Today, health and fitness plays a bigger part in our culture than ever before. The UK boasts around 10 million private gym members, meaning roughly 14% of the population are financially supporting the industry. 
Indeed, if you were to start your fitness journey today, you’d be presented with an abundance of local gyms to attend, activity and class types to choose from and clothing and supplement lines to purchase that have all appeared out of the industry boom.
The question is: why is this the case? What has happened in recent years to create such a prominent fitness culture in our society?
Social media and the rise of “gym culture”
Much like its impact in broader society, social media has fully infiltrated the global fitness industry for better and worse, but both sides of this impact have led to a rise in exercise and activity. There are two main factors − one on either side of the coin − to consider here: motivation and intimidation.
From the motivational standpoint, social media provides a sense of “get up and go” via sharing friends’ and colleagues’ progress; inspiring success stories of incredible body transformations; motivating support groups and easy accessibility to local resources.
As for the more negative side, spend too much time perusing the Instagrams of fitness models and you’ll start to think that six pack abs and 5% body fat is the norm. This warped sense of beauty standards is becoming an increasingly hot topic for debate, but it’s also pushing people to go out and try to improve themselves − just perhaps not for the right reasons.
Strength in numbers
The eighties saw the first boom of group exercise in the form of spandex-clad aerobics, until it became clear that its high intensity nature led to a number of lower body injuries. Since then, an evolution through low-impact aerobics and cardio-based variations has created a number of extremely popular class-oriented activities that make up a large portion of modern health and fitness.
The likes of yoga, Zumba, spin, Pilates, HIIT, CrossFit and step are just a few class formats with large followings. As with most new things in life, fitness is less scary when you’ve got someone else with you, and group activity has helped removed the intimidation factor of starting your journey.
The home-workout revelation
While the global coronavirus pandemic completely shut the private fitness industry down for a period, it actually created a new window of opportunity for health and fitness in the form of the home workout.
What started out as a necessity to begin with become a revelation for many who realised they either didn’t need to go the gym to achieve what they wanted, or even preferred the nature of home workouts. Initiatives like “Run 5, Donate 5” were leapt upon with great enthusiasm, while the NHS Couch to 5K app saw downloads soar over the lockdown period.
That might mean gym memberships and attendance will go down as we come out of the pandemic period, but the success of lockdown home workouts will have only helped to increase the popularity of health and fitness overall.
Staying safe
With the rise in popularity of DIY fitness also comes a few safety concerns. Outside of the controlled environments of gyms and the like, and with fitness enthusiasts following their own plans, certain injury and accident risks have grown.
The National Accident Helpline recently produced a blog documenting the potential risks both inside the gym and out, detailing the accident potential of activities such as running, walking and cycling – all of which have risen in popularity during lockdown. The blog also offers readers tips on how to keep safe while enjoying their own workouts.
With so many going on a big fitness push, the emphasis on the need to stay safe is greater than ever. Injury can seriously derail a fitness plan, and while you can look for support if you ever do get into an accident, it’s best to take precautions to ensure you don’t ever need to worry about it.
The global rise of health and fitness doesn’t look like it’s set to be slowing down any time soon, even with a worldwide pandemic to deal with. With increased accessibility to both private and public fitness resources and plenty of health benefits attached to getting involved, there’s no better time to be joining the movement.
