Fitness and diet go hand in hand. Diet does not necessarily mean "being on a diet" but moreover the more general term of what we ingest on a daily basis. According to The Office of National Statistics, 2013 held 1.2 million vegetarians in Britain. This is not a surprising statistic at all considering just how knowledgeable the general public is becoming about nutrition. The internet has allowed countless of nutrition dedicated people to spread their knowledge all over by setting up blogs specifically about the issue. Blogs such as: "happily unprocessed", "100 Days of Real Food", "Vicki Edgson", "Earth Mama's World," and even social media site Pinterest delivers images of unprocessed food recipes. Due to this kind of awareness in 2013, food trends organization The Food People say that in two years, the statistic of 1.2 million vegetarians in Britain will increase by half. Vegetarianism isn't the only way to go however, felixtarianism is another avenue and one which the British Dietetic Association says will be put into practice by many in 2014. Flexitarians are people who follow a vegetarian diet most of the time but allow themselves some meat on any unspecified occasion. With the impending rise of vegetarianism and public awareness of meat production, according to BDA spokesman Sioned Quirke, 2014 will also see a marked rise of flexitarianism. The internet allows people like Vicki Edgson, from food blog site "Vicki Edgson", to share their devotion to nutrition and inform the public through her website, allowing for the prediction of food trends. Vicki speaks of a trend for sprouts having originated in Australia in 2013 which will be "big" in 2014. Sprouts refer to sprouted seeds, pulses and beans which are essentially living foods and one of the richest nutrients in the world. Due to the level of food blogs and food awareness on the rise on the internet, people are becoming more interested and concerned about their food origins. People are turning to rich and unprocessed food options like sprouts. Sprouts are now being put into foods sold by healthy takeaway services like Eat, Pret and Waitrose. In late 2014, a new EU food and drink labeling legislation will be put into effect forcing all drinks that contain more than 150mg of caffeine per litre within them to be labelled with an explicit warning. This warning will also be used for foods with caffeine added to them. This change is obviously going to put a lot of pressure on energy drinks brands such as RedBull and Rockstar. On the other hand, this will allow for a rise in "functional green vegetable juices" that will serve as a healthier alternative for energy fuel. In addition, it is safe to expect a lot of health and fitness brands launching new nutrition products and campaigns as they take advantage of their now open and ready to seize market in 2014.
Running a successful gym is like running any other kind of business, there will always have to be precise awareness of the competition, the customer, and the changing times. In 2013, gym clubs went through several changes in many different areas of their business, which helps us analyze what we can possibly expect from these gyms in 2014. A very significant occurrence in 2013 was the prosperous rise of low cost gyms. Pure Gym, a low cost gym operator, went through a secondary buyout in May by CCMP Capital, a global private equity firm, which lead to a £50 million investment in the gym for further expansion. "With...the widespread appeal of a high-quality, low-cost fitness option, we believe there is a significant opportunity to expand Pure Gym aggressively..." - Thomas Walker, Managing Director, CCMP Capital. Other low cost gyms received substantial investments in 2013. Xercise4Less, a gym in the North West of England, is a club that started out utilizing a mid market concept but ultimately shed this strategy and focused it's efforts on functioning under the low cost model. In 2013, Xercise4Less announced a deal it made with Tesco to embed gyms inside four Tesco Extra stores functioning under a contract-free membership. A few weeks later, the club received a £5 million investment from the Business Group Fund. A few weeks after, Phoenix Equity Partners announced a £50 million investment to finance the further expansion of The Gym Group, another low cost gym. The Gym Group was one of only two companies Phoenix invested in in 2013, making the success of the low cost gym concept in 2013 very apparent. However, mid market gyms started to become pressured by the competition. In 2013, mid market gyms like LA Fitness, Fitness First and Bannatyne Fitness made changes to their contracts and their cancellation policies. In July, the LA Fitness club in Kent underwent a £2 million refurbishment rendering the gym a lot more stylistic but nevertheless functioning with a £37 per month contract based on a 18 month contract and no joining fee. This is £12 less than the average monthly fee for private gyms in the South East of England! Cancellation policies were adjusted for both Fitness First and Bannatyne in 2013. Fitness First specified it's cancellation terms to changes in personal circumstances such as illnesses or relocation, whilst Bannatyne changed it's cancellation notice period from three months to only one month. These club's decisions to change their terms of membership and cancellation policies were based on the results of a 19 month long investigation conducted by the Office of Fair Trading in 2013 regarding gym contracts.The OFT sent an open letter to gym operators such as Fitness First, LA Fitness and Bannatyne requesting they review their membership contracts considering their investigation concluded that not only do customers prefer contracts with simple terms and conditions but also friendlier cancellation policies. LA Fitness announced in October it would be launching a new premium club brand called LAX which would test in central London. Spanning three floors, this premium concept offers a £69 per month contract whilst the other mid market LA Fitness clubs are based on a £44 per month contract.
