The challenge we face when opening or upgrading a commercial gym isn’t just picking the flashiest machines—it’s making sure there are enough of them so members rarely wait, but not so many that space and budget go to waste. Striking the right balance means thinking like a facility manager, understanding member habits, and planning around peak demand. In this post, we'll walk you through how to find the sweet spot for how many cardio machines per member your gym should aim for, and how to build a cardio zone that works hard for both your members and your business.
Every gym is different. Your ideal cardio-to-member ratio depends on factors like your facility’s size, the type of clientele you serve (beginners warming up, serious runners, cross-training devotees, etc.), and how much other equipment and functional space you offer. The general wisdom and industry research offers some helpful starting points.
What the Industry Says: Benchmarks & Conventional Wisdom
For many commercial gyms, a commonly cited benchmark is roughly one piece of equipment — cardio or otherwise — for every 10 members. This ratio aims to ensure machines are available even during busy times. When it comes specifically to cardio machines, some operators aiming to prevent wait-times during peak hours recommend about 3–4 treadmills (or cardio machines) per 100 members — i.e., roughly one per 25–35 members. Meanwhile, layout experts and gym-design guides often suggest that a gym’s cardio zone should occupy around 40–50% of total equipment space when cardio is a major offering — balanced against strength gear and functional or free-weight zones. These aren’t rigid rules, but they set helpful guardrails when you’re figuring out how many machines you need vs. how many members you expect at peak flow.
Key Variables That Change the Ratio
No cookie-cutter ratio applies to every gym. Instead, several variables must be weighed:
Membership behavior & demographics: If your crowd consists mostly of cardio-oriented members — runners, cyclists, people doing low-impact steady-state cardio — then you’ll need proportionally more cardio machines. On the other hand, if many are strength-focused or mix in group classes, you might need fewer cardio machines relative to total membership.
Gym layout and space: Cardio machines occupy more real estate than many strength machines because of clearance needs, user movement, and safety spacing. Fitness-facility guides recommend roughly 30–50 square feet per cardio machine to allow for safe, comfortable use — including enough room between units for circulation and safety. If your facility is compact, crowding cardio at the expense of other zones can reduce overall functionality.
Peak-hour usage and downtime: Real-world usage patterns often create spikes — mornings, evenings, after work. A few machines out of service, or a busy two-hour window, can create bottlenecks. That’s why some gym-planning guides build in buffer capacity to account for maintenance downtime and unevenly distributed visits.
How to Calculate a Cardio-Machine Ratio for Your Gym
Here’s a pragmatic, step-by-step approach many gym owners use to arrive at a starting ratio — then adjust based on real-life feedback:
1. Estimate your realistic active-user load: Look at total memberships, but plan around how many will realistically use the gym at prime hours. If you have 300 members, don’t expect 100 to use cardio simultaneously — maybe 10–20%. Using industry insights, you might assume roughly 10-20% of members will be on cardio on any given busy day.
2. Determine goal wait-time thresholds: Think about how long a member should wait before giving up. If you want no more than 5–10 minutes wait during peak hours, aim for a ratio that gives users buffer — e.g. 1 machine per 25–35 cardio-oriented members.
3. Factor in maintenance, variety & machine mix: Don’t just count treadmills — include ellipticals, bikes, rowers, climbers. A balanced cardio lineup reduces pressure on any single category, and gives flexibility when one machine type is down or heavily used. A diversified mix helps spread demand.
4. Cross-check with floor space and facility demands: Be sure you have enough square footage, ceiling height, ventilation, spacing between machines, and other zones (strength, stretching, functional training). Cramping cardio into too small a space can create safety hazards or discourage use.
How This Looks in Practice — Example Scenarios
Let’s walk through a few hypothetical setups to illustrate how you might apply these ideas:
• Mid-size gym (~250–350 members): If 15% of members use cardio in a peak block, that’s ~40–50 people. To keep wait times low, aim for about 2 machines per 25–30 cardio-active members — roughly 4–6 cardio machines (mix of treadmills, ellipticals, bikes). If you have extra floor space and expect growth or heavier cardio demand, bump up to 6–8 machines. Strength, free-weight and functional zones fill out the rest of the floor plan.
• Larger gym (~600–1000 members): Suppose 10–15% use cardio during peak hours — that’s 60–150 people. If you provide 1 cardio machine per 25–35 members, you’d need 17–30 machines. To optimize variety and availability, plan a mix: treadmills for high-intensity users, ellipticals/bikes/rowers for lower-impact or overflow traffic, and maybe a spin-bike cluster if you run classes or rentals.
• Boutique or strength-oriented gym (mixed equipment use, less cardio demand): If cardio is supplementary — warm-ups, recovery, casual use — you might still provide 1–2 treadmills or bikes per 100 members (or per 50–70 dedicated cardio-users) and lean more heavily on strength, free weights, functional, or group-class areas. The key is flexibility and aligning to member needs rather than arbitrary ratios.
How Smart Equipment Selection (Like From Skelcore) Helps You Reach the Right Ratio
To meet these ratios without overbuying or wasting floor-space, it helps to use versatile, commercial-grade cardio gear — not cheap consumer-grade machines that break down or require excessive maintenance. A well-rounded cardio zone might include a mix of treadmills, ellipticals, stationary or spinning bikes, and perhaps climbers or rowers depending on your member base. That’s where carefully selected machines from a quality supplier like those in the Black Series Cardio or Spinning Bikes collections come into play. Durable cardio pieces help you support a high member-to-machine ratio while keeping machines online, reducing downtime, and keeping members happy.
When to Reassess and Adjust Your Cardio-Machine Count
Even the best initial plan needs real-world tuning. Watch for telltale signs that your ratio is off: frequent wait lines at cardio machines, member complaints about availability, consistent maintenance downtime causing delays, or under-utilized machines collecting dust. Use member surveys, usage logs, or gym-management software to track actual usage patterns. Then adjust — add machines, reconfigure layout, swap out under-used equipment for more versatile options, or redistribute space between cardio and strength zones. The goal is to stay responsive to member habits, not static numbers.
Recap: A smart starting ratio for many commercial gyms falls between about one cardio machine per 25–35 cardio-oriented members — or roughly 1 per 50–100 total members depending on demand — but it must always be adjusted based on real member behavior, space, and maintenance realities.
If you plan carefully, stay flexible, and outfit your facility with quality, versatile cardio gear that holds up under heavy use, you’ll hit the balance where the cardio zone becomes a strength — not a bottleneck — of your gym operation.
