The fitness industry is recovering from the shock of COVID-19, and gyms are finding that some pandemic-era trends are subsiding while others are sticking around.

"It starts with how the consumers think about wellness," Mindbody and ClassPass CEO Josh McCarter said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "And we say that COVID really created this global wellness imperative where people think about wellness differently."

According to Mindbody's 2022 Wellness Index Survey of 16,000 individuals, 78% of respondents said that wellness was more important than ever and nearly half of those surveyed cited mental well-being as a top reason to exercise.

These findings suggest that the definition of wellness has broadened: It's now more about "integrative wellness," McCarter said, which encompasses other services beyond exercise such as IV therapies, red light therapies, and cryotherapy.

"So as we see that now, more and more people are thinking about things like meditation and also those type of practices that can help them with their stress management and with their mental health," he added. "And so we think that services around that area will continue to grow."

'Communal animals'

Fitness still remains a top priority for Americans, though how they seek it out may be changing again.

Virtual workouts and online fitness classes, which surged during the pandemic, are gradually becoming a thing of the past as more individuals return to gyms nearly two years after COVID-19 forced many businesses to close their doors.

"Well, we're definitely seeing a resurgence in demand," McCarter said. "About 83% of consumers now are booking in-person classes, so that's really great news for a lot of the small and medium businesses that serve the market that were closed due to restrictions over the last couple of years."

Between March 2020 and December 2021, 25% of health and fitness facilities permanently closed, according to data from The Global Health and Fitness Association (IHRSA). Additionally, 30% of studios closed, and more than 1.5 million industry jobs were cut.