As I discussed in our last health blog post, having metabolic syndromes such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, can seriously impact one’s ability to prevent and recover from Covid-19. Getting adequate exercise is essential to reducing risk factors for metabolic conditions.
Exercise is often associated with a gym membership. Membership rates suffered a decline during the pandemic for obvious reasons. Prior to the pandemic, more than 184 million members belonged to nearly 210,000 fitness centers across the globe. In 2019, 20% of Americans belonged to a fitness club. The fitness industry enjoyed year-on-year growth for the past decade as the number of health clubs grew along with membership.[1]
During the pandemic, the US health club industry lost $13.9 billion between mid-March through the end of August 2020. During peak Covid shut-downs, losses were an estimated $700 million per week. This is a direct result of the mandated shut-downs of numerous business sectors through the early stages of the pandemic.[2] However, these losses have been foreshadowed by the growth of the “home gym” industry.
Peloton home cycle gym had already been trending prior to the pandemic and the shut-downs only accelerated their growth. Shares of Peloton grew 200% for the year, capitalizing on an already hurting gym industry market. Mirror is a new at-home fitness center that was acquired by Lululemon for $500 million in June of this year as people continued to search for better at-home alternatives to exercise. Tonal is another product offering in the home-gym market, as a sophisticated strength and personal training platform that has already attracted several celebrity endorsements using their proprietary magnetic weight and artificial intelligence personal trainers. Tonal has raised over $450 million at a valuation of $1.6 billion, priming themselves for the already competitive home-gym space.[3]
While it is good to see the business world taking advantage of the enthusiasm Americans have for health and wellness, it is important to remember that the most crucial step on the path to fitness and good health is to just start. This pandemic has challenged us to do what we can to prevent poor outcomes from Covid-19. We should challenge the lifestyles that have led us to this point.
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/plank-exercise-female-fitness-fit-2054729/
[1] Glofox: The Gym Membership Statistics You Need to Know Feb 2021
[2] NBC: Peloton Cuts Prices Capitalizing on People Staying at Home Sep 2020
[3] Business Wire: Tonal Raises… Valuation Mar 2021
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