Gym Survey Report - Bangalore 2010

8/3/2019 Gym Survey Report - Bangalore 2010

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1. Introduction

In the twenty first century, India is witnessing an outbreak of various health problems due to

the new sedentary lifestyle embraced by a majority of urbane population. The most prevalent

among these evils are obesity, and the resultant cardio vascular diseases and diabetes.

As a result, there is an increased awareness among the upper and middle class Indians towards

proper diet and the inclusion of fitness/exercise in the everyday routine to reverse the risk

factors associated with the health.

Hence, coupled with the idea to keep the health disorders at bay and also, to enhance ones

aesthetic appearance, stemmed from the glamour laden visual entertainment media, there has

been an upsurge in the enrolments to the fitness centres.

The gymnasiums are no longer seen as the places reserved only for some sweat drenched freaks

toiling hard with weights to gain precious muscles, but with several new gyms opening up and

the existing ones throwing open their hi-tech zones with add-ons like spinning, sauna and salsa,

there has been a tremendous change in how we view the fitness in todays world.

2. About the Study

We conducted a survey in the Gyms of Bangalore to gather the peoples perspective towards

fitness, health, workout and the use of Nutritional Supplements.

The study took place from June 2010 to Nov 2010 in Bangalore. In depth interviews wereconducted with the trainers and customers chosen from a wide spectrum of gyms.

The use of a well formatted questionnaire selectively prepared for gym clients and trainers

provided a comprehensive picture of a common mans perception towards fitness and health.

3. Aims and Objectives

The aim of the study was to provide a better understanding of the behaviour and attitudes of the

gym goers and the fitness trainers of Bangalore by the use of qualitative research methods.

Qualitative methods aim to cover the perspectives from a wide spectrum of individuals related

to this field.

The Objectives were as follows:

1. To determine what factors directly or indirectly influence peoples behaviour and beliefs with

regards to fitness/workout.

2. To examine attitudinal difference between the trainers and common gym goers.


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The gyms covered in this survey are classified under three categories based on the annual

enrolment fees as:

A Class Gym: Annual Fees >Rs 12, 000

B Class Gym: Rs 12,000 >Annual Fees > Rs 7,000

C Class Gym: Annual Fees < Rs 7,000

4. Gender wise Distribution in Gyms

Similar to the other fields which require physical endeavours, the fitness sector also witness a

higher presence of males, both in terms of customers and fitness trainers.

Exhibit 1

A look at the Exhibit1 gives a clear picture of the distribution of individuals based on gender

among the three gym categories. The female preference is mostly towards the A and B Class

gyms as compared to C, with majority female participants in the B Class gyms. This can be

derived from the fact that B Class gyms provide a better environment to the lady folks both in

7065

95

3035

5

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

A B C

Females

Males

Gender wise Enrolment in Gyms


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terms of safety and guidance when compared to Cs, and are also not as heavy on the pockets as

the As. Also, as large portion of females get enrolled in group activities (like Aerobics or dance,

the facilities not available in Cs), so coupled with the above factors, B Class gyms come out as

the winners among the fairer sex.

Focusing towards the profession of the gym goers (Exhibit 2), we can see the distributions of

males categorised under Working and Students for the three gyms. While As are dominated by

the professionals, Cs are the preferred choice among the students. A possible explanation of this

trend needs us to focus our attention on the enrolment fee parameter of the gyms. While the Cs,

with their low fees are within an easily access of the low income group comprising of students

but with an obvious compromise on the equipments and guidance, the As are still seen as the

places of workout for well to do individuals.

Hence, B gives a middle path options to the individuals who cannot strain enough financially

to get an A Class Gym enrolment, but are also not very satisfied by the C.

Exhibit 2.1

90

7060

10

3040

A B C

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Student(Males)

Working(Males)

Profession of the Gym Goers(Males)


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To get a similar analytical view of the female gym goers, we need to expand out categories of

survey. In order to have a complete picture of the female enrolment pattern to the gyms, we

need to add a new section of non working females, which is the House wives (Exhibit 3).

The presence of females in the C class gyms is very negligible, which can be attributed to the

factors of behaviour and safety. While the Bs have the highest concentration of the Housewives,

As are the favourite choices among the Working women. All the observations residing on the

fact that More the spending capacity, the better the facilities you will go for.

