I can't see a day when I don't head straight for the free weights, and a couple of select machines. The irony is the other day I was doing heavy military presses in the power rack, and nearby there was some little twig of a personal trainer running his client through the current brand of nonsense with some ropes. Well the client kept looking at me as I did my sets with this look in his face which said "why am I playing hopscotch with this 140 lb trainer. I want to do what the musclehead is doing with the barbell."
Same here, but we are the minority these days. "functional strength training' is what people are into, and it's the way the industry is going. They will pull every machine out of there in a heartbeat if they think it will make more money to have ropes and tires instead....And IMO it's just a matter of time.
Why buy (or lease) extremely expensive machinery that also needs to be maintained, when you can make more money with ropes, tires and cables that are dirt cheap in comparison ?
I don't think you will ever see a gym with no machines or weights, but the big box gyms will adapt to the market and give people what they want. That Crossfit shit is wildly popular, as is P90X, the "Insanity" workout, TRX cables...... all bodyweight stuff that quite simply, is more effective at losing weight. Which is what 80% of people that go to the gym want. Very few people want to be all jacked up, they want to be thin and fit
a friend of mine opened a gym in an upscale area. NO machines besides these things called "ski-NRG" or some shit, that are mounted upright on the wall, and some rowing machines (the cardio kind)
he's got four power cages in a row a a bunch of those TRX cables hanging from them. four sets of ropes, and about 20 sandbags , with handles on them in varying weights, a few benches and a good amount of weights and dumbells, different size boxes, and dynamax medicine balls. he runs groups of 15-20 people through workouts and his classes are booked solid.
he charges $250 a month for a membership and he's doing great. He used to run gyms for Pure Fitness for 15 years, he knows his shit, and this is what he's doing. I'm actually thinking of going in with him, he's planning on opening another one soon