In a daily scene at any fitness studio, a young man clad in a business suit enters for a quick workout.

But instead of heading to the locker room to change, he goes straight to a training machine.

The man works out still in his business attire. About 10 minutes later, he leaves the small studio, wiping the sweat away.

The Chocozap facility, located on the first floor of an office building in Tokyo’s Nishi-Shinjuku district, is operated by Rizap Inc., a major chain of personal training gyms.

Rizap, which has been struggling in recent years, calls the new business model a “convenience gym.”

The monthly membership fee is 2,980 yen ($20), excluding tax, at the outlet, which is unstaffed and typically open 24 hours day.

Its biggest selling point is that a user can exercise without the hassle of changing into workout sweats and athletic shoes.

The novel way of working out at Chocozap is Rizap’s road map to its survival.

The effort has paid off. Chocozap outlets, which opened in the summer of 2022 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, have signed up about 1.2 million members over the two years. They now boast the nation’s largest gym membership.

Chocozap’s exploding popularity brought Rizap a growth in earnings for the first time in five years in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024.

“We targeted beginners and offered the service designed to make it easier for them to continue,” a public relations official at Rizap said as a key reason for Chocozap’s success.

Rizap’s rebound is welcome news for the industry, which has not been faring well in recent years.

The total fitness center enrollees has stagnated after peaking in 2018, according to industry ministry data.

Then, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 added to their challenges.

A record 29 operators of sports gyms went bankrupt in fiscal 2023, according to Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd., a market research firm.

A key reason that fitness center operators are performing poorly is they do not have a large base of sports enthusiasts who will become loyal and longtime members.

Fifty-one percent of members of fitness clubs replied in 2017 that they only visit once a year or none at all even though they joined, according to a survey by the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan.

Most of these infrequent users are thought to have left their clubs for good amid the public health crisis.

How to lure back those who left and attract new members and retain them is the question many sports gym operators has been tackling.

One way is offering a demonstration entertaining enrollees, shown by an event held by Feelcycle, an operator of about 40 exercise studios across the country.

During an event held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba in April, a group of trainers on exercise bikes sang and danced on the stage in a spacious area filled with blaring music and moving laser beams.

Nearly 1,000 participants, also on fitness bikes, ferociously pedaled at the instruction of the trainers.

Feelcycle held 11 such events, drawing a total of roughly 10,000 participants. A ticket to an event cost a visitor north of 10,000 yen.

These promotions aimed at building a Feelcycle fandom have worked.

Membership surged to 180,000 in May from 100,000 in 2020, according to Feelcycle.

A public relations representative at Feelcycle said more than 80 percent of the company's clients use its studios once or twice a month, a level higher than the industry standard.

Major fitness clubs are also scrambling to incorporate entertainment elements in their services to retain their members.

Central Sports Ltd., one of the largest sports gym chains, held a live fitness session in February where more than 1,000 people flocked to.

Takenori Furuya, a representative of the Fitness Industry Association of Japan, said a key to survival is appealing to clients with little experience in fitness activities and making it easier for them to join and continue. 

“Many Japanese consider themselves beginners when it comes to working out,” he said. “Marketers should target those who have little interest in fitness and light users and try to keep them coming back with streamlined membership procedures.”