently in many stories, individual resilience proved indispensable.

Torah and Ayo of Refine Pilates exemplify this. Taking on an existing business in central London, amid limited access to meaningful startup capital, is not for the faint-hearted. Their resilience, matched by expertise, has turned challenge into success, with new revenue streams and locations now in view. Early hardship, they noted, tends to strengthen later judgement.

The same quality appears elsewhere. Elle Kealy readily admits to costly mistakes while opening studios around the world. Many would have stopped there. Instead, resilience, and a willingness to learn, has allowed MO Pilates to scale in Bristol alongside Move Union, her teacher training business.

It may not be coincidence that those drawn to physically demanding movement also show an unusual tolerance for difficulty in business. If body and mind are connected, the logic follows.

I is for Investment

Resisting the temptation for a shameless plug (Invest in equipment..wink😉), two forms of investment stood out as decisive.

The first is people. Both Michael King and Elle Kealy, leaders in teacher training, spoke candidly about instructors leaving, an unavoidable reality. The familiar question arises: what if we invest in people and they leave? The better question is: what if we do not, and they stay?

Your team is the product. It is the experience clients pay for. No amount of lighting, scent or aesthetics can compensate for under-investment here. Long-term success depends on it.

The second investment is technology. James Muthana of Momence, himself a former studio owner, was unequivocal. Too many studios leave this too late. Building a pipeline of prospective members begins months before launch. Without the right systems, the task becomes unnecessarily complex. Invest early, alongside equipment, and invest time, not just money, to extract full value. The returns compound.

D is for Data

Data may feel a cooler note to end on, more head than heart. Yet it is often the source of the greatest emotional reassurance.

Ayo spoke about how deeply understanding audience data underpins Refine Pilates’ confidence in their decisions. Elle Kealy described launching studios with numerical precision: how many passes sold on day one, by which milestone, to secure sustainable recurring revenue.

“Know your numbers” may sound trite, but it endures for a reason. Whether pitching for investment or simply running a profitable studio, access to, and understanding of, your data is non-negotiable.

In an industry built on feeling better, numbers remain the quiet foundation that makes everything else possible.

I hope we continue to bring some insight and wisdom to our community, thanks to everyone that has listened, here is to an even better 2026.

Author
KARL KNIGHTS

Leading commercial operations for Reformerpilates.com. A pioneering platform transforming the global Reformer Pilates industry. Our mission is to revolutionise how studios, instructors, and enthusiasts connect, creating a vibrant community and driving business growth in the rapidly expanding wellness market.