Exhibit 2.2

As the above study shows, most of the urbane fitness conscious population is with the B class

gyms, though the enrolments tread line for the As is also going up, slowly but steadily.

So for the big players to increase their market penetration they need to tap this immensely

potential middle and lower middle class sections with a huge population base of individuals

with increasing private incomes, growing awareness and changing saving behaviours.

A possible way for the big franchises to conquer the blossoming opportunities could be the

introduction of relatively cheaper versions of their existing chains, like aping the successful

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7550

15

30

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

A B

Housewife(females)

Working(females)

Student(females)

Profession of Gym Goers (Females)


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business model implemented in the case of low cost airlines. With such a growth on the horizon,

it will be early to say which category of gym will be a clear winner.

Moving ahead and looking on the age wise composition of the gym goers (obtained by a union

of gym goers from As and Bs), we find certain similarities among both the genders. The age that

is holding the maximum chunk of the pie is between 20 30 years (Exhibit 4 & Exhibit 5).Forthe males, after peaking to 50% (Exhibit 6), the graph falls sharply thereafter, indicating the

presence of fewer individuals comparatively in other age groups, but in case of females the fall

is more gradual, suggesting a substantial number of females in those age segments also.

Exhibit 3.1

20%

50%

20%

10%

Age group of the Gym Goers (Males)

below 20 years

20 30 years

30- 35 years

above 35 years


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Exhibit 3.2

5%

40%

35%

20%

Age group of the Gym Goers (Females)

below 20 years

20 30 years

30- 35 years

above 35 years


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Exhibit 4

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

below 20 years 20 30 years 30-35 years above 35 years

Females

Males

Comparative Age wise distribution (Males

& females)


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5. The Nutritional Supplements

With a massively expanding middle class along with its increasing awareness towards

preventive therapies, rising discretionary income and favourable growth environment, the

Nutraceutical* sector is propelled on a high growth path with the figures at 21% annually, and

the entire nutritional supplement market in India is set to double its current worth by 2013.

In the study, we can see the distribution (Exhibit 7) of the use of supplements by the individuals

over the three gyms. The study only comprises of male respondents as females using nutritional

supplements for recreational purposes are still very low. Though the figures stand nearly the

same for Bs and Cs in the use of supplements, there is a significant difference between the

brands preferred in both the segments.

Though individuals in Bs and As mostly go for American Brands, predominantly Whey Proteins

from Optimum Nutrition, Ultimate Nutrition and GNC, those in Cs prefer more of Indigenous

brands, like the Couchs Formula and Venkys.

Exhibit 5

20

35

30

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

A B C

Percentage of individuals using

supplements (Males)

% of individuals using

supplements (Males)


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When asked for the deterrents towards the Supplement use, a majority of them replied that they

do not consider the use of supplement a natural way to build body or achieve fitness, and that

they want to rely more on the natural diet rather than on some add ons to the diets.

Also, among the individuals consuming supplements the impediments were pricing of imported

brands and lack of standardization among the Indian brands, due to which most of the Indianbrands suffer from low credibility issues.

This highly unorganised Nutritional supplements market poses a enormous growth opportunity

to the big players in this sector as a large untapped consumer base is still waiting to be

unlocked. The Nutritional Supplements Industries should focus on their pricings to capture a

large chunk of the fitness minded population of the country. The nutritional brand with an

aggressive pricing strategy tied with an equally extensive advertising can immensely improve

their growth prospects by securing a large share of supplement consuming population.

With the recent approval of the Food Safety and Standards Bill by the Indian parliament the

above task will become easier, as this bill will boost quality of Indian functional foods and

supplements, increase export opportunities and open the Indian market to the international

community. The bill will make it easier for foreign companies to establish partnerships and

other trade links with Indian companies, that was not seen till now and increase the sweep of

products available to Indian consumers. This will bring wide range of products within the easy

reach of the common man by greatly bringing down the product pricing as the import duties

could be avoided.

So the only thing lying in between the present market scenario and the nutritional supplement

market going on a boom is the Presidents approval of the bill.

*Nutraceuticals are dietary supplements which are generally used to fill nutritional deficiencies

in food and to prevent diseases.