There is only so much speculation and guess work that can be done when predicting the future of any business, but 2013 was such a pivotal year for the fitness industry that discovering it's prospects for 2014 is very plausible. With the significant new funding for Xercise4Less, The Gym Group and Pure Gym, these gyms will need to seize the opportunity to expand the low cost gym sector and set the standard for what members in 2014 will pursue for their fitness and health experience. I predict Tesco will pursue the acquisition of other low cost gyms for their Tesco Extra affiliation but eventually will announce an exclusive partnership with Xercise4Less considering their vast success in 2013. In 2014, be on the lookout for new branches of Xercise4Less, The Gym Group, and Pure Gym being set up. It is safe to assume that a new branch of these gyms can be expected every month as they aggressively expand their reach. I believe this will have a vast long term effect on the health and fitness industry. Money will no longer be a factor for people who wish to have a modern and genuine gym experience due to low cost gyms. This will in turn attract more members and ultimately deliver 2014 a very broad and active fitness community that no longer sees fitness as a service that caters to only a select few. The mid market sector will be become even more aggressively pushed by the low cost sector. 2014 will force mid markets to change into a more "service included" approach within their clubs where it will offer members vast variety of classes and services to distinguish itself from it's competition. Alternatively, following the testing that LAX underwent in central London, mid market gyms will upgrade and establish themselves into the premium sector. However, if they do upgrade they will need to solely establish themselves as premium and not stay with both mid market and premium concept gyms like LA Fitness and Fitness First were in 2013. The decision to stay with both concepts will make these companies very difficult to classify and consequently not establish a secure membership group. 2014 will see members pursue a more self service approach to their fitness and will shed the co-dependence to outside factors such as personal trainers, classes, elaborate machines and even the gym itself! Oaktree Capital Management,a global asset management firm, released a press release in March presenting the exciting claim of what they called 'Gym of the Future'. An initial £20 million had been made available to begin the process of updating 80 retained clubs in the UK. The concept of the 'gym of the future' is one which is capable of taking several different shapes and sizes as it develops in 2014 following the events of 2013. One concept which cannot be overlooked is technology. With my predicted rise of people entering the fitness community and gyms in 2014, health and fitness sectors will be forced to find new and modern methods to maintain members engaged with fitness. Technology offers a vast and broad list of opportunities.Wearable technology, mobile phone applications and even video games will become tools for fitness in 2014 that I predict will all very well be able to link up with each other and in doing so enforce the concept of a fitness "community" in 2014. Microsoft's Xbox One offers games such as Kinect Sports Boxing that has shown to boost heart rates by 194% compared to other traditional, controller-held games, and the game can increase energy expenditure by 263% on resting values compared to some light cycling. I believe games like this will begin to motivate people about fitness from an early age as children who are too young to go to the gym can still stay at home and play these games. Applications like Nuffield HealthScore are a perfect example of how 2014 will see fitness and health exceed it's reach to help members outside the gym. Nuffield HealthScore is a free application that you can download to your smartphone. With a wearable device connected to the person, this app tracks all facets of your health such as exercise, nutrition, measurements and even sleeping habits and then gives you a HealthScore from 1 to 1,000 which determines your overall well being that you can share with your friends. This is why I believe 2014 will be the year in which the gym becomes the hub of a members fitness rather than the destination. It is not about one replacing the other but rather merging both markets which is what I believe clubs will have to do in 2014 if they plan to keep up with a more technological and modern era of fitness, or the "Gym of the Future" as stated by Oaktree Capital Management.
