Forget the gritty training montage from “Rocky.” The 2024 boxing workout that’s reaching the masses has been cleaned up and organized into a group X environment populated and managed by an increasing number of women, according to the growing franchise brand Rumble Boxing. 
Photo courtesy of Mkali Creative
The boxing-inspired group fitness Rumble workout, founded in 2017, has been expanding across the U.S., with franchisees opening more than 50 studios over the past two years. Perhaps surprisingly, the business has attracted a growing number of women as not only members, but as owners. Parent company Xponential Fitness — whose portfolio includes other popular brands such as Club Pilates, CycleBar, Pure Barre and more — reports that 40 percent of Rumble Boxing Gym owners are female entrepreneurs. That’s a high number in the fitness franchise space, according to chief marketing officer Rachelle Dejean.
“Coming from Club Pilates and being in the same building as some of our Xponential Fitness sister brands, and being about a 40-60 split for us with Rumble — our franchisees having that volume of women partners — is uncommon,” Dejean explains. “We really champion that.”
Sara Birriel, a personal trainer and group fitness instructor with more than 15 years of experience in the industry, says it makes sense that boxing, typically seen as a more masculine pursuit, is drawing more women today. Birriel is a head trainer at Rumble North Central in Hollywood, Fla., but she’s also in the process of opening her own Rumble gym in Coral Springs. Birriel says the Rumble experience is a for women who may feel that boxing, or other combat sports, are geared toward men.
“The way that women are socialized, it really is so much about presentation, being polite and being digestible, knowing how to present yourself so that you’re not too loud, or you’re not taking up too much space,” Birriel explains. “[The Rumble workout] really gives you a place to tap into that fight, where you’re allowed to take up space, you’re allowed to hit and you’re allowed to almost tap into anger in a way that is healthy. I like to say in my classes, ‘We do this here so that we don’t do it out there.’ And it just feels good to tap into a sort of aggression that isn’t acceptable in a lot of other spaces, in particular for women.”
Birriel describes the Rumble Boxing Gym as a more polished boxing-based environment that’s shaped to a community-focused group fitness experience.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a boxing gym. It’s very clean, it’s very elevated, it’s very boutique. And that’s very intentional,” Birriel says. “It gives the clients who are women that sense of like, ‘I do belong here.’ This isn’t a gym where someone is going to say, ‘Oh, you don’t have experience. This isn’t for you.’ ” As Birriel explains it, that sentiment is also what translates to a growing proportion of women owning and leading Rumble franchises.
On the entrepreneurship side, Birriel says it feels good to be in charge of that kind of space. “This industry, in my experience, is very male-dominated. I’ve very often been the only woman on my team of trainers. As a personal trainer, I’ve very often had male bosses in an industry where 70 percent of the clientele is female, which is very interesting. But it feels good to be at the helm of that, knowing that we are catering to a clientele that is 73 percent women. Women trust women, I think, very inherently. If I’m coming into a boxing gym and I see women, I go, ‘Okay, I belong here.’ “
As a soon-to-be Rumble Boxing Gym owner, Birriel says it feels empowering to be on the cutting edge of a movement that is advocating and encouraging strength. “To know that there are women leading that, I think it’s a very symbiotic relationship where as a franchise owner, as a studio owner, I feel that I am doing what I’m meant to do.”
Even though the conversation at hand about Rumble is that it’s appealing to more women as leaders, Dejean says the Rumble Boxing philosophy has been generally — not just gender-wise — inclusive from its inception about seven years ago.
“I think one of the most important pillars of our brand is being authentic in ourselves, and we want the members and clients to do the same. Being that our brand was founded in an entertainment, hospitality, hip-hop culture, you just come as you are,” she says. “So, our franchise partners and our studio communities have really just been open-armed about those things. We celebrate all communities, and not just on the trendy days when brands choose to do so.”
She adds: “I think in a lot of ways, boxing makes you feel good. There’s a cathartic component to it. There’s an empowering component to it. And the fact that we’re able to support women franchisees in their business endeavors is and has been incredible.”
