Today at the Gym Owners Forum we will be engaging in our periodic fitness industry roundup, taking a quick and incisive look at the latest trends within the fitness industry. As ever, we will be focusing on how independent gym and fitness club owners can capitalise upon and make the most of the tumultuous trends and fleeting fads that are often a staple of our industry.
As we like to remind everyone, we intend the Gym Owners Forum to be just that, a forum. So if there is anything you’d like to see covered in the next Industry roundup, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact us! It is important to us that, like with these topics, we address the issues and trends that matter to gym owners, managers and staff.
So without further ado, let’s dive into a few key trends and topics that have made an impact over the last months. Starting with two words that have become quite common around fitness industry discussions and events
What will we cover in this article?
(you can also click to skip ahead!)
Reformer Pilates - is it a fad?
As with anything that we might suspect to be a fad, it feels like it came out of nowhere. A lot of fitness industry veterans have said the same thing, all of a sudden, everyone you know is asking about ‘Reformer Pilates’.
It is the ‘new’ trend with an expensive price tag. Having taken firm root in London it has shot out in every direction across the nation.
And visually it looks quite distinct from the slow-paced, minimalist Pilates and its humble (inexpensive) mat. Reformer Pilates on the other hand takes place on a specialised rectangular. Sometimes called a bed, it more aptly resembles something between a piece of medical equipment and a medieval rack.
But jokes aside, the equipment is well-designed and many people, including influential celebrities, believe that it justifies the significant price-tag.
The ‘bed’, with its collection of pulleys, springs and a moving compartment allow an extra level of resistance and dynamism during a workout.
This trend has helped push a discipline, pilates, that wasn’t particularly struggling. In the UK circa 2023 it was estimated that there were nearly 5000 Pilate and Yoga studies. Stretching is big business!
And indeed, the success of Reformer Pilates has given tangential evidence of a coat-tail effect, increasing the popularity of Pilates and Yoga in their wake. Some fitness industry companies and analysts have estimated that over 100 new Reformer and Non-Reformer Pilates studios have opened every quarter in 2024 thus far. Once the dust has settled, we will have a clearer picture, but safe to say that the momentum is there and is only gaining force.
Whether this is what Joseph Pilates had in mind when he developed his incredibly successful (and only just a century old) method for strengthening and restoring the body, we might never know. But it is clear that not only does his method endure, it is thriving and iterating upon itself.
But now we come to the inevitable questions. Is Reformer Pilates a fad? How much stock should a fitness club put into it?
Unfortunately it is only possible to call something a fad once it has already faded. What we can say is that it is unlikely that this level of intense enthusiasm will continue indefinitely. Pilates has been remarkably endurable, thriving against the more aesthetically and historically weighty Yoga and often coming out on top depending on the ebbs and flow of the time.
The popular consensus from the independent gym and fitness club owners we have spoken to is that anyone looking to capitalise on this trend would be wise not to focus purely on Reformer Pilates. It is an expensive investment in equipment, with the aforementioned ‘bed’ ranging often clearing £5000. That is a lot of money to drop on something that might turn out to be a flash in the pan.
No, the consensus that seems to be emerging is that gym and fitness club owners should take this renewed enthusiasm for Pilates as a way to focus more broadly on this discipline of exercise. It is impossible to say whether it is a fad, and an entire suite of Reformer Pilates beds might be a poor investment.
What it is safe to say is that the intensity of the trend will no doubt die down to some degree. But whether Reformer Pilates becomes a niche feature or a premium staple of the fitness regime is yet to be seen.
National Fitness Day: Trends to carry on through the year
National Fitness Day might have been and gone all the way back in September but we want to briefly focus on some of the best advice and trends that emerged from the Fitness Industry’s most recent avalanche of advice from this year’s September 18th!
In the wake of the pandemic and our societal health crisis, it is more important than ever that these fitness awareness events are taken seriously, not only by gym owners, but by staff and members as well.
Educating and empowering people to make small adjustments to help keep up their fitness levels will keep the overall number of people able to engage with gyms and fitness clubs
Seated yoga
Starting where we left off, from Reformer Pilates to Seated Yoga. The two couldn’t be at further ends of the spectrum but both have a part to play in fitness!
Seated yoga is the idea that you don’t even need a mat to practice certain exercises and postures that will improve flexibility and fitness.
It is a great way for individuals to start utilising and accessing the benefits of Yoga in an environment that is neither expensive or time intensive. While it won’t have the full benefits of Yoga (and certainly won’t compare to the intensity of the aforementioned Reformer Pilates). It is a wonderful bite-sized exercise that can be done at any point during a lunch break or the quiet of the evening.
Lifestyle Improvements or 'Biohacking'
Biohacking as a term can be a bit off putting. It can sound like it is trying a bit too hard to frame taking Magnesium as being cyberpunk. But biohacking in concept is an incredible tool for increasing fitness.
So what is our working definition for biohacking? Simply put, it is when individuals attempt to use science and experimentation, pooling resources to determine how best to improve their mental and physical health.
These techniques vary wildly. As with any community based around experimentation, not everything is immediately intuitive.
Standing desks have become increasingly popular, and pooling what supplement usage can correct certain issues can be an invaluable and fairly pain free way of improving overall health. These are positive trends that were key features of National Fitness Day that many people, whether they regularly attend a gym or not, could benefit from implementing.
