Health club

In a gym, often called fitness center or gym, you will find different devices for targeted strength or endurance training. Often animated courses for aerobics or the like offered. Not infrequently, a sauna or wellness areas are connected.

For a fee, visitors can use the devices, the service and the prices of gyms.

Gyms offer a collective and often entertaining, sociable form of fitness training or bodybuilding beyond the structure of classic sports clubs. In contrast to voluntary associations they are commercially oriented. However, there are also operated by sports clubs gyms. Studios at the same time are important meeting places of the fitness and bodybuilding scene.

The offer usually includes training of fitness equipment as well as supervised courses with fixed start and end times.

In the field of fitness equipment can distinguish between the following three divisions:

• Equipment for targeted strength training: Part of the equipment consists of constructions, for example Kabelzuggeräte at which target specific muscle groups can be trained.
• Dumbbells: For advanced bodybuilders gyms offer an extensive part of free weights.
• Cardiovascular equipment: Ergometer, rowing machines, treadmills, cross trainers, etc. In recent years, more and more often devices such as Hypoxi Trainer, Body Transformer or vacuum tracksuits are offered.

In the area of the course program, the studios are trying to distinguish from each other and advertise with a wide range:

• Gymnastics: Frequently aerobics, Pilates and yoga. The offer ranges from total pregnancy gymnastics to ballet.
• Rehabilitation: More and more gyms also offer classes that go towards physiotherapy, such as back school and the like.
• Indoor Cycling
• Hot Iron

Some gyms and gym chains have their offer specifically tailored to female customers. Many gyms provide physical therapists and sports physicians or trained fitness trainer one to care for their customers. Fitness Trainer is a training or retraining, which is regulated by internal regulations of the training institute. The courses of varying duration are carried out by private educational institutions.

Large fitness chains also offer sauna, massage or wellness areas.

In so-called micro - gyms is usually trained in a smaller space without the traditional gym equipment. For use mostly the so-called EMS training comes under the guidance and control of a personal trainer, because the trainee the stimulus current used can not control themselves.

Economic aspects and market situation

Gyms finance usually on monthly contributions. A contract can be signed either often over specified time or for a particular program. In Germany there are about 5,690 fitness company (2009), of which about 1,000 chains with at least three companies. The concept of this company are extremely large studios (up to 3,000 m² and more) in metropolitan areas with more than 50,000 inhabitants, with flexible opening times ( even 24 hours 7 days a week) and low monthly fees, however only in a fixed minimum term. But smaller concepts such as micro studios find their place in the market.

The end of 2011, the industry recorded a population of approximately 7.6 million members, making it larger than the German Football Association (DFB ) with approximately 6.8 million members. Most members in Germany has the " Value Chain " McFit ( 1,000,000 members). The formerly top-selling chain " ELIXIA " has filed bankruptcy in July 2009. Then there are the companies INJOY, Fitness First and easysport, occupy the front seats, each with over 200,000 members.

There is a health club chains in the form of franchise systems.

Precursor

The medico - mechanical treatment after Gustav Zander was the model of today's device-aided training therapies that are experiencing a boom since about 1980 to the present.