Cost of living crisis hits fitness industry

Personal trainers have suffered huge losses following the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis.

According to a recent survey held by Myprotein, one in five Britons have cancelled their gym memberships due to financial difficulties following the recent cost of living crisis.

People are being forced to choose between heating their houses this winter and feeding their families, with fitness and gym memberships not being a priority.

Tegan Lawton, a personal trainer based in Bromsgrove said: “I have lost quite a lot of clients, mainly because the sort of clientele I take on are mums, so they have more important things to deal with.

“A lot of people would actually say fitness is very valuable, but then also to some people, their children or their families, they need to spend more time and money on them.

“With the cost of everything else going up, a lot of people have cancelled.” she said, adding: “During covid, all of our businesses went straight to the ground, we all had to restart three or four times with gyms opening and closing.”

Lawton is very vocal on her social media about the struggles she has faced as a growing business, posting about everything from her own fitness journey to business struggles.

Making a profit as a personal trainer has been getting harder recently, with people moving from their trainers to remote online coaches.

Lawton said: “I’ve tried to completely change my clientele… I’ve sort of narrowed down my clientele, so at the moment I’m working with mainly women over forty who are menopausal.”

The cost of living crisis will only damage the already declining average fitness of the UK, according to gov.uk, physical inactivity causes 1 in 6 deaths currently. Find out more here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/physical-activity-applying-all-our-health/physical-activity-applying-all-our-health#:~:text=Physical%20inactivity%20is%20associated%20with,billion%20to%20the%20NHS%20alone).