Among the individuals using the supplements, the type of supplement that is preferred the most

is Whey Proteins, used for muscle building. Other categories of supplements preferred are fat

burners and those for general fitness and endurance. Exhibit 8 presents the gym wise use of

various categories of supplements.


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Exhibit 6

8090 90

105 5

10 5 5

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

A B C

General fitness and

endurance

Fat burner

Muscle Builder/weight

gainer

Type of Supplement

Preferred


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Exhibit 7.1

The age wise distribution of the supplement gives an idea about the age groups of the

individuals that mostly go for the nutritional supplements. As evident, the age group which has

the highest consumption of supplements among all the three categories is between 20 and 30

years, which is also the age group containing maximum gym goers. These are the primary focus

areas of the Supplement companies that are eying to capture the Indian nutritional market.

10

5

3540

35

15 15

5 5

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

A B C

below 20

20 30 years

30- 35 years

35 above

Age Wise use of the supplements


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The amounts spend per month by different age groups in the three gym categories are as

follows:

Exhibit 7.2

While a person in Gym A spends somewhere between Rs 2000 to Rs 6500/month depending on

his age, same figures for a Bs is from Rs 2000 to Rs 5000, and the lowest being for an individual

from gym C, that stands around Rs 1500/month.

Note: These figures are only for individuals who spend amounts on supplements, these in any

case do not indicate that all the individuals of these gyms spends this much amount.

2000 2000

0

6500

5000

1500

4000 4000

00 0 0Rs. 0

Rs. 1,000

Rs. 2,000

Rs. 3,000

Rs. 4,000

Rs. 5,000

Rs. 6,000

Rs. 7,000

A B C

below 20

20 30 years

30- 35 years

35 above

Age wise spending on Nutritional

Supplements/month/person


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6. The Gym Trend

With around 42 cities currently having a population over 1 million nearly half of which falls

under the category of younger population (10 -35) India presents a huge growth opportunity in

this sector .

India has 765 fitness clubs with total membership of 0.23 millions, as of 2008. But the fitness

industry is highly unorganised and under penetrated, with only 0.4% of the individuals having

fitness club membership, while the same figure stands around 16% for the USA. This is despite

the fact that India has the growing patient of diabetes, cardio vascular ailments and obesity

among the city dwellers.

While the Indian fitness industry is growing at a massive pace, the organised domestic and

foreign players hold a small section of this pie. The market share of the top five clubs in India is

14.4% while the rest still lies with the highly unstructured mom-and-pop gyms.

Exhibit 8

The percentage increase in the gym enrolments can be seen in the Exhibit, the maximum growth

is seen in the B class gyms followed by Cs and then As.

Indian Health and Fitness Industry face a number of hurdles in providing quality services to thecustomer, like:

0

5

0

10

0

7

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

2008 2010

A

B

C

Increase in the Gym enrolment

over the years (2009 -2010)


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1. The industry does not have standards for facilities, trainers qualifications, type of

equipments, quality of services etc.

2. No proper Accredited Training Institutes for the gym staffs including the trainers, due to

which the industry is facing with a dearth of qualified and trained professionals.

3. As India does not have quality equipment manufacturers most of the high end gyms keep

imported training equipments thereby raising the overall financial burden on the members.

While the low end gyms are still far away from providing these world class facilities.

4. The soaring rentals/prices in the metro cities make it difficult to find a suitable gym space

within the stipulated budget. As location being a very important factor towards the success of a

gym, many new gyms suffer from revamping and scaling due to the location issues.

5. The Government support in this direction is minimal; this sector still does not enjoy an

industry status in India. Also, we do not have any tax benefits on our fitness centre spending.

A lot needs to be addressed by the Government to transform this sector from the current

unorganised to a highly structured one leading to a quality service offering. This will range from

establishing Institutions/Regulatory bodies for setting standards for the fitness Industry,

encouraging a favourable environment for the World class Training Institutes to spring up and

looking into the provisions of providing tax rebate on the fitness spending.


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7. The Fitness Trainers

A well qualified trainer is as important for a gym as a pharmacist is for pharmacy; he not only

imparts appropriate guidance to the individuals seeking advice but also cares about the proper

functioning and maintenance of the gym equipments, thereby reducing the risk of injuries to the

clients.

