Feel the burn: gym closures bring on anarchy in the UK
Gym closures and reduced access to exercise, brought the UK out in defiance during lockdown.
In the third series of Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends in 2000, the documentary maker followed a group of bodybuilders in the US. A large part of the episode revolved around Gold’s Gym, in Venice Beach, California which is also commonly known as the ‘Mecca of Bodybuilding’ – where some of the more popular and legendary bodybuilders such as Arnold Schwarzenegger trained in the ‘70s. The independently owned gym remains a powerhouse brand, with the famous logo popping up on merchandise around the world.
The title of the series itself ‘Weird Weekends’ says a lot about how people saw bodybuilding two decades ago. The purpose of the whole series was to provide a glimpse into the fringes of society.
Fast-forward to 2020, bodybuilding is not a niche or extreme interest, it’s part of the Instagram zeitgeist. Being ‘ripped’ is common in the age of influencers and reality television. Bodybuilding is also more inclusive than ever before, with more recognition for female bodybuilders and fitness influencers.
As of 2019, gym memberships have hit a record high, with about 1 in 7 people being gym members (according to 2019 State of the UK Fitness Industry Report). The UK fitness industry now exceeds £5bn in value. And this figure doesn’t take account of the parallel boom in nutrition products and sporting apparel in the UK over recent years.
Of course, bodybuilding represents only one segment of this industry, which also covers more general health and fitness, as well as specialisms like yoga, spin classes, weightlifting, powerlifting and crossfit. During the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-21, Signify observed that the bodybuilding community became the biggest and loudest voice in defence of the gym and leisure sector – with many voices advocating civil disobedience and anarchy as they defended their right, to work out.
ShareScore: measuring resistance
Using Signify’s proprietary ShareScore tool, we looked at what caught the attention of the UK public in relation to gyms/leisure centres between March and November of 2020 – a period that included both nationwide and tiered regional lockdowns. The disruption included forced closure of gyms/leisure centres across the country.
The substance of our analysis is based on online content, in the form of everyday news articles, YouTube videos, memes, blogs, petitions and press releases that were published in the time period. We looked at content that was shared more than 50 times across Facebook, Twitter and Reddit – content that influenced or reflected culture. By studying common topics and themes we determined what issues got the UK public most fired up in relation to the gym industry.
One of the standout findings – and unique to this sector – is a close association with anarchy and defiance (see graphic).
ShareScore: Topics associated to gyms & leisure centres during 2020 lockdown [click to enlarge]
Most of these notions of Anarchy were driven by the action of a few rebellious gym owners that ignored lockdown measures in an act of protest, refusing to close their premises and inviting members to continue training in their facilities. This disobedience lead to news of substantial fines, searches and seizures which attracted a lot of public interest, spanning a spectrum from outrage to sympathy.
Certain gym owners revelled in the attention brought to them by rebellious measures. This was first seen near Liverpool in October 2020 when the region was put into Tier 2 restrictions, led by gym owner Nick Whitcombe of Body Tech Fitness in Wirral. Later it was repeated down south with similar incidents occurring at Ripped Gym in Harlow and Zone Gym, in North London when nationwide lockdowns were announced in November. The stand-offs were short lived, modest fines were handed out – however the incidents generated an outsized amount of attention and free publicity.
Some sporting brands chose to leverage this spirit of rebellion and civil disobedience, playing with fire by standing up to the government.
The disorder came to a head in early November when a cohort of people including England rugby international James Haskell marching into Westminster alongside a bright orange tank proclaiming themselves as representing the fitness industry. This turned out to be an orchestrated campaign by fitness nutrition brand Grenade, actively exploiting sympathy for the industry during the pandemic.
The biggest common factor with a lot of these ‘right to train’ groups was that it was predominantly people from the bodybuilding community featured in coverage, and it was mainly their point of view that was being picked up. A lot of the gyms defying the lockdown measures were independently owned gyms geared towards bodybuilding, rather than the larger national chains that appeal to more broader groups.
Public reactions to this kind of defiance were polarised. Looking at the totality of Facebook reactions to relevant coverage, we observed an even split between people offering sympathy and encouragement, and others reacting with shock and anger.
Fitness has been a notably emotive and anger-laden issue since the start of the pandemic, when Sports Direct and other retailers opportunistically hiked the prices of fitness equipment by more than 50% as lockdown forced people to exercise at home.
Not all discussion and coverage was negative. Of course, there was the phenomenon of Joe Wicks at the start of lockdown. There was a huge amount of coverage during the period for the benefits of having more time to exercise and eat properly, with a positive impact on obesity touted as a benefit of Coronavirus. Home gyms featured in many positive and popular stories, with examples like the couple who built a home gym from scrap materials grabbing nationwide attention during the summer.
A less inflammatory and very popular topic for supporters of gyms re-opening was ‘Science’ and specifically the emerging evidence of low infection rates in leisure settings. Industry bodies such as UK Active supported this narrative.
Science-based objections were picked up by the public, and this topic became more prevalent throughout lockdown.
As in other sectors, opponents of government closure have put a lot more emphasis on specific scientific evidence and impact assessments, than the government which has proceeded mainly on the basis of proximity.
The public backlash, and the relatively high degree of sympathy for lockdown rebels are a stark demonstration of how much the fitness industry has grown over recent decades in the UK. Keeping fit is now a national pastime, a lifestyle and a livelihood for thousands in the UK. While body builders dominated the headlines and the photo opportunities, they appear to speak for millions of ordinary Britons.
Signify is an ethical data science company that uses public data to determine what matters to ordinary people around the world. To find out more about our work please get in touch.