AN UPDATE ON HFA’S EFFORTS ACROSS THE GLOBE
The Policy You Never Saw Coming
Inside HFA’s 2025 Advocacy ROI and State of the States reports
For health and fitness operators, the most consequential business decisions are often made far from the gym floor—inside statehouses, regulatory agencies, and courtrooms. Although federal policy helps shape long-term direction, it is state-level legislation and regulation that most immediately affects how fitness businesses operate, price services, staff facilities, and serve members.
That reality is why the Health & Fitness Association (HFA) released two cornerstone advocacy resources this February: its 2025 Advocacy ROI Report and the inaugural State of the States: An HFA Review of US Fitness Policy. Together, these reports reinforce a simple but critical truth for the industry: State advocacy is the front-line defense against harmful policy—and education is essential to making that defense effective.
State Advocacy: The Industry’s Front-Line Defense
For fitness operators in the US, state advocacy is not theoretical; it is the industry’s first and most important line of defense.
In 2025 alone, lawmakers across the United States introduced more than 160 bills directly affecting fitness facilities. These proposals touched nearly every aspect of operations, including sales taxes on memberships, click-to-cancel mandates, auto-renewal restrictions, biometric data regulations, liability waivers, and worker classification standards. Had many of these bills advanced, they would have imposed immediate costs, operational disruption, and legal risk for operators.
The majority of HFA’s state advocacy work happens before operators ever hear about these proposals. Through early monitoring, direct engagement with lawmakers, coalition building, and technical education, HFA intervenes upstream—often stopping or reshaping legislation long before it becomes law. When advocacy works best, members never experience the consequences, because the policy never reaches their balance sheet.
That is advocacy by design.
In 2025, HFA actively engaged on more than 60 state bills across 23 states, holding over 100 meetings with governors, legislators, and regulators. Based on legislation stopped or materially amended, HFA estimates these efforts saved US fitness operators $25 million to $60 million annually in avoided operating costs. Those savings reflect mandates that never took effect, fees that were never imposed, and business models that remained intact.
Advocacy as an Insurance Policy—Powered by Education
Advocacy is often measured by what passes. For operators, its real value lies in what never becomes law.
The 2025 Advocacy ROI Report details how HFA’s work at the federal, state, and global levels protected the industry from sweeping, one-size-fits-all rules; preserved consumer choice; and ensured fitness businesses were treated fairly alongside other service providers. Whether preventing the implementation of the FTC’s negative option rule, exempting fitness from “junk fee” regulations, or pushing back against state-level mandates that failed to reflect real-world operations, HFA’s advocacy consistently focused on avoiding unnecessary cost and complexity.
But effective advocacy does not exist in isolation. It is strengthened and sustained by education, one of HFA’s core pillars alongside advocacy and research. Policymakers need to understand how fitness businesses operate, and operators need to understand the policy environment they face. These reports sit squarely at that intersection.
State of the States: Education as a Strategic Compliance Tool
While successful advocacy is often invisible, education about key policy developments should not be. That is why HFA has developed the State of the States 2026: US Fitness Policy Update and Compliance Guide, a new annual resource designed to make state-level laws and regulatory trends accessible, actionable, and relevant for industry stakeholders.
The 2026 inaugural edition provides a comprehensive, state-by-state analysis of the laws, regulations, and legislative trends affecting fitness facilities across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It translates complex policy activity into a practical education tool, helping operators understand where requirements differ, where risks are emerging, and how policy trends may affect business decisions.
Importantly, State of the States is not just a retrospective look at 2025. It is a forward-looking planning resource designed to help the US health and fitness sector anticipate where legislative and regulatory pressure is likely to increase in 2026, particularly as states continue to act independently in areas such as consumer protection, data privacy, and subscription services.
With State of the States, HFA is arming operators with the insights they need to stay compliant, minimize reputational risk, and operate with confidence in a shifting policy environment.
Why Engagement Makes This Work Possible
Neither advocacy nor education happens by accident. Both require sustained investment in expertise, monitoring, relationships, and credibility—resources made possible through HFA membership dues and non-dues revenue.
As the only nonprofit trade association representing the health and fitness industry globally, HFA relies on member engagement to fund the advocacy and education infrastructure that protects operators every day—often quietly, and often before issues escalate into crises.
Every membership renewal, event registration, research purchase, and sponsorship directly supports the ability to identify bad policy early, educate policymakers and operators alike, and ensure the industry’s voice is heard where it matters most.
A Call to Action
The release of the 2025 Advocacy ROI Report and inaugural State of the States marks an important milestone, but it is also a reminder that the absence of bad outcomes is not luck; it is the result of sustained advocacy and education working together.
As policy activity affecting fitness continues to accelerate—especially at the state level—staying engaged with HFA is one of the most effective ways operators can protect their businesses and strengthen the industry’s future. Advocacy works best when paired with education and when the industry speaks with one informed, unified voice.
Continue the Conversation: 2026 Advocacy Outlook Webinar
To help operators put these insights into action, HFA will kick off 2026 with a live Advocacy Outlook webinar on February 12 at 2 p.m. EST, providing a forward-looking briefing on the policy issues shaping the year ahead.
The webinar will highlight key federal and state trends emerging from HFA’s State of the States analysis, discuss where advocacy pressure is expected to intensify, and outline how operators can stay informed and engaged as policy activity accelerates.
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Health & Fitness Business is a publication of
Health & Fitness Business (HFB) is the leading health and fitness industry publication. Published monthly by the Health & Fitness Association (HFA) and distributed free to the industry, HFB offers analysis of the opportunities, challenges, issues, and news that impact the industry.
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