Ahhh, how I dream of being fit. I wonder how many times has ‘being more fit’ come into my new year’s resolutions list. Anyways, let’s not go astray.
The fitness industry in the past few years has grown to become a massive multi-billion dollar industry. It was valued at $96 billion in 2019 but due to the pandemic took a hit and dropped down to $54.2 billion as of 2021. But that has not stopped this industry from growing as we are heading back to the good old days, people have become more conscious about their health and fitness. With the newer and younger generation being more aware of fitness and its benefits, the fitness industry looks to thrive in the future.
Let’s look at how the industry has evolved, how it was before, and how it has changed post the pandemic.
A few years back, that is before the pandemic, the fitness industry was more old-school and traditional. People used to go to gyms, yoga classes or local martial arts classes. The industry was still getting used to the online methods that we see today.
Gyms would charge based on the membership that was selected by a customer. There were gyms which implemented the low cost high volume approach and there were gyms which would set the prices for their memberships on a higher side and provide extra benefits.
With well-known gyms like 24 Hour Fitness and Gold’s Gym filing bankruptcy during the pandemic, the adoption of digital methods sped up.
Most of us would not have thought of taking online classes. Well, at least not gym classes. And yet, here we are.
One of the major developments in the fitness industry would be its adoption of technology. With almost everything going online, from food delivery to consultations with a doctor, the fitness industry wasn’t far away from the party.
There were many fitness content creators/influencers on YouTube even before the pandemic, but it blew up during the pandemic. People were at home and started reading a lot about health, fitness and other topics. Well, people need something to do. And luckily these content creators were there for our rescue. These influencers already had a good number of people following them on their social media pages and all they had to do was post a story or a page about their new app and price it competitively.
Many fitness influencers even created apps on which they started selling subscriptions to people. People could subscribe to the fitness plan that would suit their needs. This was a massive development in the industry. This would not have been thought of a decade or two earlier, but with the boom in social media and easy access to the internet, we can see this happening today.
Some apps even provided tailor-made services to their subscribers based on their needs. They could get personal training sessions with qualified trainers or the influencers that they followed.
People can even buy meal plans based on their fitness goals. Let’s say, you wanted to bulk up, you could get a meal plan which would lay out all the details to achieve that goal. Some services even provide specific meal plans based on different diets like a keto meal plan or a paleo meal plan. Even fitness eBooks were being sold on these apps and services.
Now with the pandemic gone people have the option to choose between these online or offline services. Hybrid options to be more precise. Let’s say you have memberships in both an online service and a local gym. You could choose to use any one of those based on your choice. Let’s say you come back home late from work and don’t want to go to the gym, you can log in to your app and work out.
One of the other things that have come up in the past few years is the franchising model in the fitness industry. Gym owners who are thinking of expanding can just create a franchise model for their gyms and go wild. Basically, gym owners could give the rights to others to operate gyms under their name and use their business model and earn money from it.
This has led to many gyms popping up in different places. You might have heard of a gym that could be famous in a different state but with the franchise model, they could now be operating in your city.
With the rise in access to the internet, many not so well known forms of fitness have now become famous. People started adopting and implementing different forms like cross fit, mind and body workouts like Pilates and yoga into their workout plans. This also led to a shift in the business models of gyms and apps to cater to these consumers as well. The consumer shift and trends towards a more flexible and functional approach also led to this change in the industry.
With developments in wearable tech and people being able to measure the number of steps that they walked in a day or the number of calories they burnt in a day, they started becoming more aware of their health. People might buy a fitness band or a smartwatch with being in line with the current fashion trends. But once they start exploring the functions that their wearable gadget can do, chances are subconsciously they might just think about working out and how health should be prioritized.
During the pandemic, many companies like Peloton took off massively. People could buy a product that was connected to the internet and could access a whole range of different workouts. With Peloton recording a huge profit during the pandemic many investors jumped in to invest in this industry and this led to many new companies and services popping up.
Though it looks like with us being back to the usual days, Peloton’s revenues have gone down. But with the money pumped into the industry, we could see some more innovative services.
Due to the rise of the fitness industry complementary services/goods like supplements or energy bars also saw a spike in their sales. Some influencers and celebrities even signed deals and launched products to ride the wave.
Some gyms even have a smoothie bar or a health-based café/restaurant next to the gym areas so that people could go enjoy a healthy snack after their workout and in the process spend some cash.
Another complementary industry that grew was the recovery equipment industry. Consumers started focusing on their recovery as well after workouts and went out to buy products like massage rollers, foam rollers or massage guns. This has led to many innovations in this industry.
With 201,000 fitness clubs around the world and the fitness industry becoming so dynamic and changing so rapidly, we might see a lot more innovations in the future or many developments in consumer trends.
Thank you for reading this post, I hope you found it interesting. Let me know what you think of the fitness industry and how it may change in the future.
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