Gyms in Houston

Under the Texas Health Spa Act, most membership gyms count as health spas and may not operate or sell memberships without a certificate of registration from the Secretary of State, one for each location. Registration costs $100 and lasts a year. The certificate must be posted at the gym, and your contract must include the registration number.

Look the gym up on the Secretary of State's online health spa search, which also shows whether it has posted security. The SOS posts a PDF list of registered locations every Wednesday as well.

The security a Houston gym posts

Unless exempt, a gym must post $20,000 to $50,000 per location, as a surety bond or certificate of deposit, held for members who lose money if it closes. The amount rises with prepaid memberships. Gyms that never require contracts or prepayment over 31 days, financing, bank drafts or initiation fees can be exempt.

The Act excludes some places, including tax-exempt nonprofits, member-owned private clubs, dance-only or aerobics-only studios and school programs, so ask any facility whether it's covered.

Forbes Health, citing Statista, put the average US monthly membership at $28.58 in 2021, with prices from about $10 to $300. Fixr's January 2025 national figures put a basic gym at $15 to $40 a month and gyms with more advanced equipment at $50 to $100. Ask a Houston gym for its full rate sheet, including any initiation fee, before you compare.

Read the term before the price. A Texas membership contract can't run longer than three years, and financed contracts can't require payments for more than five years.

The full guide to Texas gym law is on the Texas gyms guide.

The cooling-off window is three business days. Mail written notice and proof of payment by certified mail before midnight of the third business day after the contract date, and the gym owes a full refund within 30 days. Your contract must spell out that right in conspicuous 10-point type.

A member who dies or becomes totally and permanently disabled, or the estate, can cancel and get unearned payments back. You can cancel for a partial refund if the gym closes without offering facilities within 10 miles, moves more than 10 miles, or stops providing advertised services. If you're the one moving away, ask the gym in writing what its contract allows.

Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30. If flooding or wind damage keeps your gym closed for 30 days or more, the contract extension rule applies, so note the closure dates.

For a planned closing or move, a gym must post notice inside and outside each entrance at least 30 days ahead and notify the Secretary of State, though that notice isn't required after a fire, flood or act of God. Members can then claim against its security by mailing their contract and proof of payment to the SOS within 90 days of the closure notice appearing online.

New gyms selling before they open must hold prepayments in an FDIC-insured escrow until 30 days after opening, unless exempt. If one doesn't open within 180 days of first selling, prepaying members are generally entitled to a full refund. The SOS only registers gyms, so a complaint about a Houston gym's practices belongs with the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, (800) 621-0508.

South of the city, see gyms in Pearland, or east, gyms in Baytown. The Houston local guide covers storm season and city services.