Flexibility is the new fitness

The fitness industry is growing. That much is clear from the numbers. Across Europe, gym memberships rose from 67.7 million in 2023 to 71.6 million in 2024, with total revenues reaching €36 billion. On the surface, it signals a healthy, expanding market. But a closer look reveals a more complicated reality: only 8.9% of Europeans hold a gym membership.

For an industry built around mass participation, that figure is telling. Growth is happening, but it is not yet translating into broad adoption. The gap is not about awareness or even intent. It is about whether the model itself still fits the way people live.

For decades, fitness has operated on a simple premise. You join a gym, commit to a location, and build a routine around it. That structure assumed stability, predictable schedules, and proximity. Today, those assumptions feel increasingly outdated. Work is more fluid, routines shift weekly, and people move between environments with far less consistency than before.

In that context, the friction is obvious. It is not that people do not want to train. It is that they are being asked to commit to a format that no longer reflects their lives.

The model isn’t breaking. It’s being replaced

What is emerging in its place is not a rejection of gyms, but a redefinition of how they are used. In 2026, 40% of gym members say they want access to fitness across multiple environments simultaneously, in the gym, at home, and on the go. This expectation alone signals a shift from place-based fitness to access-based fitness.

The rise of digital platforms has accelerated this transition. The global virtual fitness market is projected to exceed $106 billion by 2030, growing at more than 30% annually. What was once considered a supplement to in-person training has become a core part of how people engage with fitness.

Importantly, this is not a story of substitution. Digital fitness is not replacing physical spaces. It is extending them. Members no longer think in terms of either-or. They expect a continuous experience that moves with them, regardless of location.

Hybrid fitness, in this sense, is less a trend than a structural evolution. It reflects a broader shift in consumer behaviour, where access, convenience, and adaptability take precedence over fixed commitments.

Behaviour is already ahead of the industry

If the industry is still catching up, user behaviour is already there. More than 75% of members now combine digital and in-person workouts. Nearly one in three Europeans uses digital fitness solutions, and the adoption of fitness apps and wearables continues to accelerate at scale. In 2023 alone, fitness apps were downloaded hundreds of millions of times globally, reinforcing demand for flexible, on-demand access.

This hybrid behaviour is not just about convenience. It directly affects engagement.

Members who combine digital and physical training stay active for longer and train more frequently. Hybrid participation has been shown to increase retention, with users remaining members for months longer than those tied solely to in-club experiences. The reason is straightforward: when access expands, friction decreases.

For operators, this translates into higher lifetime value. For users, it creates a system that adapts to real life rather than competing with it.

A generational shift, not a temporary one

Younger generations make this shift impossible to ignore.

Around 73% of Gen Z members already use digital tools alongside in-club training, and a significant majority say they are more likely to leave facilities that do not offer a strong digital experience. For them, technology is not an enhancement. It is the baseline.

At the same time, adoption is expanding across demographics. Older members, particularly those over 55, are embracing digital tools at a growing rate, with usage increasing by more than 50% in recent years. This group also visits physical facilities more frequently than average, suggesting that digital and physical engagement reinforce each other rather than compete.

Across age groups, the pattern is consistent. When fitness becomes more accessible and adaptable, participation increases.

Rethinking the business of fitness

This shift has clear implications for how the industry operates.

Traditional fitness models continue to struggle with churn and underutilization. Some facilities lose up to half of their members annually, while large portions of physical space remain unused outside peak hours. Hybrid models offer a way to address both challenges by extending engagement beyond the gym floor and increasing overall usage.

For companies, the implications are equally significant. Workplace wellbeing benefits that rely on fixed memberships often see limited engagement. Flexible access models, by contrast, align more closely with how employees actually use fitness, leading to higher participation and better outcomes.

For partners, the opportunity lies in reach. Hybrid access opens the door to new audiences, enabling facilities to engage users who would not commit to a single location.

At its core, the industry is moving away from ownership and towards access. The value is no longer defined by where someone signs up, but by how consistently they can stay active.

How Fit+ fits into this shift

Fit+ is built around this change in behaviour.

Rather than focusing on a single location, it connects users to a network of gyms, studios, recovery spaces, and digital options across Finland. The aim is to create a system where fitness can adapt to the realities of daily life, rather than requiring users to adapt to it.

In practice, this means that a week of training does not need to follow a fixed pattern. It can shift based on schedule, location, and preference, while remaining connected through a single platform.

The emphasis is not on adding more options, but on making those options accessible and usable in context.