Page 81 - FS3 IN AUTUMN 2024

BY EDUARDO FRANCO
MACROGYMS OR

TRADITIONAL GYMS

FOR WEIGHTLIFTING, MARTIAL

ARTS, YOGA, PILATES AND

REHABILITATION?

BOTH HAVE THEIR PLACE
AND USERS

In the Western world, more than
10 percent of the total population
currently goes to a gym. In some
countries this figure is closer to twenty
percent; this means that one in every
four or five adults works out regularly,
which is very different from how it was
only twenty-five years ago – about one
generation ago - when there were still
very few gyms. In Spain, for instance,
in small cities and large towns there
were only sports centres, and not even
always.
Today, in the Community of Madrid,
which has 7 million inhabitants, there
are more than two thousand gyms!
And in the great Mediterranean city
of Barcelona, 1.6 million inhabitants,
whereas the surrounding area exceeds
5 million, there are more than five
hundred gyms. How do you distribute
5 million Spaniards over almost twenty
thousand gyms existing within the
national territory? Well, it’s not really
evenly distributed. Half of those five
million are registered in large gyms
(just under three thousand of these
gyms, which have a minimum of
five hundred members), with some

FITNESS STYLE 79