With my predicted expansion of the health and fitness community, I believe that is precisely what 2014 will see happen to gym members, enthusiasts, and athletes alike, all become one community. Sites like bodybuilding.com implemented the very idea of a fitness community when they launched their online fitness community site BodySpace. This is a site that allows people to connect and make friends from all walks of life as they post motivation levels, track workouts, track fitness progress, and set specific goals for their fitness. A year after it's inception in 2007, the site had 100,000 members. Now, BodySpace is home to over 1,000,000 members and an application that you can download into your smartphone. Gymtopia is another interesting concept that I think will be an intricate factor in what we can expect for the strengthening of the health and fitness community in 2014. Roy Algar, the founder of Gymtopia, came across the idea of Gymtopia when speaking to the president of Companhia Athletica, a successful chain of clubs in in Brasil, and how he had started a shoe charity project within his gyms. The concept was that members would bring their old shares when trading up to a new pair and the old shoes would be sent to a Brazilian charity that encourages poor children into sport. This idea was the fruition of Gymtopia's concept. Gymtopia is a site that allows gyms from all over the world to share and post stories of how they have contributed to their community through either charities, donations, collaborations etc. The idea Roy Algar has is that the fitness and health sector has the ability to utilize it's tools and millions of existing members and use them to create a unified community by good deeds. Companhia Athletica collected 700 pairs of shoes from members to kick-start the project and is now collecting 4,000 pairs each year. If one club can make such a drastic difference, Gymtopia aims to inspire clubs from all over the world to do the same and then create a sort of momentum that can potentially see clubs from all over the world making massive contributions to the world. Gymtopia is a "patient project" that aims to see massive differences if not in the near future, in the years to come. 2014 is the year in which health and fitness will see it's community strengthen not only in numbers but in resolve, and this is something that will not end in 2014 but continue growing in the years to come.
There is only so much speculation and guess work that can be done when predicting the future of any business, but 2013 was such a pivotal year for the fitness industry that discovering it's prospects for 2014 is very plausible. With the significant new funding for Xercise4Less, The Gym Group and Pure Gym, these gyms will need to seize the opportunity to expand the low cost gym sector and set the standard for what members in 2014 will pursue for their fitness and health experience. I predict Tesco will pursue the acquisition of other low cost gyms for their Tesco Extra affiliation but eventually will announce an exclusive partnership with Xercise4Less considering their vast success in 2013. In 2014, be on the lookout for new branches of Xercise4Less, The Gym Group, and Pure Gym being set up. It is safe to assume that a new branch of these gyms can be expected every month as they aggressively expand their reach. I believe this will have a vast long term effect on the health and fitness industry. Money will no longer be a factor for people who wish to have a modern and genuine gym experience due to low cost gyms. This will in turn attract more members and ultimately deliver 2014 a very broad and active fitness community that no longer sees fitness as a service that caters to only a select few. The mid market sector will be become even more aggressively pushed by the low cost sector. 2014 will force mid markets to change into a more "service included" approach within their clubs where it will offer members vast variety of classes and services to distinguish itself from it's competition. Alternatively, following the testing that LAX underwent in central London, mid market gyms will upgrade and establish themselves into the premium sector. However, if they do upgrade they will need to solely establish themselves as premium and not stay with both mid market and premium concept gyms like LA Fitness and Fitness First were in 2013. The decision to stay with both concepts will make these companies very difficult to classify and consequently not establish a secure membership group. 