No pain, no gain: China’s growing fitness market

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Commercial fitness clubs aren’t new to China. They began to appear in the 1980s but did not popularize until recent years. They are driven mostly by the urbanites looking for healthy approach to life and a way to de-stress from their fast paced and challenging jobs.

The gym and fitness industry is expected to generate 6 billion US dollars in revenue this year, only one-fifth of what is being generated in the US at the moment. But taking a closer look, China’s annual growth of 12 percent overtakes the 2.5 percent growth in the US by quite a margin.

Let’s take a look at the trending fitness fads.

GuCycle

Walking into a GuCycle class you’d think you accidentally walked into a nightclub -- disco balls, dim lighting and loud music. Almost everyone in the class is wearing white spin sneakers that glow in the dark cycling to lively music.

Spin. /Photo from GuCycle

Following the instructor’s lead and trying to keep up with the rhythm, Kate, a spin enthusiast said: “It has become a new trend and I love coming here after a long day of work. The lights, the music really gets me going…I’ve tried out many different workouts but I’ve never been able to stick with it until spin.”

Kate, a spin enthusiast. /CGTN Photo

Bruce Chen, the founder of GuCycle, first introduced this concept just last year and it has since taken China by storm. Classes get booked up days in advance. It has not only become a hit workout place but a great place to meet people.

“We stress the importance of mind and body connection. our instructors are huge soulful motivators, and at the same time we make the workouts a full body workout. It's not just cardio but also resistance training and upper body weight training. For many, it’s a great 45-minute workout, a place to have fun and also a community,” Chen said.

Alexander Club

Rows of the newest treadmills and elliptical machines, a standard 50-meter pool under a sunroof, free weights, equipment, machines, sauna, hot tub, Alexander Club is a true workout junkies' haven. Situated in the heart of CBD, it is one of the most popular high-end gyms in Beijing.

CGTN Photo

Felix Guo, the club's director, said, “ If you come regularly, even just four times a week, the membership fee would only come down to the price of a coffee a day…but the long-term benefits from exercising is priceless.”

“At Alexander Club, we believe a healthy body comes from eating well, exercising and sufficient rest. Exercising is good for mitigating many common diseases especially for sedentary city people with high blood pressure, hyperglycemia. And with raising awareness of the benefits that comes with exercising, I believe going to the gym will become more and more popular,” he added.

Personal trainer session at Alexander club. /CGTN Photo

CrossfitSlash

Tim Hill, the co-founder and head trainer at CrossfitSlash said he first started the gym for selfish reasons. When he moved to China in 2010 he was simply looking for a place to workout himself but found a group of like-minded people and created this now strong community and circle of friends.

Tim Hill, cofounder of crossfit slash. /CGTN Photo

Unlike what many may think, CrossFit isn’t just for the very intense and strong people. Tim says CrossFit is anything and can be anywhere. We as human should be able to lift dead weights because we should not have a problem lifting up our children. We should be able to bend over and touch our toes to pick things up or run if we are in danger.

CrossFit includes cardio, weightlifting, flexibility training and so on. “It’s a mental and physical challenge. CrossFit as a discipline is the idea that we, as humans, need to be able to do a lot of different movements. We aren’t like a fish or a bird, we aren’t specialists. We can crawl, we can climb and we can run, all these different things and there are very few animals that can do that.”

CGTN Photo

Tim says everyone and anyone can try out CrossFit because each course can be customized and personalized for different strength levels. In the end, the goal is to keep you healthy.

(Hu Nan also contributed to this stoy)