Read This Month’s Headlines
The annual ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal worldwide survey – which predicts sector trends by surveying 4,500 health fitness professionals globally – has outlined the top 10 activities and industry shifts for 2022:
1. Wearable Tech
2. Home Exercise Gyms
3. Outdoor Activities
4. Strength Training With Free Weights
5. Exercise for Weight Loss
6. Personal Training
7. HIIT
8. Bodyweight Training
9. Online Live & On-Demand Classes
10. Health/Wellness coaching
- Exertainment – culture convergence between fitness, fashion, music and entertainment (sparking collabs & products)
- New generation of gym goers prompted by the pandemic – Opportunities for operators to appeal to these groups and understand their wants
- Increasing and focusing on the quality of instructors and staff – Essential in customer acquisition and retention
- Increased appetite for boutique experience – A rise of big box incorporating boutique experiences and new businesses fusing the both
- Major brands from all industries wants a slide of the fitness pie – Apple, Google, Amazon, McDonald’s, Pullman Hotels, Dior and more align themselves with active living
- Diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) shifting from nice-to-have to a non-negotiable
- Becoming a ‘second space’ for members – offering work pods in the new shift to work from home / hybrid remote-office model
- The live revival – ⅔ of gym members say they prefer working out in groups, live classes in clubs are nearly twice as popular as livestream
- Reimagining the member journey – omni-channel fitness will become a basic expectation, look holistically at all the member touch points in and out of the facility
Les Mills 10 key fitness trends for 2022
Content 2.0 – Consumers expect high-class content while operators double down on quality of live offering in club (their USP that tech giants are unable to compete with)
- Anytime Fitness is launching its new “Real AF” marketing platform – holistic fitness, health and wellness – authentic interactions between AF coaches and members, in person or via their mobile app.
- Myzone Hits $102m Valuation After securing a $17.2M investment from leading investor BGF. In addition, they have also brought on renowned tech entrepreneur Vin Murria OBE, as their new Non-Executive Chair.
- Glofox Appointed Preferred Partner By Xponential Fitness for International Expansion
- Gympass acquires online PT platform Trainiac, as well as regional competitors, Andjoy and 7Card in Spain and Romania.
- Huge congratulations to our partners and friends at UBX who have just signed a new partnership with Empowered Brands in the UK – paving the way for them to launch in the UK and Ireland with up to 250 new sites being developed.
- Mental health startup Cerebral raised $300M in equity funding, the company now has a valuation of $4.8B. As demand for affordable and accessible solutions skyrocket, the mental health market is exploding, prediction reaching a staggering $245B by 2027.
- Boutique chain Trib3 will become one of the first fitness operators to establish a presence in the metaverse, making its workouts available in The Sandbox – a blockchain-based decentralised metaverse – which joins companies and brands such as sports giant Adidas and Team GB.
- FIT Summit launches Active Franchising, the new hub for health, fitness and wellness franchising.
- World Health, Fitness & Wellness Festival dates confirmed for 13-15 June in Singapore.
- Fitstop, after opening their 68th location at the end of 2021 and preparing for international launch, currently hiring 6 new roles within Fitstop’s head office team, including leadership roles in Australia and a GM to support our expansion into NZ.
- By the end of January, SpeedFit will have 30 franchise locations across Western Australia, NSW, ACT and Victoria.
- Gold’s Gym has opened its second gym in Queensland. Kippa-Ring Shopping Centre is one of the region’s most popular shopping centres and they are delighted to have secured 2,406 metre2 of space to create a 24/7 health and wellness club.
- Congrats to UFC GYM for Entering the Sydney CBD Market with its Flag Ship UFC GYM Signature – first of its kind including Strength, Cardio, Boxing, Yoga, Wellness Space, Sauna, Oxygen Chairs, Hydromassage, Retail Outlet, Super Foods and many more
- Pure Yoga / PURE Group today, 20 years ago. Congratulations Colin & the team with your anniversary! From 1 location in HK to 44 globally now
- Singapore based KaHa Pte Ltd acquired by Imagine Marketing to create next-generation IoT enabled wearable products and ecosystem
- The Flow Pilates by Lab Studios, a reformer-only fitness studio, opens in Joo Chiat, Singapore this month
- Platinum Fitness opens their second outlet at Tanglin Mall.
- Freedom Gym opened their new facility at Shenton Way – which boasts state-of-the-art equipment.
- Urban Den open their facility at Change Alley Mall, a grungy-chic boutique gym
- TSquared Lab opens its 2nd outlet in Singapore CBD. Congrats to Afshan, Dhanya, Harmen and team.
- REVL’s first Singapore studio is officially open at Cityhall! Congrats Ben, Josh and team!
- Recovery Systems – First round of recovery Pod subscriptions for Gyms Is now fully subscribed. They will release round two in April. Congrats Michael and Gladys.
- Theodoric and team at Intellect, a Mental Healthcare company for Asia are excited to announce their US$10M Series A
- LES MILLS® THE TRIP, a fully immersive indoor cycling workout, now available in Malaysia at PAR Fitness in KL. This addition is aligned with PAR Fitness’ vision to become Malaysia’s most loved gym brand
- Taiwan-based H2U Corporation, a platform leveraging first-party health data to develop workplace wellness programs, raised $8M in new funding
- Fitness and wellness unicorn Cult.fit has acquired cardio equipment brands, RPM fitness, Fitkit, and Onefitplus and the bicycle brand Urban Terrain, in a bid to consolidate its position in the fitness D2C space.
- Singapore boutique studio, Pull Push Give opened their second location in River Valley. Congratulations to Herzy and the PPG team!
- ISSA has completed the master trainer camp for AIDONG fitness in China who will begin teaching the ISSA CPT in February
- Defin8 Fitness launches Hong Kong’s first infrared reformer Pilates class
- Evolution Wellness made the decision to enhance their existing digital platform with the addition of LES MILLS Content “LES MILLS Content gives our members access to 100+ Les Mills workouts, which are hosted on the Celebrity Fitness and Fitness First websites and mobile apps respectively.
- Wexer signs deal to reach 11m consumers via Optus Sport Australia, expanding digital fitness offering
- Glofox Appointed as Preferred Vendor Partner By Xponential Fitness for International Expansion. Congrats Conor, Anthony, John and your teams!
Xponential Fitness expands to New Zealand with a new franchise agreement. - Myzone signs exclusive partnership agreement with SPORTA to launch it’s leading wearable technology platform into Pakistan
- Matrix introduces immersive cycling in partnership with iFit & also Technical Integration of Matrix Equipment with the Advagym Service.
Technogym released their app, admin portal, billing platform, and programming platforms into New Zealand for the start of our expansion. - CLMBR and Hyperice announced their partnership on Jan 13, to give fitness enthusiasts a comprehensive workout and recovery routine.
- Therabody introduces their newest #TherabodyAthlete, professional hockey player and Canadian star, Bo Horvat.
- Fantastic to see analyst coverage out on Advanced Human Imaging and showing the investment potential that Vlado Bosanac and his team are continuing to build!
- Anytime Fitness Australia has launched a fantastic campaign to promote their gyms as welcoming and inclusive for all no matter your body type, fitness level, ability, or background.
- The “Any body, Any time” campaign challenges the stereotypical representation of gym-goers, showcasing a diverse range of people with different needs, highlighting the various reasons they work out, and when they do.
- Fantastic work by Collective Wellness Group and their Anytime Fitness Australia team that will benefit our wider industry.
