NEWINGTON, NH -- Planet Fitness CEO Mike Grondahl does things—and says things—a little bit differently than the typical company CEO.

Take, for instance, the press release Newington, NH-based Planet Fitness submitted last year announcing that Gulf Oil CFO Jayne Conway had been hired by Planet Fitness for the same position.

“The chief financial officer from Gulf Oil moving to Planet Fitness? Who’d a thunk it?” Grondahl said in the company statement.

The word “thunk” was not included in a letter Grondahl wrote to Planet Fitness owners last November. But a lot of other interesting verbiage was.

Grondahl informed his franchisees in the letter that Planet Fitness was ending personal training at all its clubs, beginning last month with its corporate-owned clubs. Planet Fitness franchisees will have the remainder of the first quarter of this year to phase out personal training.

Planet Fitness will still have on-staff trainers providing free training in small groups but they no longer will be allowed to conduct one-on-one training during non-shift hours. The company also will no longer allow non-staff trainers to pay a monthly fee to train clients at the club.

“The decision to end personal training has been long and arduous,” Grondahl wrote. “It goes right to the essence of our business model. We’ve always tried to keep personal training to a minimum at Planet Fitness. But the problems related to having trainers in our gyms have never completely gone away.”

That news definitely caught the industry’s attention, and some of Grondahl’s comments added fuel to the fire.

“Most of the people doing personal training are just renting friends,” Grondahl wrote. “For us to be selling personal training is a fraud and downright condescending to anyone who can breathe.”

Grondahl concluded the letter with this line: “A lot of people will say we are dead wrong with this historic move. But the world was flat once, and who the hell needs a friend for 50 bucks an hour?”

Christopher Columbus he isn’t, but Grondahl created a world of feedback with his remarks. He says that he’s been too busy to see any of the industry’s comments posted on Club Industry’s website.

“I’ve got bigger problems than what they’re saying about me on the Internet,” Grondahl says. “I’m sure I’m not the most popular guy in the industry.”

NEXT PAGE: RESPONSE TO GRONDAHL’S COMMENTS

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