Indoor cycling leads the way among exercise classes, shows Moving Communities report.

Indoor group cycling classes have confirmed their status as the most popular group workout in the UK – beating Pilates and yoga – according to a new landmark industry report from ukactive and the DataHub.

The Report:

New data in the Moving Communities: Active Leisure Trends 2018 report indicates that group cycling makes up 13% of all exercise classes – demonstrating the enduring popularity of the high-intensity workout.

Using data from more than three million customers and 150 million individual visits across 396 leisure centres over the past three years, the report offers an unparalleled overview of the leisure landscape and how Brits are getting fit and shines a light on the key trends influencing public leisure.

Other key insights include:

• Group workouts are far more popular with women than men; women make up 38% of overall visits compared to men at 14%. Women also make up 74% of group exercise participants.
• Swimming rises in popularity with age, making up 39% of visits for people aged 75 and over, compared to just 8% for those aged 16 to 24.
• Football is becoming an increasingly popular pastime when it comes to the types of sports played at leisure facilities – rising from 30% of non-core visits in 2016 to 37% in 2018.

Armed with this knowledge, operators will be much better able to understand how customers interact with fitness facilities – when, where and how they work out – and tailor their fitness offerings to meet the wants and needs of their customers, which can only help support ukactive’s and DataHub’s goal to get more people, more active, more often.

With more than seven million members and active participants from 2,000 leisure centres and sports venues now being tracked, the DataHub is by far largest repository of activity data in the UK, meaning the industry can trust that all the insight and evidence generated is up to date and accurate.