Founded by an Australian former pro rugby player turned celebrity personal trainer, Training Mate is banking on the social fitness revolution
The post-pandemic era has been marked by a resurgence of in-person fitness, with boutique brands and big-box gyms alike seeing membership numbers surge as people seek social connection as much as a great workout experience.
Training Mate, a group fitness brand based in Los Angeles, believes it’s got a competitive advantage in the new social fitness era.
The brainchild of Australian former pro rugby player turned celebrity personal trainer Luke Milton, Training Mate has been a staple of LA’s boutique fitness scene for over a decade now, opening its first studio in West Hollywood back in 2013.
Now, the brand is eyeing nationwide expansion through franchising, looking to award as many as 50 new territories in 2025 thanks to increased demand for its unique, Aussie-inspired approach to group fitness.
“We want to build community and healthy lifestyles by making people fall in love with a fitness experience, not just a workout,” Milton, who has appeared as a celebrity trainer on reality TV series “Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian,” tells Athletech News.
Changing America’s Fitness Culture
Milton, who moved with his wife from Sydney to the United States over a decade ago, created Training Mate to bring Australia’s team-oriented approach to fitness to America.
Like other fitness entrepreneurs born in The Land Down Under, Milton noticed a difference in the way Australians and Americans view working out: Aussies tend to be much more team-driven, viewing fitness as an extension of the youth sports experience into adulthood. Americans, by contrast, are all about results.
“I started Training Mate on the premise that community was really needed, and that team-sports culture was something I wanted to deliver to the mass market,” he explains.
Milton started his fitness concept as an outdoor bootcamp in Sydney before bringing it over to the U.S., opening his first brick-and-mortar studio in West Hollywood. With some help from his wife, he chose the name “Training Mate,” a catchy summarization of the brand’s goal – to help people make friends while working out.
“To this day, we work on being a mate to people,” Milton says. “When you walk into a Training Mate studio, you can guarantee a couple of things: number one, you’re going to get a really warm welcome from our front-of-house legends. You’re also going to be walked through a very supportive, non-intimidating, very motivating demonstration by our instructors.”
Creating Social Ties
Training Mate classes are designed to help members form tight-knit bonds with their fellow classmates while also improving their fitness.
During each 45-minute high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout, small groups go through three stations of three exercises each. At each station, members perform one of three exercises, working for 45 seconds and resting for 15 before moving on to the next exercise and eventually, the next station. This takes 36 minutes. After completing all three stations, members finish off their session with 9 minutes of core work.
Exercises include traditional strength training movements like bench presses and kettlebell swings to plyometric box jumps to cardio work on rowers, SkiErgs and bikes.
But what really separates Training Mate from other American fitness concepts, Milton says, is the brand’s focus on community, or “social health” as he calls it.
In addition to staging group workouts in a team-friendly atmosphere, Training Mate locations organize out-of-class events including no-shower happy hours, hikes and beach days so members can get to know each other on a more personal level.
“We just did a mate meetup in Los Angeles where we had about 300 people come to E.P. & L.P., a rooftop bar in Hollywood,” Milton shares.
Training Mate also sprinkles in fun references to Australian culture, with exercises including Kangaroo Jumps and Wallaby Shuffles. While an Aussie ethos pervades the brand, it’s topped off with some healthy American rigor.
“My wife and I joke all the time that we’re American behind the scenes, Australian in front of the scenes,” Milton says. “So we don’t take ourselves that seriously, we’re self-deprecating and we make jokes. But the workout stands on its own merit, and we’d put it up against anyone or anything, because we know that physiologically, we get results.”
An Ambitious Expansion Plan
Training Mate’s approach to social fitness became especially appealing post-pandemic as people look to group fitness as a way to stay connected in an increasingly isolated digital world.
“(Many people) don’t go to the office anymore, so a group fitness class becomes your office,” Milton says, adding that many traditional forms of social gathering have also fallen to the wayside in modern society. “I don’t know where else you (can) go to meet a mate, meet your significant other, or just hang out and have fun.”
Many fitness entrepreneurs seem to share Milton’s viewpoint. Training Mate didn’t begin franchising until just recently, but it’s already seeing plenty of interest.
The brand has eight studios open now (six in Southern California and two in Dallas, Texas). Five of those locations are franchised, and Training Mate has three more leases signed and at least 5 more in the funnel. Milton reports that Training Mate is set to open a studio in Nevada and there is “serious interest” among investors about bringing the brand to Florida and New York.
Milton has identified Arizona, Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, as three locations the brand will also actively target.
As it eyes 50 more territories by 2025, Milton’s pitch to prospective franchisees is simple: nowhere else in America can they find a brand that’s as committed to social fitness as Training Mate, nor one with such a long track record of being a leader in the space.
“We’re literally the party you want to host,” he says. “We’ve got a really, really cool brand that has worked over 11 years. Our point of difference is our community, our engagement and our social health. You come to a Training Mate and you just get it.”
