When Sydney Cassidy walks into her local gym, she isn’t just clocking in for a workout session – she’s also there to meet friends.
“The gym is my space to get a social fix and to talk to and see people,” says the 28-year-old digital creator and fitness enthusiast, who is known as Syd Grows on social media.
“That is predominantly where I make all of my friends – at the gym, at training sessions.”
It’s also a place to opt out of drinking culture without forgoing a social life, she explains: “I don’t go out drinking.”
Syd says the post-Covid boom in gym content on social media means more people are realising what regulars already knew: gyms can be vibrant, communal hangouts.
Many young fitness enthusiasts like Syd are increasingly treating gyms as anchor points for friendships in a similar way to how previous generations treated the local pub – a place to go, see familiar faces and feel part of a community.
The figures speak for themselves. PureGym, the UK’s largest gym chain, notes 47% of its new joiners in January were aged 25 or under.
Rival chain The Gym Group says about 40%, or 360,000, of its members are Gen Z, external – adults under 29 – of which more than half, 51%, said they had formed a new friendship on the gym floor.