BY INA PAIVA CORDLE
Step into a Youfit Health Club, and enter a world of bright purple and green, filled with dozens of fitness machines, all geared to motivate you to work out — for just pennies a day.
The Deerfield Beach-based company, owned by Rick Berks (pictured above), is blanketing South Florida with health clubs that cost just $10 a month to join. Memberships are month-to-month — without contracts requiring a six-month or annual commitment.
“Historically, health clubs notoriously have been locking people into long-term membership agreements,” Berks said. “We’ve never done that. We don’t need to. We give such great value for the money.”
Youfit is helping lead a trend of low-cost, $10-a-month membership gyms, which are squeezing out the middle market, with high-end clubs and boutiques at the other end of the spectrum, said Paul Bosley, owner of Fort Lauderdale-based HealthClubExperts.com, which finances health clubs nationwide.