CR Fitness Operates 98 Crunch Franchises in Texas and Southeast
- CR Fitness, a major Crunch Fitness franchisee, has plans to open 25 Yoga Joint studios.
- Expanding boutique fitness brand combines yoga and high-intensity workouts.
- Yoga Joint’s average unit volume impressed the CEO of CR Fitness.
- The U.S. boutique fitness market is growing at more than 13% per year.
CR Fitness, a franchisee that operates 98 Crunch Fitness gyms, has signed a deal to open 25 Yoga Joint studios, 24 of them in Florida and one in Dallas. Founded in 2010 by Paige Held, Yoga Joint is a boutique fitness brand with a membership-based business model. Yoga Joint began offering franchises about three years ago; today it has 16 corporate and four franchised units operating in Florida, according to Franchise Times.
The emerging franchise is known for its workout rooms that are infrared-heated to around 96 degrees. Clients can engage in 50-50 hybrid yoga and high-intensity workouts, in high-intensity FITT workouts (the acronym stands for frequency, intensity, time and type) and in vinyasa-inspired traditional yoga. The menu of offerings aims to appeal to yoga practitioners and general fitness enthusiasts, expanding each franchisee’s potential member base and enticing recurring membership, Yoga Joint officials stated in a news release.
About CR Fitness
Based in Tampa, CR Fitness operates Crunch Fitness gyms in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, and will soon expand into Arizona. CR Fitness currently has more than 1 million members, the news release said. CR Fitness is scheduled to have 110 Crunch Fitness locations open nationwide by the end of this year, according to a report in Fitt/Insider, which specializes in business reporting related to fitness, wellness and health care.
“CR Fitness is exactly the kind of partner we look for as we scale nationally,” Yoga Joint CEO Bernie Zarco said in the news release. “They’ve built one of the most successful multi-unit operations in fitness franchising, and choosing Yoga Joint for their first franchise investment outside Crunch validates our brand’s differentiation and unit economics.” Zarco added that the CR Fitness deal will strengthen Yoga Joint’s footprint across Florida and marks the brand’s first foray into Texas.
Why CR Fitness Invested
Also in the news release, Tony Scrimale, CEO of CR Fitness, credited Yoga Joint with:
- Proven unit economics. Studios that were open for all of 2024 posted average unit volumes of about $1.84 million and mature surpassing $2.4 million, according to figures supplied by Yoga Joint.
- Strong scaling potential. Scrimale described Yoga Joint as having “an operating model built to scale the way we scale.”
- A concept that stands out within its category.
“Yoga Joint delivers on all three,” Scrimale said. “The format is genuinely different from anything else in boutique fitness, and the way they train and develop instructors gives us conviction we can deliver that same experience in every studio. We’re ready to bring that to communities across Florida and Dallas.”
Thriving Fitness Market
The boutique fitness market has posted strong growth in the United States. A MetaStatInsight.com report published on Sept. 7, 2026, pegged the nation’s boutique fitness market at slightly less than $4.37 billion in 2021 and exceeding $5.4 billion in 2025. By 2030, MetaStatInsight.com predicts that the U.S. boutique fitness market will be nearly $14.9 billion, reflecting a 13.6% annual growth rate from now through 2030.
Per Fortune Business Insights, North America makes up the largest chunk of the global health and fitness club market, which is made up of traditional gyms and boutique studios, with a market share of 42.9% last year. The research and consulting company set the value of the global health and fitness club market at more than $131.3 billion in 2025 and projects growth to $142.62 billion this year and reaching $298 billion-plus by 2034, an annual growth rate of 9.66%.
Investors clearly see the potential. Yoga Joint raised $5.5 million in April from an investment group led by Port Street Ventures, whose portfolio includes OneLife Fitness, Crunch Fitness, Barry’s Bootcamp and UFC GYM, Athletech News reported.
North Castle Partners managing director Jon Canarick, who serves on the boards of Crunch Fitness, SLT and Therabody, had made a minority equity investment in Yoga Joint through a friends-and-family round of funding. Canarick holds a seat on Yoga Joint’s board of directors, said Athletech News, which covers fitness and wellness and offers analysis reports.
Yoga Joint’s Plans
Yoga Joint’s agreement with CR Fitness is part of the emerging franchise’s broader national expansion, Fitt/Insider said in its article about the 25-franchise deal. Fitt/Insider also noted that Yoga Joint is developing franchises in New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia and Massachusetts.
In its continuing development push, Yoga Joint seeks experienced multi-unit operators to scale across the United States. When the franchise opens new territories, it often helps franchisees build their customer base by offering special founding member rates of less than $200 a month for unlimited multi-studio access.
