38 | Global Wellness Institute
Fitness: Consumers engage in structured fitness activities with the intention of becoming
physically fit or maintaining desired physical conditions, which may encompass cardiovascular
health, functional fitness, flexibility and strength, and weight loss or weight management. Fitness
activities most often take place at gyms, health clubs, and fitness studios, but can also happen
in home-based gyms, outdoor gyms, community centers, schools, hotels, or other venues. These
activities are often conducted under the supervision of trainers or are led by teachers in small
or group class settings. Fitness activities usually rely on equipment or machines, or they follow
a protocol of exercises for conditioning and training. As such, this category includes diverse
activities, from indoor cycling/spinning, treadmill running, and weight training, to aerobic dance,
Zumba, cardio kickboxing, HIIT/LIIT, bootcamps, aqua aerobics, and much more. The participants
in this market are primarily (but not exclusively) adults. Note that walking, running, jogging,
and cycling in a gym, in a class, or using a piece of fitness equipment (treadmill or stationary
bike) is included in the fitness category, while doing these activities outside of a gym-, class-, or
equipment-based setting is generally counted as part of sports and active recreation.
Mindful movement: This category captures the exercise modalities that combine movement with
mental/internal focus, body awareness, and controlled breathing, with the intention to improve
strength, balance, flexibility, posture and body alignment, and overall health. Mindful movement
includes activities such as yoga, tai chi, qigong, Pilates, stretch, and barre, as well as other less
mainstream somatic, bodywork, and energy-based methods such as Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis,
Nia Technique, Feldenkrais Method, and 5Rhythms. While these classes are increasingly oered at
gyms and fitness studios as part of a comprehensive fitness class oering, consumers usually turn
to them with the intentions of improving mind-body health and mental focus, and for stress-relief,
mindfulness, recovery, or pain management, in addition to physical exercise. The participants in
this market are primarily (but not exclusively) adults.
Physical Activity Enabling Sectors
In addition to direct expenditures on services, consumers also make related purchases that enable
and support their participation in recreational physical activities. We measure three categories of
enabling sectors:
Technology: In recent years, technology has greatly transformed the fitness and physical activity
markets, enabling consumers to track their own metrics, monitor performance and progress,
access programs and services on demand, and connect with communities. This category includes
technology-enabled hardware/devices and software/services that support fitness, sports, and
active recreation. Hardware, equipment, and devices include: wearable fitness trackers; smart/
sensor-embedded fitness and sports clothing, shoes, and eyewear; and smart/sensor-embedded/
networked fitness equipment and sporting goods. Software, apps, and services include: fitness,
exercise, and nutrition apps and online services that are used for tracking, analyzing, learning,
and sharing activities and achievements; streaming and on-demand fitness workout/class services
and subscriptions; and fitness, sports, and recreation intermediary, booking, management, and
marketing software, apps, and platforms. Note that the fitness technology hardware/devices
category does not include smart watches like Apple Watch, Samsung Pixel, Fire Boltt, etc., even
though they have fitness functions embedded, because these devices are purchased and used by
consumers for many purposes beyond just fitness. Similarly, the software/apps category excludes
general entertainment-oriented streaming services such Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, etc.,
which increasingly oer fitness programing. As consumers increasingly access fitness services
and tracking capabilities through general-use devices like smartwatches and smartphones, and
through a variety of streaming media/entertainment platforms, it becomes more challenging
to capture the full extent of the fitness technology market or to even measure it as a segment
separate from general consumer electronics and media/entertainment.