Senior gym trends

In the next 3-5 years, senior gyms will be the fastest-growing segment of the national fitness track in China, but they are by no means an "elderly version" of young people's gyms. The model that will eventually succeed must fit the three cores of "light-load fitness, medical-grade services, and strong social attributes." The industry is still in a trial and error period, and there is no standard answer.

Last week, I stayed at a community elderly gym in Jiangbei District, Ningbo. The glass door was pushed open before 8 o'clock in the morning. 68-year-old Aunt Zhang was walking at the front holding a cloth bag. She was familiar with the seated leg extension and extension equipment and adjusted the 10 kilogram weight. While practicing, she said to the old sister next to me, "My knees hurt after doing the square fan dance for half an hour yesterday. It is better to practice this way. The coach said that I can climb Putuo Mountain after two more months of practice." After practicing for 40 minutes, the two of them went to the community canteen next door to have morning tea together. On the sign-in board at the entrance of the gym, 37 names had been signed that day. The oldest member was 82 years old.

You may not believe it. In Meituan’s 2024 local fitness consumption report, the number of fitness orders for users over 50 years old increased by 147% year-on-year. Among them, the proportion of orders specifically for elderly gyms jumped directly from 8% in 2021 to 32% in 2024. Many people are staring at this data and rushing in, but few have noticed that among the more than 600 newly opened elderly gyms across the country in 2023, the closure rate is as high as 37%. The pitfalls are basically the same: the logic of building gyms for young people is applied to the elderly.

There are two routes that are the most noisy in the industry right now. One group focuses on "integrating medical and health care", represented by a group of community-embedded elderly gyms in Shanghai, which are opened next to the community health service center. The equipment is all rehabilitation grade, and the coaches have rehabilitation practitioner certificates. Most of the members are elderly people who have just undergone joint surgery or have chronic diseases. All exercises are based on the exercise prescriptions prescribed by community hospitals, and the fees are low. If you use medical insurance, the monthly fitness fee is only a few dozen yuan. Practitioners of this group look down on the other group's methods and think, "That's not a gym, it's just an activity center for the elderly, and fitness is just a cover."

The other group is taking the path of "silver-haired social venues." The one I saw in Gongshu District, Hangzhou last month is a 150-square-meter venue. Half of the venue has low-intensity fitness equipment, and the other half is equipped with tea tables, chess and card tables, and a mini karaoke station. The 99 yuan monthly pass not only allows for fitness, but also free tea and chess and card games. It also organizes peripheral tours and health lectures every week. The boss did the math and found that the money from the fitness card was only enough to cover the rent. The bulk of the income was actually service fees for members to receive regular physical examinations, travel, and aging-friendly products. In one year, the money earned was twice as much as that of the Medical Health Pai store. They also have something to say: "The old man doesn't have such a strong need for fitness. You force him to practice and he doesn't come. You coax him to come first and have fun. Then the habit of fitness is slowly developed. Only by living can you be qualified to talk about industry development." ”

I met an entrepreneur in Beijing two years ago. He lost money when he opened a gym for young people. He transformed it into a gym for the elderly. All the equipment was replaced with safety models with rounded corners and handrails. He also deliberately removed the threshold of the shower room. As a result, he initially sold a 2,999 annual pass, but after half a month of handing out flyers, only 3 were sold. Later, I asked the old man and found out that no matter how well you decorate, the old man is afraid that you will take away the annual card and run away, so no one dares to spend thousands of dollars at once. Later, it was changed to a 99 yuan monthly card, which offered a free bone density test when you signed up, and promised to cancel at any time if you don’t want to come. In the second month, I accumulated more than 120 members. Now that I have been doing it for two years, the renewal rate has reached 70%.

Of course, many people say that senior gyms are a false demand, “Can’t we use the free fitness equipment in the park downstairs? Can’t square dance? Why spend money to go to the gym? ”I met Aunt Wang in Shenyang, who used to be a square dance team leader. Now she comes to the gym three times a week. She calculated it for me: it’s minus 20 degrees in the northeast in winter and over 30 degrees in summer. Square dancing is impossible, and the gym has a constant temperature all year round. ； When she twisted her knee during square dancing, no one cared about it. The gym instructor would watch her movements every time and correct them immediately if she made any mistakes. After a year, most of her knee pain was cured. ； The most important thing is that people who used to join the square dance team had to wait half an hour, but now they can practice it when they get to the gym. After the practice, they can have tea and chat with their old sisters. It costs 99 yuan a month, which is less than the fraction she spends to buy health care products every month. It is so worth it. Of course, there are some elderly people who don’t buy it and feel that “spending money to stretch their arms and legs inside the house is just a waste of money.” Therefore, gyms for the elderly who live well now are basically opened in a 10-minute walk downstairs in the community. The rent is cheap, and it is convenient for the elderly to come and visit at any time to relieve their worries.

There are no giants in this field yet, and no one can say for sure whether the medical school will become bigger in the future, or the social network will succeed. Maybe in half a year, new ways of playing will emerge. But there is a consensus that all practitioners agree on: When building a gym for the elderly, don’t apply the logic of “selling annual passes and promoting personal training” to young people, and don’t treat the elderly as easy-to-cut leeks. You can really solve their needs of fear of pain, fear of loneliness, and fear of being cheated. They are much more loyal than young people. After all, everyone will get old one day. The fitness platform set up for the elderly now may be used by ourselves in the future.