However, due to the absence of any regulatory mechanism in place, many facilities either don t

have a trainer or he is not qualified enough, thereby exposing the gym goers to various health

hazards.

Exhibit 9

As we can see the percentage of certified trainers is considerably low for C class gyms, even the

off the roof expensive A class gyms dont have total score in this.

Few organisations certifying the trainers in the country are Reebok, ISSA (international Sport

Science Association), ACSM (American Council of Sports Medicine), IFA (International Fitness

Association) and ACE, to name a few. Due to the relative toughness of the ACE (American

Council of Exercise), there are few trainers who go for this certification.

The basic course consists of 80 hours, with 30 hours of theory and the rest practical. The exam

basically needs the trainers to demonstrate their knowledge in anatomy and exercise

physiology, kinesiology and biomechanics, strength training, nutrition and many more through

a pattern of multiple choice questions and real time scenario analysis, which forms the practical

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35

7

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

A B C

Percentage of certified trainers in the

gym

% of certified trainers in

the gym:


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part of the exam. To earn the certification the trainers need to secure a pass percentage of 70 or

above depending on the course and Organisation.

Eyeing at the tremendous potential in the Indian Fitness Industry which has a long run before

any indications of saturation, the Big Gym players have also started fitness Training Academies

to offer fitness courses to their own fitness trainers and also to the outside trainees at a fee,examples are the GGU (Golds Gym University), Talwalkars Academy and K11 Fitness Academy

to name a few.

On shifting our focus to the number of trainers per gym the same picture of inadequacy is

painted again as was with the case of number of certified trainer. While the As have around 6 to

7 trainers during the peak times (mornings and evenings), Bs have 4 and Cs have a mere 2, with

the level of qualification even lower.

Exhibit 10

Assuming the number of customers to around 30 at the peak timings, the ratio of number of

customers to trainers for the different categories of gyms is as follows:

Gym Index =

A Class gyms = 5

B Class gyms = 8

C Class gyms = 15

If a gym is to be considered safe and customer viable, where everyone gets amp le trainersattention and gives enough free time to the trainers to maintain a safe and secure working

7

4

2

0 2 4 6 8

A

B

C

The Number of trainers in the gym

The Number of trainers in

the gym:


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environment ( correcting and helping clients doing workout in an improper or harmful way),

the Gym Index should be lower than 8.

Unfortunately, most of the Gyms in our country fall well above the safety limit of Gym Index

value, thereby creating a hazardous environment for the gym dwellers; this is evident from the

growing cases of young individuals reaching to the doctors with Gym related injuries.

The Union Government has taken a due notice of the matter and is in the process of devising an

oversight mechanism comprising of a certifying authority and a periodic regulatory system for

the gyms in the larger interest of the health concerns of the gym goers.

The gym industry has a peculiar aspect regarding supplements, due to lack of any kind of

advertisement or publicity about the Supplement/brands in the world outside fitness, a usual

gym goer relies solely on Trainers guidance regarding the use of supplements.

The Trainers viewpoint about the brands varies across the gym types. With the provision of a

dietician in the A class gyms, the nutritional analysis and management of the clients is done byhim, hence, barring trainers interaction with clients on this matter at least inside the gym

premises. But the same is not the case in the Bs and Cs, where the trainers, assuming the role of

a dietician also, have a major influence in deciding the use/brands of the supplements.

The brands running popular among the trainers in the gym arenas of As and Bs are Ultimate

Nutrition/Optimum Nutrition/GNC for Whey protein (Muscle Building), Hydroxy Cut (fat

burner), Amino Acids/Glutamine from BodyFuelz and Optimum Nutrition. While again with the

inadequate financial strength among the C class customers, the choices of the trainers are also in

accordance to that, comprising of mostly home grown brands.

So for Nutritional supplement companies to take the advantage of Point of Sale, they should not

only focus on developing an effective distributors network, but also lay emphasis on making

their brands popular among the trainers, who will act as bridge between the distributors and

the end consumer. To garner the interest of the trainers the firms can provide certain incentives

with the sale of their products; this may initially put some burden on the firm but will

eventually pay rich dividends when the brand becomes popular among the trainers, and thereby

riding on the successful wave of Viral Marketing.

