Solidcore Built a Strength Class So Its Members Stop Lifting Somewhere Else.

Solidcore has spent a month telling the market it is more than Pilates. On September 14 it showed what that means in practice. [solidcore] ascend is a heated, floor-based strength format, and the most useful detail for operators is how members pay for it.

The first Ascend class, Strong50, is a 50-minute full-body session built around hypertrophy, strength and power, done on a custom weight and resistance station in a room heated to around 90°F with infrared. It opens in December at Manhattan West in New York, Solidcore's first studio running two formats under one roof, with 15 clients per class. More locations will be announced in 2027. The brand runs more than 180 studios and is targeting 250 or more by 2028.

Read the membership rules and the strategy is plain.

Why is Solidcore adding strength training?

To keep spending that its members currently take elsewhere. Solidcore told Health Club Management the aim is to capture what clients spend on outside strength training and heated classes. In a two-week test at its Navy Yard studio in Washington DC, 83% of members who tried the format said it filled a genuine gap in their routine. Most of the people Solidcore asked were getting strength work from someone else, and a second membership is where churn usually starts.

Retention first, upsell second

A product built mainly to sell more would carry its own price. Ascend runs on existing credits instead: a member on an eight-class plan can swap two reformer sessions for two strength sessions and pay nothing extra. The visit stays inside Solidcore, and so does the habit.

The upsell exists, and it sits at the top of the ladder. Unlimited+ is for the member who wants both formats without counting, and discounted credits for current Unlimited members nudge them toward it. That is the order a retention play runs in: protect the base, then charge the heaviest users for more.

Two things are still unknown. Unlimited+ pricing has not been published, so the size of the upsell cannot be judged yet. And credits that move between formats move capacity too: every member who swaps a reformer class for Strong50 frees a reformer spot and fills one of 15 strength spots. How that balances at Manhattan West will shape how fast Ascend reaches the rest of the estate.

It follows the move we covered last month, when Solidcore dropped the word Pilates to get out of a comparison set that includes every cheap reformer studio in town. The rename changed what members compare Solidcore to. The new format gives them fewer reasons to leave.

What studio operators can take from it

Few studios can build a heated strength room. The logic behind this one costs nothing to borrow.

Find out where else your members train. Ask them directly. 42.3% of Americans now name getting stronger as their top fitness goal, so for a Pilates, yoga or barre studio the answer will often be a gym. Whatever they buy elsewhere is your share of wallet (the portion of a member's total fitness spend that comes to you) leaking out, and it points to where the next cancellation will come from.

Let existing credits travel. If you add a class type, make it bookable on the plans members already hold. A separate price turns a retention tool into a new buying decision, and most members decide against new purchases.

Put the upsell at the top. An all-access tier for your most frequent members is where extra revenue belongs, once the base is protected. Crunch Select put five formats into one base rate, which raised the bar a single-format membership has to clear.

Solidcore is betting that members want their results in one place, and that the brand holding more of their week keeps more of their year.