The industry should respond quickly to confusing media reports on exercise / photo: shutterstock.com/Vasiliy Koval
I was left very frustrated after watching the recent BBC documentary The Men Who Made Us Thin.
First of all, I felt the reporter seemed to have it in for the gym business in this very one-sided, confusing report. The reporter was trying to get across the point that exercise was not at all effective as a way of losing weight or preventing obesity. Is the BBC saying that doing no exercise will in fact make you thinner? I think a response to the report by the fitness industry is needed, so we can give our side of the story.
The government on the one hand spends millions of pounds on TV ads telling us all to get more active, to help prevent us getting fatter as a nation, and then the BBC comes up with a documentary that tells us not to bother, and that exercise doesn’t work in the battle against weight loss.
As those of us in the fitness industry have realised for some time now, exercise is not the magic bullet to weight loss – of course exercise will not bring about weight loss without some control of calorific intake. However, for the vast majority of normal people working out in our clubs, their daily workout expends an important amount of calories, helping them to maintain an energy balance which in turn keeps their weight constant – which in turn helps protect their health.
No wonder the public are confused! We, as a industry, need to respond to this kind of journalism.
Rod Hill, Director, Anytime Fitness Iberia
We want to live to be 90 – but how do we live it well? Pew Research recently surveyed American attitudes on living to 120 and beyond, and found that 69 per cent of respondents wanted to live until somewhere between 79 and 100 years of age; 90 was the median ideal life span.
If that’s the case, we must change the way we age to extend our years of healthy life. But how? My tips as follows:
Anticipate success: Research has shown that people who think positively about getting older may live as much as 7.5 years longer than those who view this stage of life negatively.
Identify an activity or connection that sparks your enthusiasm and make it your lifeline. Keep learning: explore a new area of knowledge or learn a new type of physical activity. And volunteer: research shows that volunteers have higher levels of wellbeing and life satisfaction than non-volunteers.
Eat a balanced diet and attain/maintain a normal weight, and stay physically active. If you feel depressed or lacking in energy, talk to your doctor – don’t let apathy or lethargy drag you down. In many instances, exercising and eating right can help change your mood.
Most of all, emphasise the positive and don’t let your age, or anyone, deter you.
Colin Milner, CEO, ICAA
photo: shutterstock.com/Hugo Felix
Exercise can play a key role in helping us live healthier, longer lives
Active Blackpool is deploying Cornerstone Connect, a new digital interface allowing
disparate information from multiple systems to be aggregated into one dataset, to support
its focus on reducing health inequalities and improving healthy life expectancy. [more...]
Panatta brought together four of the most influential figures in bodybuilding history on the
stage of RiminiWellness 2026: Phil Heath, Lee Haney, Ronnie Coleman and Hany Rambod. [more...]
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The industry should respond quickly to confusing media reports on exercise / photo: shutterstock.com/Vasiliy Koval
I was left very frustrated after watching the recent BBC documentary The Men Who Made Us Thin.
First of all, I felt the reporter seemed to have it in for the gym business in this very one-sided, confusing report. The reporter was trying to get across the point that exercise was not at all effective as a way of losing weight or preventing obesity. Is the BBC saying that doing no exercise will in fact make you thinner? I think a response to the report by the fitness industry is needed, so we can give our side of the story.
The government on the one hand spends millions of pounds on TV ads telling us all to get more active, to help prevent us getting fatter as a nation, and then the BBC comes up with a documentary that tells us not to bother, and that exercise doesn’t work in the battle against weight loss.
As those of us in the fitness industry have realised for some time now, exercise is not the magic bullet to weight loss – of course exercise will not bring about weight loss without some control of calorific intake. However, for the vast majority of normal people working out in our clubs, their daily workout expends an important amount of calories, helping them to maintain an energy balance which in turn keeps their weight constant – which in turn helps protect their health.
No wonder the public are confused! We, as a industry, need to respond to this kind of journalism.
Rod Hill, Director, Anytime Fitness Iberia
We want to live to be 90 – but how do we live it well? Pew Research recently surveyed American attitudes on living to 120 and beyond, and found that 69 per cent of respondents wanted to live until somewhere between 79 and 100 years of age; 90 was the median ideal life span.
If that’s the case, we must change the way we age to extend our years of healthy life. But how? My tips as follows:
Anticipate success: Research has shown that people who think positively about getting older may live as much as 7.5 years longer than those who view this stage of life negatively.
Identify an activity or connection that sparks your enthusiasm and make it your lifeline. Keep learning: explore a new area of knowledge or learn a new type of physical activity. And volunteer: research shows that volunteers have higher levels of wellbeing and life satisfaction than non-volunteers.
Eat a balanced diet and attain/maintain a normal weight, and stay physically active. If you feel depressed or lacking in energy, talk to your doctor – don’t let apathy or lethargy drag you down. In many instances, exercising and eating right can help change your mood.
Most of all, emphasise the positive and don’t let your age, or anyone, deter you.
Colin Milner, CEO, ICAA
photo: shutterstock.com/Hugo Felix
Exercise can play a key role in helping us live healthier, longer lives
The UK's four Chief Medical Officers have published a refreshed edition of Physical activity
guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers' report, updating the evidence that underpins the nation's
physical activity recommendations and placing greater emphasis on strength, balance, reducing
sedentary behaviour and, for the first time, supporting people taking weight loss medications.
Places Leisure has exchanged contracts to build and operate a flagship £60m water and leisure
destination on behalf of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.
The Republic of Ireland will become the latest market in PureGym’s expanding international
portfolio, with the first launch planned for Dublin in 2027.
Anytime Fitness opened more than one club a day in 2025 and is on track to maintain this rate
of growth this year, as parent company Purpose Brands targets further international expansion.
The £33.9 million Leighton Leisure and Community Centre has opened in Leighton Buzzard, UK,
creating a next-generation public leisure, health and wellbeing hub for the local community.
Walnuts Leisure Centre in Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley, has reopened following
a £17m transformation designed to secure the long-term future of the public leisure asset and
reposition it as a community wellbeing hub.
The Gym Group, has announced that it's sustained positive trading momentum has continued
through the first half of 2026 and the company remains confident about the outlook.
Luxury boutique Pilates and wellness studio, X-Club, officially launches a
4,000sq ft flagship at
Marylebone on 16 July Built around X-Club’s four pillars of wellness – mind,
movement,
nutrition and therapy – the facility features two group exercise studi
Active Blackpool is deploying Cornerstone Connect, a new digital interface allowing
disparate information from multiple systems to be aggregated into one dataset, to support
its focus on reducing health inequalities and improving healthy life expectancy. [more...]
Panatta brought together four of the most influential figures in bodybuilding history on the
stage of RiminiWellness 2026: Phil Heath, Lee Haney, Ronnie Coleman and Hany Rambod. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
Orbit4 With Orbit4, you’ll always have full visibility
of your equipment inventory, the true
market value [more...]