The annual pay package of the fitness trainers on an average is not very lucrative. As few people

in India have an understanding of the profession it is not considered a serious vocation. But this

scenario is now undergoing a change with the increase in demand of well qualified individualsfor big fitness centres owing to the upsurge in the awareness of the common man towards

fitness. While the Trainers pay check fall between 1.2 to 2.4 lakhs per annum (in As and some of

Bs), they usually supplement their income by taking personal Training sessions. Fitness expert

working with the high profile customers including the entertainment or corporate clientele are

earning attractively with pay based on the number of sessions and duration.

The survey revealed the distribution of the trainers among the three gyms based on their

ages/experiences in this field (Exhibit 14). Not very hard to guess, Bs and Cs are dominated by

young trainers (with lower experiences) while As have a relatively older population of trainers


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(with relatively higher experiences). The above observation is in line with the fact that an

increase in experience brings improved avenues.

The presence of females in this segment is very low; with less than five percent of trainers as

females this is still considered a males job.

Exhibit 11

6070

90

25

20

1015

10

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

A B C

35 above

30- 35 years

20 30 years

below 20

Age group of the Trainers


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8. Interesting information gathered from the survey in a Nut shell

Peak Timings in the gyms are mornings and evenings, with evenings being a little morecrowded than mornings.

While mornings witness a higher presence of females, evenings are the favouritesamong the males. So if you are targeting female segment try to hit the gyms during the

earlier half of the day.

The gym goers unanimously voted to the fact that they dont like to work out during theweekends. This is also evident from a very low turnout of customers to gyms during

weekends.

The popular pattern of the frequency and duration of workout is 5 days/week and45mins to 1 hour.

While aerobics are favourite gym activity among the females, males mostly go for weighttraining.

The gym goers indulgences in other physical activities (like sports/recreational activitysuch as camping/trekking) are minimal, with the exception of routine walks.

The percentage of able bodied individuals is highest in Cs, an interesting finding. Gym trainer along with the usual guidance also give personal training sessions, the

numbers of personal clients the trainers cater to in A, B and C are 15, 10-12 and 2-4

respectively.

The behaviour/ etiquette of the trainers is good among all the three gyms with trainersamong Bs a little better, another interesting revelation.

9. Estimates of Sampling Errors:

As in the case of any sample survey, estimates from this study, as presented in the report, also

suffer from two major sources of errors: non sampling and sampling errors. Non sampling

errors arise basically from the procedural mistakes made during data collection and processing.

This may include the inability to interview the correct individual, misunderstanding of

questions on the part of either the interviewer or the respondent, and data entry errors. In

order to minimize the non sampling errors a number of required precautions were taken

during the implementation of the study. However, we acknowledge that despite these efforts,

the non-sampling errors are impossible to avoid.

Sampling error, as the name suggest, arise due to the variation in the data obtained from

different samples selected for the study. The samples of respondents selected for this study

were from a spectrum of individuals related to this field. All possible measures are been taken

to curtail these errors.


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Exhibits: Page No

Exhibit 1 Gender wise Enrolment in Gyms....................................................2

Exhibit 2.1 Professions of the Gym Goers (Males).........................................3

Exhibit 2.2 Professions of the Gym Goers (Females)....................................4

Exhibit 3.1 Age group of the Gym Goers (Males)............................................5

Exhibit 3.2 Age group of the Gym Goers (Females).......................................5

Exhibit 4 Comparative Age wise distribution (Males & females)........6

Exhibit 5 Percentage of individuals using supplements (Males).........7

Exhibit 6 Type of Supplement Preferred.........................................................8

Exhibit 7.1 Age wise use of the supplements.....................................................8

Exhibit 7.2 Age wise spending on Nutritional

Supplements/month/person.............................................................9

Exhibit 8 Increase in Gym enrolment over the years (2009 -2010)..10

Exhibit 9 Percentage of certified trainers in gyms.....................................11

Exhibit 10 The Number of trainers in gyms.....................................................12

Exhibit 11 Age group of Trainers..........................................................................14

Documents

Gym Survey Report - Bangalore 2010