R.The best part of Owen Willis is its morning shower. Notes on Lavender and Ecalabus through his stones covered with a 32 pounds bottle of body wash. It dries with a thin white towel before wandering in the body wash (24 pounds).
This is not Willis’s house. It is the gym. It belongs to a third area in London, which calls itself a “luxurious health club”. Membership starts from 230 pounds a month Expected “Ultraviolet -processed air” and “sauna sauna in the walled hemalayas and steam room”.
The 23 -year -old, who has been working in marketing, was a member since he was 18 years old. He describes her as his “second home”, where he is estimated to spend about 22 hours a week. “It is a huge part of my life,” he says. It is also a huge part of his income: its membership returns 279 pounds a monthly pounds – which was, when he started, was about 10 % of his monthly wage.
Willis is one of the increasing number of Gen ZS – aged between 13 and 28 years old – who is a gym membership is an essential part of their monthly expenses. In the UK, 27 % of adults under the age of 25 consider the membership of the gym, according to a Credit Creda Credit Survey. Many young people prefer to invest in fitness instead of spending money on eating abroad or going to the club. A Survey by the gym groupWhich runs hundreds of gyms across the United Kingdom, found that 22 % of children between the ages of 18 and 24 spend more than 50 pounds per month on membership and fitness activities, and 18 % give priority to spending on health and fitness instead of social media, while putting 16 % of going to bars or restaurants.
Willis says he has seen a “big shift” among his friends, who go out for dinner less and go to “more beautiful” gyms instead, in addition to displaying completely elegant gyms and fitness, including sauna, steam rooms, massages and water therapy baths. “It is more than just a gym,” said Willis. “Go and relax there; work from there all the time. There are other things as well, like yoga and meditation in the sound bath.”
The gym also worked as a form of escape from home participation. At some point, Willis was living with six people, in a house he had a mouse injury and only two showering. Wet towels were scattered across the bathroom floor and the bathroom was distorted with Limescale. As a result, he was never wiped at home. “It was really terrible. Then I go to the third space and you will know the concrete of my name and give me a thin towel when I entered. If they knew how my apartment was at that time, they may have canceled my membership.”
The third space is designed with iron, starch spray, and even, at an additional cost, dry cleaning service. “I don’t have a iron,” says Willis. It has kept its use of low -cost gym facilities. He rarely buys cleaning tools, using expensive products available in clothing change rooms instead, and although he now lives alone, he still has a shower only at home once a month.
The appearance of the young gym, like Willis, means that the luxury gymnasium works are flourishing. The third area – which expanded the number of clubs from one in 2001 to 13 in 2025, with more on the road – witnessed the spending of consumers in gyms by 41.1 % between December 2023 and December 2024, according to the Business Consulting Company Caci. Each of the other chains – including the third suburban competitor in space, David Lloyd, has witnessed, where membership can bring you back to its leading locations to 150 pounds per month or more – high growth. A Wiped by UkactiveThe Trade Authority, which represents most of the fitness operators in Britain, found that Gen Z is the main demographic that drives the records for the British who go to the gym.
Sports halls themselves have also become more luxurious. in LanserhofThe Gynecology Hall at the Arts Club in Mayfir, the membership starts from 6500 pounds annually. Surrenne in Belgravia, central London, receives 10,000 pounds annually for membership, as well as joining fees of 5,000 pounds (it seems that the beneficiaries will test a “new luxury model”). CPse in Cheshire, which was Described Written by Tatler as a “more luxurious gym than anything else”, “Fertified Air of Oxygen” in the “Revolutionary Fitness Stadium” offers approximately 4000 pounds annually. It will return you membership in the fitness facility in Cliveen House, Grand Berkshire Manor, which was the Profumo Affair site, approximately 6000 pounds annually.
Niyi akinseye is trained in the gym for more than 10 years. “It has started with me with an angle of weight and 15 -year -old,” he says. “I was very aware of the way you looked.” The 26 -year -old, who works as a regional project in a charity for human rights, plans to make a professional key next month to become a full -time coach.
Go to Gymbox, which was The name One of the best luxury gyms in London by Esquire in 2023. After his membership, 95 pounds per month, and other seasons and equipment, Akinseye says it spends about 250 pounds per month on physical fitness, or 10 % of his salaries at home. Akinseye says he met friends “with similar goals and feelings”, and wealthy clients for his increasing fitness services. “Whenever I pay the price of the gym, the best opportunities I found,” he says.
After receiving it by the receptionist, then handed over a new towel, knowing that the sauna session is just around the corner, he says that “he feels happy and like that I am ready to do my job.” Physical fitness is called “a form of treatment – there is a very therapeutic thing about moving your body and finding something you can direct to your feelings.”
It is not a secret that young people, including General Z, are facing great challenges. Akinseye says this partly the reason for his interest in fitness. “Seeing the results was very satisfactory in a world where there are many uncertainty for young people,” he says. “The job is not guaranteed in this world, because it may have been for previous generations.” He says that the presence of membership in the gym helped give him a sense of stability.
Exercise chapters have also become more popular among young people. Nishka Barrick, who lives in London, spends about 75 pounds a month in different seasons, including Pilates. For the 24 -year -old marketing manager, fitness is “definitely social activity.” She says, “Sometimes, my friends and I plan to go to a trial chapter on Friday before going to the pub,” she says.
Although she did not disappear just like many other people of her age, Parekh says it is good to do a social thing “not about drinking and it is better for your health”, physically and mentally. “Fitness certainly helps to improve my mental health,” says Barrick. “If you spend a difficult day at work, or a general difficult time, go to a exercise or gym makes me always feel a great improvement.”
Willis feels the same. He says, “I get more of them outside of fitness.” “The mental health benefits of going to a huge nice gymnasium, because you are surrounded by more investment in their fitness.”
Unlike Grotty Funds, which one day took control of the market (and where many people set out through training, keen to leave as soon as possible), luxury gyms are incredibly working to keep customers there for as long as possible. CEO of the third space, Colin and Ko, has He said Its members must “get the same type of experience [in our clubs] As in the Firmdale Hotel “-in a reference to the boutique hotel chain. In addition to advanced fitness equipment, many third space clubs have custom work spaces, cafes and wellness centers. In its pioneering branch, members can get Botox (starting from 189 pounds for one area) or in the Brazilian lymphatic drainage field (95 pounds For 50-m).
In David Lloyd, as part of an investment of 500 million pounds in its clubs, the company Declare Earlier this year, it would have added work spaces and spa declines to a number of sites, to create clubs, as the company says, are places for “time and time together, work, comfort and play.”
Willis says that expanding the scope of his physical fitness, especially as soon as the third space membership and a cheaper alternative exchange is “out of it.” “I really didn’t think about moving to a cheaper gym; it will never be the same.” “Maybe I go once, say:” I don’t want to stay here anymore, “and I leave.