Fitness finds its feet despite COVID-19 woes

Exercising at home

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, more people are now willing to build dedicated gyms for themselves at home since it is safer and more convenient, said experts.

"In the past few years, there has been a steady growth in the number of commercial fitness equipment designed for home use and several of them are equipped with smart technologies," said Ren Hairong, managing director of Active Lifestyle's Shanghai branch.

Wang Jian, a representative of intelligent fitness brand Onelap said sales of the company's home-based spin bikes nearly doubled during the epidemic.

"As far as I know, spin bike orders have been surging since September last year," said Wang.

Meanwhile, the 2020 China Fitness Industry Data Report pointed out that sales of home fitness equipment, including treadmills, spin bikes, yoga mats and dumbbells rose sharply on e-commerce platforms, with dumbbells, hula hoops and yoga mats seeing growth rates of 500 percent, 391 percent and 332 percent respectively on a Suning's online platform for fitness products.

A few weeks after Spring Festival last year, Zhang Yun, a 36-year-old woman who lives by herself, was disappointed to note that most of the gymnasiums were still closed and she could not resume her yoga classes. However, her yoga coach invited her to an online session along with several other students, and they were able to resume the classes much like in a Zoom meeting.

"It was not so good as a real classroom, when the coach is by your side and is able to give you the required guidance and support," said Zhang. "But it felt good, that I could have some of my normal life back, and yoga helped calm my mind during the lockdown."

Along with the development of internet technology, fitness platforms such as Keep and content platforms such as Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), Weibo and Douyin, which launched online sessions and livestreamed classes, have become important allies for the fitness industry.

The LeadLeo report said that daily downloads of fitness app Keep and Boohee increased by 478 percent and 341 percent respectively from January to February last year during the onset of the outbreak.

The number of active users of fitness apps nearly doubled during the epidemic, with Keep's active users increasing by 20 percent compared with the data before the epidemic, the report said.

The fitness passion has not subsided even though the epidemic has been brought under control.

According to consultancy iiMedia Research, the number of users of fitness-related apps in the nation exceeded 350 million by the end of last year, while the fitness app download rate increased 12 percent over the levels seen in 2019.

Zhang, for example, still spreads the yoga mat occasionally on her sitting room, although she has resumed classroom sessions with her coach. "Doing yoga at home gives me a little 'me' time, when I feel completely safe and relaxed. Besides, it is so convenient, for showering, changing and everything," she said.

Meanwhile, 60 percent of the new users intend to continue their online fitness sessions, according to the 2021 China Consumer Report released by global consulting firm McKinsey.

In addition, many offline gymnasiums have launched online platforms and video courses after their physical operation was hit by the epidemic. The 2020 China Fitness Industry Report pointed out that many gymnasiums tried to enhance customer experiences via livestreaming, video training sessions, and community guidance.