Illustrative image | People run on treadmills to exercise. (Photo: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg via Getty Images) | Virgin Active logo. (Photo: Gallo Images / Papi Morake) 
I used to go to the gym.
Really, I did. I can produce evidence, and not just from my family and friends but real, actual receipts.
It all started, as I think it did for so many of us, when I realised that with Discovery Vitality I could pay only about R100 a month to join Virgin Active and use one specific gym.
The catch was that I had to go twice a month.
Amazingly, and against all my expectations, that arrangement survived so many changes in my life. I went from being single and carefree to married and kidded-up while keeping the membership.
And a trip to the gym became quite a family outing. The kids would enjoy the play area (they were very young at the time), I would go to the exercise bike and we would go home with everyone happy (even though, like so many parents, I would feel a bit guilty for having had so much personal time).
At one point, in my younger and wilder days, I would go to a particular gym in a relatively upmarket area of Joburg, on the property of the old boys club of the school that I went to, at different times of the day (did I mention I was single?). The club was slightly famous because Nelson Mandela’s helicopter would land there.
I noticed there was a particular trend with the cars that would be there at different times. During the early evening the parking lot was packed with a hugely diverse set of vehicles. Basically people who worked. Mid-morning, at about 10am, you saw cars that belonged (I assumed, judging by the people inside at the time) to those who, um, gymmed and lunched.
The early-morning prework bunch was also diverse, but these were slightly more expensive cars than in the afternoon rush.
But if you were keen on cars and wanted to see the real top of the range, the very early morning was the time to go. This was the CEO crowd, the people who are at the gym when it opens and in the office by 7.30am.
It taught me an important lesson about high achievers.
Virgin Active was one of the first companies I thought of that night in March 2020 when the President told our family meeting that there would be a lockdown. I can’t imagine what the people who manage it thought was going to happen.
But it seems to have survived – in fact it seems to be in a rebuilding phase.
Earlier today, Brait, which owns a big chunk of Virgin Active, reported that the gym group’s revenue in South Africa was up 15%.
This is pretty good when you consider that exercise is free. You can do it literally anywhere and at almost any time.
One of the secrets of the business must be that it provides a particular experience. You go there to exercise, to join other people, to do it for yourself, to get your Discovery-flavoured smoothie, or even to use showers that are, I imagine, still better than anything you could have at home.
I imagine some, hooked on the froth, do it for the cappuccinos.
Shame.
It’s a combination that obviously works. As I write I’m wondering if the people in the branch I rode past on my mountain bike this morning were having a better time than I was (the slope of the hill I was climbing at the time might have a bearing on the answer).
The thing about exercise is that it is not always cheap.
When I mentioned that Virgin Active’s revenue was up a colleague immediately asked how many people were paying for a membership but not using it. I’m sure it’s a substantial number.
And I’m sure the company’s data crunchers could tell you how many people work on a “summer bod” and how many come all year.
Interestingly, the gym business is changing.
Virgin is refurbishing some of its clubs to try to get members to stay longer. Instead of just exercising you would be more likely to eat there, and then stay there and perhaps do some work.
Considering how much our lives have changed since Covid, there may be many of us who are looking for a place that is not home and not the office. It might be quite useful to have one place, perhaps close to your office, where you could exercise, shower, eat and work in comfort (and more importantly, escape the kids… and perhaps the spouse).
And friends and colleagues might pop by – a useful plus.
Planet Fitness, a group that has grown consistently over the years, does not appear to have the same plans. It has always had a slightly different approach, and seems to be focusing on exercise.
I don’t know who will be right. Perhaps Virgin Active will end up having spent a fortune on getting people to stay in its clubs for longer, only to find it has to encourage them to leave during busy times.
Or perhaps I will find myself pulled off my saddle and hooked back to a part of my life I thought I had left behind. DM