{"id":106475,"date":"2025-09-01T07:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T07:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/106475\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T07:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T07:48:09","slug":"treadmill-beats-the-takeaway-as-gen-z-focus-on-fitness-and-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/106475\/","title":{"rendered":"Treadmill beats the takeaway as Gen Z focus on fitness and health"},"content":{"rendered":"

The treadmill has overtaken the takeaway in young people\u2019s hearts and wallets, making health and fitness their top spending priority over more traditional pastimes. <\/p>\n

New research by the no-frills gym operator the Gym Group found that 44 per cent of 16 to 28-year-olds ranked fitness as their first or second spending priority and 25.7 per cent said they preferred to spend their disposable income, after monthly fixed costs, on health and fitness before other categories.<\/p>\n

The poll suggested that younger people saw exercise as more important than streaming services<\/a>, which 19.2 per cent ranked as their top priority, and dining out and going to the pub, which was most important for only 17.5 per cent. <\/p>\n

Gen Zers<\/a>, those born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, are known to prioritise their mental and physical health. The Gym Group\u2019s inaugural Gen Z fitness pulse report, based on responses from more than 2,000 people reported that 73 per cent of respondents said they exercised at least twice a week, up from 62 per cent last year. <\/p>\n

Respondents spent on average \u00a348.81 a month on fitness-related items, including gym memberships and equipment, a year-on-year increase of 17 per cent. <\/p>\n

Will Orr, chief executive of the Gym Group<\/a>, said there \u201cis certainly a proportion of our members who will have seen a benefit\u201d from the increase in the national minimum wage, which came into effect in April. <\/p>\n

Gen Z makes up about two fifths of the Gym Group\u2019s 900,000-plus members at its 245 gyms and Orr said he believed that it was imperative to keep \u201cevolving the look of our gyms \u2026 there is an appropriate aesthetic that is attractive to that audience\u201d. <\/p>\n

Half the young people surveyed said they had formed friendships through exercise<\/a>, which Orr believed was a testament to how Gen Z not only cared about improving their fitness but prioritised \u201cprotecting and improving mental health and building social connections\u201d. <\/p>\n

The research also highlighted mental wellbeing as a key driver behind Gen Z\u2019s fitness focus: 87 per cent said that exercising improved their mental health and 52 per cent credited flexible working arrangements with helping them to maintain active lifestyles. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe magnitude of benefits explains why spending on health and fitness is on the rise among this age group,\u201d Orr said. \u201cWorking out is a priority for physical and mental wellbeing but young people also recognise that strong fitness habits are vital for unlocking productivity whilst working or studying. The ability to integrate exercise into everyday life, including the working day, is a top priority for Gen Z achieving their best.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The treadmill has overtaken the takeaway in young people\u2019s hearts and wallets, making health and fitness their top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-106475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}