Other methods are more bespoke, things like ice baths can be quite inaccessible to some people, and at the more expensive end of the spectrum it is safe to say there are diminishing returns.
But there is a lot to be gained from this pooled knowledge. Even small changes like blue-light filtering glasses can have a remarkable impact on the chemicals within our bodies, often enabling better sleep and therefore often more capacity to workout.
So while biohacking can feel like a bit of a buzzword, if done correctly it can help unlock powerful fitness benefits for gym members all year round.
'Burst' workouts
In a similar vein to seated yoga, it isn’t always possible (whether due to time, money or both) for someone to get into a class or to the gym every day.
A key approach to combat a busy life that was a core focus on National Fitness Day was the idea of the ‘Burst’ workout or the micro-workout.
Unlike biohacking, the name is fairly self-explanatory. A quite burst or micro-sized workout to get the body moving, the heart pumping and the limbs limber can make all the difference. The NHS have endorsed that 150 minutes of exercise per week in any segmentation can make all the difference and the logic behind micro-workouts is undeniable. Namely that something is better than nothing.
Whether it is a short run on the spot, a quick walk or 3 rapid sets of 10 with a set of dumbbells. Anything that engages the body can have powerful health benefits, from boosting the metabolic rate and cardiovascular health to reducing stress.
The main challenge will be identifying the time and the place for these activities during the average day. Time management was always going to be a big part of this type of workout, but by normalising and empowering people to engage in these short workouts all year, we helping to ensure that people are getting at least some exercise in a society that is increasingly encouraging us to be sedentary.
Fitness wearables - what place do they have in the gym?
And for our final topic in the roundup, we are going to return to a topic that feels like it also ebbs and flows from year to year.
We all know the idea of wearable technology isn’t new, even in the fitness industry. But every few years there is a breakthrough, whether in affordability, practicality or technology, that means the topic of wearable fitness and wearable fitness devices find their way back into the conversation.
So we are going to take a quick run-down on what wearable technology is currently in use and useful for independent gym and fitness club owners.
Smartwatch:
The smartwatch has featured heavily in wearable tech for a long time. It was a natural area for expansion, a piece of rudimentary technology people were used to wearing already. In recent years, more and more fitnes features have been added. Now it feels like more people are buying smartwatches to track their heart rate than to tell the time.
Thanks to easy to use and useful features such as fitness and workout tracking, heart-rate monitoring and music integration, Smartwatch integration and support can be a powerful selling point for certain members.
Fitness Tracking devices:
In a very similar vein, more generif Fitness Tracking Devices have become increasingly popular. Products such as the FitBit (even if their releases since acquisition by Google have raised some eyebrows) are more popular than ever and integration in a similar manner as above can be an invaluable selling point for an independent gym.
Smart Clothing:
Unlike smartwatches and fitness trackers, smart clothing is a relatively new category. Enabled and made more affordable by recent technological developments. These are clothes, most popularly a workout shirt, that can help track physical activity throughout the body. This can include heartbeat, body temperature and other variables. The benefit is that these tracking metrics can be achieved without the need for a wrist mounted device. While the usage of smart clothing is currently limited, never underestimate the appeal when fashion is combined with technology.
But what are the benefits? And why should we as gym owners invest in gym equipment and digital infrastructure to support these devices? As is so often the case, it is a matter of supply and demand. If the demand is there, and there are significant indicators that the demand is growing. Any independent gym that supplies these services will enjoy a competitive edge.
And it is easy to see why wearable tech is enjoying an increase in demand. The ability to enhance the user’s experience, providing better data and a more satisfying experience is something that cannot be easily provided elsewhere. There is a difference between a treadmill or exercise bike giving you an estimate of your heart-rate or calorie burn.
Whether it is setting a new fitness goal, tracking time spent working out on individual devices or just watching numbers go up, by helping members personalise their workout experience, gyms are able to create a more compelling, rewarding and enjoyable experience for their members.
As the popularity of these devices continues to rise, it will be a valuable selling point for independent gyms wanting to demonstrate they are up with current trends. Conversely, as more members become dependent or come to prefer wearable technology integration, the lack of support will be considered a significant turn-off.
And of course, the data collected is not just for the customer. Increased data capture and integration can also be used to the benefit of an independent gym. Providing that the data is used responsibly and with the consent of the member, it can help provide valuable insight into who is using what and when. This information has already been vital for many gym owners we have spoken to, using this data to inform when a machine is in high demand or being underutilised.
While wearable technology is still emerging as a market mainstay, the data is already starting to show the benefits to both gym and members. Wearable technology is making members more motivated, which in turn can help to boost retention. By attracting and enabling these users to make the most of their wearable tech, gyms are helping to ensure they stay both on the cutting edge and in profit!
Conclusion
And that is it for our Autumn Industry roundup here at the Gym Owners Forum. As we all know, the fitness industry is a fast moving and innovative sector, one prone to viral trends and rapid developments. If you are a gym owner or manager and you are interested in joining more conversations about everything from new trends to tried and tested methods, drop us a message.
Here at the Gym Owners Forum we are keen to talk to gym owners from all disciplines and walks of life in order to help us fill these articles and roundups with the best trends and insights. So if your gym staff, management or members have been calling something the next big thing, we want to know.
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