Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bangalore
Vaibhav Sharma
2010
Table of Contents Page No
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................... 1
10. References........................................................................................................20
Exhibits....................................................................................................................21
Bangalore..................................................................................................................................23
Mumbai......................................................................................................................................24
Chennai......................................................................................................................................25
Kolkata.......................................................................................................................................26
‘The Gym Survey Report’ describes the findings of the Fitness Industry conducted over a span of
six months in Bangalore. The purpose of this research is to understand how the Fitness Industry
might evolve, to explore various hurdles faced and the possible solutions to mitigate the strains
and maximize the opportunities offered by the Industry. The Survey sheds light on various
aspects of the fitness industry that will prove beneficial to anyone connected to this field
ranging from a common gym goer to the big corporate eyeing for investment in this field.
The finding answers a wide spectrum of questions like the Gender wise distribution of
individuals over the different gym type, analysis of the relation between the age, spending and
use of Nutritional Supplements by the gym goers and how well informed and qualified our
Fitness Trainers are?
I deeply appreciate the guidance and vital inputs from Ryan Fernando of BodyFuelz during the
entire journey of the survey right from the inception of this idea, designing of questionnaire,
deciding on the survey pattern, data analysing and finally writing the report. Also, I would like
to extend my thanks to the BodyFuelz team that helped during the data gathering/survey stage.
Finally, I would like to record my appreciation of the support and co operation of all the
individuals who took part in the survey ranging from the Fitness trainers, Gym Supervisors,
Nutritional Supplements Dealers and most important, all the gym goers.
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 one’s
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 today’s world.
The study took place from June 2010 to Nov 2010 in Bangalore. In depth interviews were
conducted 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 man’s perception towards fitness and health.
Qualitative methods aim to cover the perspectives from a wide spectrum of individuals related
to this field.
1. To determine what factors directly or indirectly influence people’s behaviour and beliefs with
regards to fitness/workout.
2. To examine attitudinal difference between the trainers and common gym goers.
70%
60% Females
Males
50%
95
40%
70
30% 65
20%
10%
0%
A B C
Exhibit 1
A look at the Exhibit 1 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
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.
100%
10
90%
30
80% 40
70%
60% Student(Males)
Working(Males)
50%
90
40%
70
30% 60
20%
10%
0%
A B C
Exhibit 2.1
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”.
100%
90% 15
30
80%
70% Housewife(females)
60% Working(females)
50% Student(females)
75 50
40%
30%
20%
10% 20
10
0%
A B
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.
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).For
the 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.
10%
20%
below 20 years
20%
20 – 30 years
30- 35 years
above 35 years
50%
Exhibit 3.1
5%
20%
below 20 years
20 – 30 years
above 35 years
35%
Exhibit 3.2
50%
40%
Females
Males
30%
20%
10%
0%
below 20 years 20 – 30 years 30- 35 years above 35 years
Exhibit 4
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 Couch’s Formula and Venky’s.
25%
20
20% % of individuals using
15% supplements (Males)
10%
5%
0%
A B C
Exhibit 5
http://www.fitnesswiki.in/Fitness_Wiki_Charts.html
Thanks.