DISCLAIMER: This isn’t a criticism of gym-goers, rather a re-evaluation of whether the gym is necessary for anyone not partaking in high-level sport.
The UK’s fitness industry is a multi-billion-pound one: Puregym, Britain’s largest chain, churned out over £500m of revenue in 2023.
Students and young people will of course contribute significantly to these figures, forking out nearly £300 yearly for a standard all-hours membership. Seeing many friends invariably flock to their nearest studio during sixth form and beyond quickly led me to wonder—is it all it’s cracked up to be? Are there no cheaper, more accessible alternatives?
I am convinced that running alone provides most benefits one might seek from joining a gym, if not more. Want to lose some weight? Running is a direct way to do this, without being confined to a room full of mirrors that invite you to compare your appearance to others.
Alongside this, running is a perfect way to get that all-important fresh air and vitamin D—two elements entirely absent from an hour’s slogging away in air-conditioned rooms. Running can accustom your legs and feet to travelling along different surfaces, bringing further health benefits. Put off by rainy or cold conditions?
Just get stuck in and try it—it’s actually refreshing and immensely rewarding afterwards as long as you wrap up accordingly. Plus, you don’t have to stand around scrolling on your phone whilst waiting to use your running route. Walking provides many of the benefits mentioned above, as well as broadening your horizons, improving your sense of direction and immersing yourself in nature.
The awe of glimpsing a sea of undulating greenery reveal itself from behind a hill’s apex, or the tranquillity of a sheltered forest track are hard to beat. Cardiff itself has numerous green areas—very therapeutic to wander through to your favourite album, and completely free! Granted, neither running nor walking help much to “build muscle”, but this merely prompts another point: behind the mass consumption-orientated, social-media–friendly branding of gyms lurks a nefarious motive that annuls any ostensibly benevolent one.
In the UK and particularly on the continent, gyms tend to plaster deliberately selected, “conventionally attractive” models on their adverts, attempting to reinforce an inseparable link between muscle mass and attractiveness within people’s minds. And in our internet dating and social media age, it’s easy to be manipulated into prioritising this yourself, exacerbated by influencers and the PEDs, plastic surgery or unhealthily restrictive eating practices that contribute to their appearances. The result: an industry profiting from self-consciousness and particularly self-comparison, once dubbed “thief of joy”.
Regardless, upper body strength can be nurtured through home workouts or investing in your own weights (cheaper long-term), if that’s your aim. Therefore, my opinion is: it’s possible that we’d be physically and mentally healthier if we associated fitness with being active in the real world around us instead of enclosing ourselves in gyms.