Solidcore is expanding beyond its signature workout for the first time in its nearly 13-year history.
When Solidcore launched over a decade ago, the brand found success with an intense 50-minute workout on Pilates-inspired resistance machines, known as reformers.
This winter, it will debut Ascend, a high-intensity, heated, floor-based strength training class, according to details shared exclusively with Business Insider. The class will launch at Solidcore’s upcoming Manhattan West studio, before rolling out to other locations.
Ascend puts heavier weights and progressive strength training at the center of its workout, a direct appeal to people who want to build muscle. It also features a new infrared heating system, tapping into emerging research that training with heat may offer heart-health and anti-inflammatory benefits.
The move reflects a broader shift in boutique fitness. The studios that made their names by specializing in a single type of exercise are confronting a new type of customer: one who lifts, runs, does Pilates, tracks their fitness metrics, and increasingly thinks about exercise as an investment in their bodies, rather than going for aesthetics.
“Consumers are more savvy now. They’re talking about longevity, recovery, wellness, not so much calorie burn,” CJ Zarb, founder of The Pilates Journal, told Business Insider. “The question is no longer, ‘Did I work hard in that class?’ The question is, ‘Do I move and feel better long-term?”
The biggest brands are making moves to address the moment — to complement rather than compete with other types of workouts or physical endeavors, from sports to marathon training to adventure hiking.
“People are starting to think, ‘What’s a longevity athlete’s approach to building my fitness routine? I want a little bit of everything that is going to help me move better, feel stronger, recover faster, to live a longer, more enjoyable life,'” Solidcore CEO Bryan Myers told Business Insider.
Myers said he has made peace with the fact that they will lose some Pilates purists. By expanding beyond the reformer, the brand is betting big that the cross-training era will bring in a new generation of loyal members.
The rise of the fitness portfolio
A decade ago, the boutique fitness boom was dominated by HIIT classes and circuit routines for toning and slimming.
Certain brands — Barry’s, Peloton — commanded cult followings. People intensely identified with their studios.
To sell a boutique fitness class in 2026, you need to do more than make people sweat. Athletes today are more inclined to shop around to serve a broader spectrum of goals: building muscle, supporting bone density and joint health, and strengthening the heart to stave off age-related decline.
Classpass, a popular app for booking at multiple studios, said its fitness reservations were up 36% in 2025, and 94% of users are first-timers at the studios they sign up for.
Part of that shift into cross-training is driven by new tech. Fitness enthusiasts now have precise metrics at their fingertips to offer real-time data on whether a workout is working. A high VO2 max — a measure of heart efficiency — or an impressive DEXA scan showing a lean, muscular body composition is a source of bragging rights.
The result is that consumers can easily identify gaps in their fitness portfolios and seek more targeted solutions, driving demand for multimodal classes that boost performance across multiple categories at once.
Brands are responding.
Peloton has spent years trying to break out of its exercise-bike lane, doubling down on its app in 2023 by expanding its offerings to include strength and mobility classes. Interval-training staple Orange Theory pivoted in 2023 to offer a strength-only class and, last year, partnered with the wildly popular fitness competition brand Hyrox to add sessions focused on race-day performance.
Gym franchises are increasingly encroaching on the boutique space, too, with more focused classes in modalities such as Pilates, barre, or interval training.
How brands define a fitness identity
Fitness companies that expand beyond their initial niche can attract new demographics and capture a larger share of the industry.
To stay successful, brands need to be clear about who they’re speaking to, whether that’s leaning into a changing audience or sticking to their established base.
MMA fighters and Hollywood actors are taking yoga classes alongside middle-aged moms and matcha-sipping young women. Pilates is increasingly catching on with men: Crunch CEO Jim Rowley swears by it, as do sports stars LeBron James and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Solidcore recently hosted members of the Miami Dolphins’ offensive line as the NFL pros worked to strengthen their core and lower-body muscles to support explosive impact on the field.
“The strongest operators are very clear with the consumer about what they’re delivering, what their experience is going to be, because it is really confusing for consumers out there,” Zarb said. “The pressure is high. And I think the workout alone isn’t enough anymore.”
The risk of any expansion is that it can clash with the elements that made a brand successful or blur it beyond a distinctive concept, according to Catalina Zbar, founder and CEO of the boutique fitness consulting company Telomere. For instance, a high-tech, competitive leaderboard may feel jarring in a traditional yoga studio with meditative music and Sanskrit on the walls.
“It can be really beneficial to your brand and your studio’s mission to stay in one space and niche,” she told Business Insider. “Often diluting yourself can harm your brand versus strengthen it.”
Solidcore is counting on being a “category of one,” expanding beyond the format that built its cult following to the next generation that demands more, said the brand’s Chief Commercial Officer, Anne Smith.
The growth opportunity from doubling down on strength training is worth the tradeoff of outgrowing their Pilates roots, according to Myers, the CEO.
“The uniqueness of who we are is worth way more to us in terms of building trust with the consumer and what to expect than the benefits of riding Pilates coattails,” he said.
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