The history of Life Fitness

We're called Life Fitness for a reason, because helping people live healthier lives is more than just our business, it's our passion. Commitment, it's what sets us apart. And it doesn't end with the equipment, that's just the beginning. Life Fitness. It's more than just our name, it's What We Live For.

History

Headquartered in Schiller Park, Ill., the company operates as a division of Brunswick Corporation (NYSE: BC), a leader in recreation that was founded in 1845 and is one of the oldest and longest running companies to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1968, California, chemist and inventor Keene Dimick, Ph.D., developed the Lifecycle Exercise Bike, the first computerized stationary bicycle. Health club pioneer Ray Wilson bought the rights to the bike and, along with partner Augie Nieto, established Lifecycle, Inc., in 1977.

Bally Manufacturing Corp. purchased Lifecycle in 1984 and renamed it Bally Fitness Products, Inc.  In 1987, the company name was changed to Life Fitness, and in 1991, Mancuso & Co. purchased Life Fitness. In 1995, the company acquired High Tech Professional Strength Systems, inc. and added strength equipment to the product portfolio. Brunswick Corporation, the market leader in the active recreation industry (boats, bowling, billiards and fitness), acquired Life Fitness in June 1997. Later that same year, the company acquired Hammer Strength, the world leader in commercial plate-loaded exercise equipment. Today we are the global market leader.

Around the world

The Life Fitness head office is in Chicago, Illinois and employees more than 1800 people. The company provides products and services to more than 120 countries. Life Fitness maintains 12 direct offices around the world and more than 140 distributors & dealers around the world.

Product development

Life Fitness is the only company to produce two leading brands in the fitness industry and invests in innovation in order to help our customers to create an inviting experience and define success that engages the mind as well as the body. We focus our industry-leading research on six factors that add up to an unsurpassed workout experience; Inviting designs, Great feeling products, Performance-driven products, Engagement, Planned variety and progression, Low maintenance of products.

Biomechanics

For us, it all begins here. What is Biomechanics? It is the mechanical study of living beings. In our case, it is the study of the machine’s effect on the person, and the person’s effect on the machine

We have a Biomechanics Team whose sole focus is just that: studying how exercisers move and interact with the machines we design. Life Fitness maintains the most advanced development lab (unveiled in 2006) in the industry where a team of industrial designers, engineers and researchers are committed to creating equipment that is not only innovative, but also designed to be approachable and inviting with an extremely comfortable feel.

Quality, safety and durability

Life Fitness is committed to quality, excellence and continuous improvement in our processes, products and services; for our customers; by integrating Lean Six Sigma into our daily activities for continuous improvement and measuring quality by our ability to meet or exceed the expectations of our customers.

Life Fitness has implemented a Quality Management System in accordance with ISO 9001:2000 and is certified by the International Organization for Standardization. We were the first major fitness manufacturer to be awarded the prestigious ISO certification. Products are engineered to surpass regulatory guidelines on impact, construction, electrical and materials.

Testing

31 testing robots are operating 24 hours/7 days a week testing new products, 128,000,000 treadmill footfalls throughout the product testing, Each new Lifecycle® will endure 52,000,000 rotations during testing phase, Each new cross-trainer will endure 59,000,000 rotations during testing phase. A person would have to walk 2.5 times around the Earth to match our treadmill testing!

Why we care

Companies like Life Fitness are leading the charge in environment-friendly manufacturing and distribution processes for its clear benefit to our global well-being. At Life Fitness, we understand the importance of being a “greener,” more efficient company in the manufacturing and distribution of our products. As an organization, we have put a number of eco-friendly practices in place to make us a better citizen of the planet; scrap metal recycling, recycle cardboard boxes, electrical load reduction program, reusable packaging, circuit board recycling and office waste recycling.

Partnership

We strive to be your ideal partner to further grow our industry, businesses and brand. Together we commit ourselves to lifelong health and well-being of our customers and their exercisers.