Young people are more likely to want to sweat pints than drink them
Are we on the cusp of glory as a sector? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.
Every time I see a gym ad on TV in place of a promo for a burger joint, notice an ailing chain restaurant has been supplanted by a gym in a prime high street location or read a social media trends piece that talks about how today’s youth prefer to sweat pints rather than sink them.
It gets me thinking – how far is the health club industry from completing its evolution from a niche sector to a mass mainstream movement?
How much longer will it be before the ‘big, bad, scary gym’, as it was once considered by many people, becomes widely known as that space everyone visits three times a week when they’re not at work or at home?
Fitness industry analysts such as David Minton have hailed this as ‘the golden age of fitness’, with membership numbers and market values at all-time highs, driven by a decade of continuous growth. Minton’s most recent State of the UK Fitness Industry Report put the sector’s penetration rate at 14.9 per cent of the UK population, meaning almost as many adults now visit the gym as buy newspapers. Which begs the question, are we there yet? And if not, how much further is the Promised Land?
Mass market success According to renowned author and business consultant Simon Sinek, we might be a lot closer than we think.
In his famous TED talk, How great leaders inspire action, Sinek discusses the Law of Diffusion of Innovation and cites 15-18 per cent penetration as the tipping point that must be reached to achieve mass market success and acceptance of an idea.
By ‘crossing this chasm’ as Sinek puts it, you reach a large enough number of people that the majority of the population are then ready to follow suit and fully embrace your services.
Assuming he’s right, our sector’s 14.9 per cent puts it within touching distance of mass adoption.
So, what are clubs doing to make the leap past that magic 18 per cent mark?
As we’ve seen from the recent acquisitions of Soho Gyms and EasyGym by Pure Gym and The Gym Group respectively, low cost sector operators are seeking to maintain the growth of the past decade by evolving their business models. This means looking at ways to expand their offerings – by occupying prime locations and through additions such as group exercise and premium benefits for members – while maintaining their competitive prices.
End of the beginning Meanwhile, necessity continues to prove the mother of invention in the leisure trust market. As outlined by the latest ukactive Moving Communities report, operators are responding to swingeing council cuts through innovative approaches to their marketing and available activities to attract an increasingly diverse range of customers through their doors.
Elsewhere, we’re seeing boutiques jostling for headway and headlines as that segment’s expansion continues, while mainstream clubs are placing renewed emphasis on personalised member experiences that underline the full extent of their value proposition.
But of course, the real question will not be ‘how can we cross the chasm and edge towards 18 per cent adoption?’ It will be ‘how can we use this small but significant step as a springboard towards major mass-market adoption?’ – because that’s where the real glory awaits.
For an industry that remains largely in its infancy, such a milestone should represent not the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
Phillips says the industry is within touching distance of mass market adoption
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...]
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...]
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COMPANY PROFILES
Alliance Leisure
Alliance Leisure Services was specifically
established to respond to the changing
development need [more...]
Everyone Active
Everyone Active operates leisure centres in partnership with local councils across the UK. Today, Ev [more...]
Young people are more likely to want to sweat pints than drink them
Are we on the cusp of glory as a sector? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.
Every time I see a gym ad on TV in place of a promo for a burger joint, notice an ailing chain restaurant has been supplanted by a gym in a prime high street location or read a social media trends piece that talks about how today’s youth prefer to sweat pints rather than sink them.
It gets me thinking – how far is the health club industry from completing its evolution from a niche sector to a mass mainstream movement?
How much longer will it be before the ‘big, bad, scary gym’, as it was once considered by many people, becomes widely known as that space everyone visits three times a week when they’re not at work or at home?
Fitness industry analysts such as David Minton have hailed this as ‘the golden age of fitness’, with membership numbers and market values at all-time highs, driven by a decade of continuous growth. Minton’s most recent State of the UK Fitness Industry Report put the sector’s penetration rate at 14.9 per cent of the UK population, meaning almost as many adults now visit the gym as buy newspapers. Which begs the question, are we there yet? And if not, how much further is the Promised Land?
Mass market success According to renowned author and business consultant Simon Sinek, we might be a lot closer than we think.
In his famous TED talk, How great leaders inspire action, Sinek discusses the Law of Diffusion of Innovation and cites 15-18 per cent penetration as the tipping point that must be reached to achieve mass market success and acceptance of an idea.
By ‘crossing this chasm’ as Sinek puts it, you reach a large enough number of people that the majority of the population are then ready to follow suit and fully embrace your services.
Assuming he’s right, our sector’s 14.9 per cent puts it within touching distance of mass adoption.
So, what are clubs doing to make the leap past that magic 18 per cent mark?
As we’ve seen from the recent acquisitions of Soho Gyms and EasyGym by Pure Gym and The Gym Group respectively, low cost sector operators are seeking to maintain the growth of the past decade by evolving their business models. This means looking at ways to expand their offerings – by occupying prime locations and through additions such as group exercise and premium benefits for members – while maintaining their competitive prices.
End of the beginning Meanwhile, necessity continues to prove the mother of invention in the leisure trust market. As outlined by the latest ukactive Moving Communities report, operators are responding to swingeing council cuts through innovative approaches to their marketing and available activities to attract an increasingly diverse range of customers through their doors.
Elsewhere, we’re seeing boutiques jostling for headway and headlines as that segment’s expansion continues, while mainstream clubs are placing renewed emphasis on personalised member experiences that underline the full extent of their value proposition.
But of course, the real question will not be ‘how can we cross the chasm and edge towards 18 per cent adoption?’ It will be ‘how can we use this small but significant step as a springboard towards major mass-market adoption?’ – because that’s where the real glory awaits.
For an industry that remains largely in its infancy, such a milestone should represent not the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
Phillips says the industry is within touching distance of mass market adoption
According to research which tracked more than 147,000 people for 30 years, 90-120 minutes
of strength training a week may deliver some of the biggest long-term health rewards.
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.
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...]
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...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
Alliance Leisure Alliance Leisure Services was specifically
established to respond to the changing
development need [more...]
