Goodbye, TikTok: The gym is where it’s at  

No-one can deny that South Africans are active people. You can find them just about anywhere: runners on the promenade or in the park; cyclists in the middle of the road; padel players everywhere; gym rats in line to use the smith machine.  

South Africans have never not been an active bunch but the trend to prioritise fitness has picked up globally in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Not to mention the technology to track the trend: in 2024, fitness app Strava reported a nearly 60% rise in running club participation worldwide, for example. 

While many thought the lockdown would be the death knell for gyms, they have been able to bounce back from its effects. “You would be oblivious if you thought we didn’t take a hit,” says Wouter de Beer, group finance manager at Planet Fitness. But the gym chain has rebounded – marvellously – and has now surpassed its pre-pandemic membership levels.

Gyms certainly had to worry about losing their members, but less so to other market competitors, more to online home exercise gurus or, worse, the TV and couch. In order to keep members, chains like Planet Fitness and Virgin froze prices; in the former’s case, for two years.

Virgin Active South Africa, meanwhile, reported a 16% increase in revenue for the year ended March 2025, contributing 35% to the overall Virgin Active Group (it has operations in Italy, the UK and Asia Pacific). The Southern Africa business was the largest revenue contributor for the company, owned by Brait. Overall, Virgin Active’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 45% in the past financial year. 

As of April 2025, there were more than 130 Virgin Active clubs around the country, with 640,000 active members – it is by far South Africa’s largest gym chain.

Planet Fitness has 51 clubs countrywide and likes to see itself as the more “specialised” gym of the two. Mannee De Wet, managing director at the chain, says it now has more than 1,000 new members joining every month.  

“We’ve seen growth not only in the number of members joining but also in how dedicated they are to their training,” says De Wet. “Planet Fitness has over 1-million workouts every month – a high level of engagement that shows people aren’t just signing up, they’re also showing up.”  

The business of fitness matters greatly for Virgin’s parent Brait, which is planning to spin off and list the gym and wellness chain next year. But, at operating margins of 18% – considerably below the median of its peer group at 27% – Virgin has still got some catching up to do.

So what are people doing when they work out, and what are they doing it for? Online, you will find torrents of perfectly sculpted trainers showing off their quick fix, five-step routines to losing weight, and on the surface, it might seem like that is what the fitness industry has become: a ploy to sell green smoothies and Alo yoga leggings.  

But South Africa’s gyms and fitness studios show it’s as much about strength as it is being able to fit into your (skinny) jeans. 

Strong over skinny 

Strength training, says the State of the Fitness Market 2025 report, is the dominant fitness trend, especially among younger demographics. “Fitness operators have undergone strategic realignment, with many gyms reallocating space to free weights and functional training zones.” 

And then there’s pilates. There’s even a global estimation on the size of this fitness market: $16.9bn in 2024. With its steep prices and stylised studios, many view it as an exclusive, and somewhat prissy, form of exercise. 

Melanie Walker, a long-time pilates instructor, says she thought the same initially. “I really believed it was ‘that exercise thing that northern suburbs mommies do because they don’t want to do real exercise’,” she admits.  

Yet, increasingly, people are turning to pilates for its strength-building and restorative qualities. “I may not be the fittest I’ve ever been in my life, but I’m certainly the strongest. I love that all the non-cosmetic muscles are so in control,” Walker says.  

She notes that pilates classes are the most well-attended group exercise offering at the Virgin Active gyms she teaches at and have students of all ages and sizes joining up (including one 91-year-old woman).  

For the younger members, it is about flexibility and strength, and for the older members, it is about pain relief and mobility, she explains. “Being able to move well and not be in pain is the number one reason I do it and tell others they should too.”  

Offering pilates classes is a no brainer for gyms trying to shore up a loyal client base. De Beer says Planet Fitness sets itself apart from competitors through its value for money in this way. It hosts an array of classes (from pilates to body conditioning to boxing) as well as fancy add-ons like red light therapy studios.

Others of a fiercer constitution have been turning to the cult-like sports of CrossFit and Hyrox, meanwhile.

“For women, ‘strong over skinny’ has become the new normal, and across our membership we see glute strength, functional fitness, and longevity taking priority over aesthetics alone,” says De Wet. 

Planet Fitness is partnered with Hyrox in South Africa – another initiative to set itself apart and get a wide array of people flooding into the gym.

Hyrox is an international indoor fitness competition combining 8km of running and eight functional exercises. It is sweat-inducing, muscle shaking work, but it has really taken off, with more than 4,000 people taking part in the first ever Hyrox event in Joburg this March.  

CrossFit has been around for longer and has also accumulated a dedicated group of converts who swear by this high intensity form of exercise. It is a hardcore conditioning programme consisting of endless burpees, one-legged squats and handstand push ups, among other gruelling manoeuvres. 

Eric Loubser, co-owner of the jewellery company Tinsel Gallery is one of these converts. He was never interested in the aesthetics of working out, he says, but decided he needed to get healthier, and he enjoys the high-intensity interval training (HIIT) style of CrossFit. 

“When I was younger, I played a lot of rugby, like most Afrikaans boys. Because of this I think I was programmed to enjoy HIIT,” he says.   

South Africans clearly love it – there are 98 CrossFit locations across the country. For Loubser, the tightknit community at his “box” (CrossFit speak for a gym) is also what keeps drawing him back. “Knowing there is a trainer and other people to keep you accountable is good motivation for me.” 

He thinks trends will always influence what exercise people choose to do, looking at cycling and padel as examples – “then everyone fell off at some stage or got run over, or their knees and ankles snapped”, he jokes.  

Says De Wet: “It’s about more than physical results” – people are recognising how training improves “mental clarity, emotional balance, and overall resilience”. Training is no longer just a way to burn calories, he reckons – it’s a way to stay grounded in an increasingly chaotic world.  

_{Top image: supplied.}