2014 will see members pursue a more self service approach to their fitness and will shed the co-dependence to outside factors such as personal trainers, classes, elaborate machines and even the gym itself! Oaktree Capital Management,a global asset management firm, released a press release in March presenting the exciting claim of what they called 'Gym of the Future'. An initial £20 million had been made available to begin the process of updating 80 retained clubs in the UK. The concept of the 'gym of the future' is one which is capable of taking several different shapes and sizes as it develops in 2014 following the events of 2013. One concept which cannot be overlooked is technology. With my predicted rise of people entering the fitness community and gyms in 2014, health and fitness sectors will be forced to find new and modern methods to maintain members engaged with fitness. Technology offers a vast and broad list of opportunities.Wearable technology, mobile phone applications and even video games will become tools for fitness in 2014 that I predict will all very well be able to link up with each other and in doing so enforce the concept of a fitness "community" in 2014. Microsoft's Xbox One offers games such as Kinect Sports Boxing that has shown to boost heart rates by 194% compared to other traditional, controller-held games, and the game can increase energy expenditure by 263% on resting values compared to some light cycling. I believe games like this will begin to motivate people about fitness from an early age as children who are too young to go to the gym can still stay at home and play these games. Applications like Nuffield HealthScore are a perfect example of how 2014 will see fitness and health exceed it's reach to help members outside the gym. Nuffield HealthScore is a free application that you can download to your smartphone. With a wearable device connected to the person, this app tracks all facets of your health such as exercise, nutrition, measurements and even sleeping habits and then gives you a HealthScore from 1 to 1,000 which determines your overall well being that you can share with your friends. This is why I believe 2014 will be the year in which the gym becomes the hub of a members fitness rather than the destination. It is not about one replacing the other but rather merging both markets which is what I believe clubs will have to do in 2014 if they plan to keep up with a more technological and modern era of fitness, or the "Gym of the Future" as stated by Oaktree Capital Management.
With my predicted expansion of the health and fitness community, I believe that is precisely what 2014 will see happen to gym members, enthusiasts, and athletes alike, all become one community. Sites like bodybuilding.com implemented the very idea of a fitness community when they launched their online fitness community site BodySpace. This is a site that allows people to connect and make friends from all walks of life as they post motivation levels, track workouts, track fitness progress, and set specific goals for their fitness. A year after it's inception in 2007, the site had 100,000 members. Now, BodySpace is home to over 1,000,000 members and an application that you can download into your smartphone. Gymtopia is another interesting concept that I think will be an intricate factor in what we can expect for the strengthening of the health and fitness community in 2014. Roy Algar, the founder of Gymtopia, came across the idea of Gymtopia when speaking to the president of Companhia Athletica, a successful chain of clubs in in Brasil, and how he had started a shoe charity project within his gyms. The concept was that members would bring their old shares when trading up to a new pair and the old shoes would be sent to a Brazilian charity that encourages poor children into sport. This idea was the fruition of Gymtopia's concept. Gymtopia is a site that allows gyms from all over the world to share and post stories of how they have contributed to their community through either charities, donations, collaborations etc. The idea Roy Algar has is that the fitness and health sector has the ability to utilize it's tools and millions of existing members and use them to create a unified community by good deeds. Companhia Athletica collected 700 pairs of shoes from members to kick-start the project and is now collecting 4,000 pairs each year. If one club can make such a drastic difference, Gymtopia aims to inspire clubs from all over the world to do the same and then create a sort of momentum that can potentially see clubs from all over the world making massive contributions to the world. Gymtopia is a "patient project" that aims to see massive differences if not in the near future, in the years to come. 2014 is the year in which health and fitness will see it's community strengthen not only in numbers but in resolve, and this is something that will not end in 2014 but continue growing in the years to come.
