In mid-March 2020, Life Time’s corporate headquarters in Chanhassen, Minn., was largely deserted — as was its adjacent athletic country club, which was closed by state order. Across the country, this temporary shuttering impacted every Life Time destination as the world navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve been through four or five times where the probability of not making it might have been 90-plus percent,” Bahram Akradi, Life Time founder, CEO, and chairman, shares in the February/March 2025 Twin Cities Business cover story. “At no time did I allow that thought to take root in my head. You have to believe you’re going to make it.”
Life Time reopened each of its athletic country clubs as soon as it was allowed, taking extensive measures to ensure its spaces were as safe as possible for members. But there was no escaping the brutal impact of the pandemic on the fitness industry.
Akradi — who describes himself as someone who “designs, creates, iterates, and then problem-solves” — led the organization in using that time to radically rethink its business model, both in terms of what was being delivered inside clubs, as well new or expanded offerings like digital content, coworking spaces, and luxury residences.
Read on for a snippet of the Twin Cities Business cover article, which details Life Time’s most-recent phase of adaptation and innovation.
Like many baby boomer founder/entrepreneurs, Bahram Akradi’s vision was never primarily about business. “It wasn’t meant as a place to make money. It was never to be just a fitness club,” recalls Akradi. “Our goal was to build places you would want to be instead of your living room. If I achieved that, I could get you fit.”
But what evolved was a sales-driven business, consistent with the sector, “jamming people into a small space telling them you had to be on a contract” and offering incentives to sign one or renew. Akradi says he was uncomfortable with that model and always intended to move Life Time from a sales-driven culture to an experience-driven one, but it was slow going until the pandemic provided a pivot point.
With nothing to sell, many of the company’s 700 salespeople departed, and Akradi and team decided to do away with the role altogether. Gone were contracts and promotions. Life Time would make it on the desirability of its product and its team members’ ability to “create a magical experience,” says Akradi.
Life Time now calls its clubs “athletic country clubs,” as many contain all the amenities of a country club except a golf course. Its current generation of clubs contain resort-style pools, dining, and a full range of spa services. One thing people want at country clubs is a sense of personal space; as business came back, Life Time capped membership levels and raised prices. Many clubs have waitlists, some in the thousands (Tampa north of 10,000). Akradi says it was less about exclusivity than creating an experience consistent with his vision.
“It’s worked like a symphony,” he says. “We have the highest member retention in our history. Our employee morale and customer experience [measured by Net Promoter Scores] are higher than ever. Our margins are better than at any time.
“Look, species either adapt or die. Corporate America is no different,” he continues. “The species that adapt fastest are capable of transforming. We have been adapting nonstop.”
Life Time got its start in 1992, when Akradi opened a fitness club in Brooklyn Park. A second, larger Life Time in Eagan followed in 1994, when spa services debuted. In 1999 Akradi opened his first club out of state, in the Detroit region. Life Time went public in 2004, and two years later it bought Twin Cities-based Northwest Athletic Clubs, dramatically expanding its local portfolio. It crossed a billion dollars in revenue in 2011, and in 2012 it opened its 100th club, while expanding to Canada. Clubs in the competitive New York and Los Angeles regions followed a few years later. 2018 brought the first Life Time Work (near Philadelphia), and a year later the first Life Time Living opened outside Las Vegas.
Akradi’s education was as an electrical engineer, and it fuels his attention to detail. “I love problems; if there is no problem, what do I do?” he says. The phrase “hands-on” doesn’t do him justice. He is involved in all aspects of club design. No new location is ready until his notes from the pre-opening walk-through are implemented.
The company has moved and evolved throughout. “Fitness is a fad; it changes,” Akradi notes. “But health and wellness is a megatrend.” That truism ensures Life Time a loyal consumer base, but only if it can iterate through the chaos of trends. Tennis and basketball are waning, step and spin boomed and declined, while pickleball and yoga are ascendant. That, too, will change.
Leisure and recovery are growth areas. Clubs boast new recovery spaces featuring stretch programming, HydroMassage, cryotherapy beds, compression boots, percussion massage guns, and foam rollers. Life Time will offer more than 80 cold plunge pools by mid-year. The company is adding LifeCafes and enlarging existing ones, expanding outdoor Beach Clubs with more lounge seating and bar access, and creating pickleball lounges with more seating and self-serve drink areas (including beer and wine).
But if iteration is baked into Life Time’s DNA, the evolution of the last five to seven years has been more fundamental. Calling it the company’s “most exciting phase,” Akradi is leading a reimagining of the company’s capacities and purpose, with an eye rearward to his initial vision of Life Time as a provider of core features of a person’s existence.
“If I could put more of what you want and need under one roof,” he suggests, “I can make your life more convenient, healthier, and happier. We haven’t deviated from that goal since the beginning.”
Life Time says luxury is not a strategy but an experiential outgrowth of its redesign. “Luxury pricing [alone] won’t work in our business,” says Akradi. “Not with 8,000-9,000 members in some markets. Status through inaccessibility is not our mission.”
Nonetheless, its average member income is at an all-time high. Member visits have risen from nine times a month to 12 since 2020. A more affluent customer is less affected by economic downturns, and high usage makes the clubs more essential to their lives.
The company [also] hasn’t saturated most markets like it has the Twin Cities, notes Owen Rickert, a senior research analyst at Northland Capital Markets, who follows Life Time: “There are only five in Florida, for example.”
Rickert, who is based in Tampa-St. Petersburg, is a Life Time member. “[The clubs] smell luxurious, they look luxurious,” he says. “People are happy to be there. It’s never too busy or crowded. Attention to detail and focus on quality is superb.”
The company believes this has made Life Time the most desirable large-format fitness club from both a member and employee standpoint. “We create the best version of what’s becoming hot; we try to stay a bit ahead of the fitness trends,” explains Parham Javaheri, who leads Life Time’s club operations and property development. “We are the gold standard for the industry.”
Akradi believes the U.S. could easily support 500 clubs: “Ten years ago you couldn’t have put a club in Rosemount,” because there was no population there. “So there will be locations we can’t imagine,” where competitors can’t penetrate. “Our model is so complex no one can replicate it.”
You can read the full Twin Cities Business story here: “Inside Life Time’s Pivot to Luxury”
