2020

Laine, Antti; Vehmas, Hanna

The main purposes of this article are to find out: how and why the popularity of fitness has evolved over the years in Finland and what kind of business activities in fitness nowadays exist. Fitness industry has grown strongly in the recent years in Finland, both in terms of the amount of companies and member rates. The growth can be explained by a variety of reasons. The increasing importance of global trends that emphasize health, well-being, physical capacity and good-looking appearance; the equality between genders in sports participation; the ageing of the population with senior citizens as gym users and the rise of the low-cost fitness segment is among the reasons that explain the popularity of fitness in Finland.