INDUSTRY VIEW
EMMA BARRY • TROUBLE GLOBAL
You’re not in the tness industry anymore - you’re sitting on something much bigger
T he tness industry died. You just didn’t get the memo. What replaced it is bigger, more valuable, and you’re standing in the middle of it, still counting memberships like it’s 2015. Wake up. You’re not running
Fitness is no longer just what people do. It is who they are, and who they are becoming. Algorithms may in uence identity, but sustained identity is built somewhere physical. That place should be the club. Technology can guide behaviour,
a gym anymore. You’re running something the entire wellness
but people and environments sustain identity. Operators are no longer simply service providers. They are motivators, connectors,
economy wants and cannot replicate. Your members have already moved.
They are tracking sleep, outsourcing nutrition, following in uencers, experimenting with GLP-1s, and trusting algorithms as much as coaches. The market has shifted. Most operators simply haven’t kept pace. This isn’t a loss of relevance. It’s a moment of opportunity.
and catalysts for long-term change. Yet much of the industry remains anchored
in outdated models, adding more classes, more equipment, and more content without addressing where real value now sits. The operators gaining ground are taking a different approach. They are building systems
The next opportunity does not live in more product. It lives in owning the intersection of space, system, and identity.
“Stop operating as a facility. Start becoming the system people build their lives around.”
While much of the industry continues to chase technology, wearables, pharma, and content, clubs already hold something those players cannot replicate: physical space, human connection, and live community. That combination is not legacy. It is leverage. As B. Joseph Pine II describes in the Transformation Economy, we have moved beyond services and experiences. Value now comes from enabling lasting change in people’s lives. This is where the role of the club must evolve. The club is no longer just a facility. It is an ecosystem. It is the hub where training, recovery, nutrition, data, and experience connect. It is a place where behaviours shift in real time. And, critically, it is a community, offering belonging in a world increasingly de ned by disconnection. Because belonging is where the value has moved.
around the club, forming smarter partnerships, and focusing on what genuinely drives change. Growth is no longer about doing more. It is about activating what already exists with greater precision. The opportunity is clear. Stop acting like a gym. Start acting like an identity engine. The future does not lie in competing harder as a facility. It lies in becoming the system that connects, sustains, and reinforces identity over time. You already have the assets. The question is whether you have the courage to use them differently. Emma Barry, Chief of Trouble, Trouble Global
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2026
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