Personal ‘microgyms’ are swamping Singapore. Will they come here?

afr.com:

All over Singapore, bright yellow containers have started popping up in unassuming places – at the airport, in a park and in front of a shopping mall. Inside them, people are breaking a sweat.

That’s because each container houses a so-called microgym with a treadmill, weights and other equipment for a private workout that avoids the crowds at traditional gyms, and Singapore’s year-round heat and humidity. Users book sessions via an app run by The Gym Pod, a local company that has expanded to more than 50 locations. Another startup, My Gym Lab, offers 10 Singapore microgyms.

One of the pods in Singapore. 

“When I go to the bigger gyms, the machines I like to use are always taken up. So sometimes I end up waiting half an hour or an hour,” said Jacinta Wee, 43, who goes to a Gym Pod near her home at least three times a week. A 60-minute session in an 18-square-meter container costs about $S12 to $S15 ($13 to $16).

The Gym Pod, started in 2018, and My Gym Lab, which opened last year, are capitalising on record levels of Singapore residents exercising or playing sports. About 74 per cent reported exercising at least once a week in 2022, a jump from 54 per cent in 2015, according to a survey by Sport Singapore, part of the city-state’s Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.

The affordability and convenience of microgyms make them attractive to consumers, said Ross Campbell, co-founder of the Singapore Fitness Alliance, a nonprofit industry group. “They are also a very safe and hygienic environment,” he said.

Both startups say they are profitable and planning to expand, targeting people who aren’t interested in joining bigger gyms as well as fitness fanatics seeking to augment an existing gym membership. Automated booking