What Has The UK Lockdowns Done To The Fitness Industry?One of the main industry sectors to be impacted by UK lockdowns has been the fitness and sports industries.
Gyms were closed on 20th March 2020 which led to over 50,000 gym staff being lost. Group fitness classes like Yoga, Zumba and RPM were stopped and there was a surge in online fitness.
Companies like Peloton saw their profits boom during 2020-21 as people opted to train at home. They quickly diversified from bike based classes to a wide variety of home workout options.
Although the fitness industry did suffer as a result of the gyms closing, there has been a surge in class attendance and new gym signups.
As the swimming sessions increased capacity, and children are gradually allowed back into the pools, the summer looks like it will make up for the long winter.
The very thought this time last year of doing a 30 or 60 workout in the living room seemed nonsense, however this is now the new normal. Fitness companies, personal trainers many are offering Zoom classes or Facebook group pages to workout.
New fitness companies are now entering the new world of home fitness, not just people like Joe Wicks.
Les Mills On Demand has seen a spike in the number of people still doing online classes, despite gyms being open again.
Despite lockdown, marketing for fitness companies never really stopped.
Even though gyms were closed during the various lockdowns, the sector was still there to support, motivate and inspire.
A big area of marketing is social media, on sites like Facebook Live.
One thing that lockdown has taught us is how important our fitness is.
What a difference it makes when you take away 3-4 gym sessions a week, or 3-4 fitness classes. The only options are going for a bike ride (weather permitting) if you have one (and a place to store it), a walk or a run. The weight does pile on, the only option is to adapt your diet accordingly (calories in vs calories out).
We all hope that there will be no further lockdowns looking forwards, but the future of the fitness sector is now much more diverse than it was in early 2020.
The future looks very positive for fitness companies, as they adapt to the new normal of social distancing and varied fitness sessions, online and offline.
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