In 2018, GymNation opened its first club in Dubai. The vision: to create affordable gyms that also delivered fantastic experiences.

At that point, Dubai was the second most expensive market in the world to have a gym membership – a close second to Tokyo – with an average gym membership costing AED600+ (£125+ / €150+ / US$160) a month, paid upfront for the whole year.

GymNation set about shattering this mould, creating high-quality gyms for unprecedentedly low prices; when its first club went into pre-sale with an initial limited availability monthly fee of AED99 and follow-on memberships priced at just AED139–149, the team were accused of being scam artists. “People just didn’t believe it could be done or could be true,” says co-founder and CCO Ant Martland.

Many come to Saudi with assumptions about what’s possible, but we’re here to push the boundaries

Disbelief soon turned to delight, however, and the brand has continued to blaze a trail of successful disruption across the region: it now operates 14 clubs in the UAE and six in Saudi Arabia, with a further 20 set to open this year. New clubs will also boast an expanding line-up of signature classes and club-in-club boutique spaces – including a new signature cycling concept set to launch mid-2025.

We speak to Martland along with Laura Brown and Lauren Downey, respectively head of signature classes and group exercise director.

Does your model vary across markets?

We entered Saudi last year expecting our model to do well, but it’s done extremely well: double what we forecast. It’s interesting because pretty much everyone told us it wouldn’t work: they said our marketing wouldn’t resonate, that the monthly payment model wouldn’t work and that we’d have really high default rates.

We’ve priced women’s gyms the same as men’s. Why should they pay more for the same product?

In practice, we’ve made the same model work in Saudi as in the UAE: the same pay-monthly model with the majority of members on a 12-month contract. The marketing is more Arabic-focused and of course all sites are currently split into male- or female-only, but that’s really the only major difference.

Our Saudi clubs look fantastic and have been very well received, with over 25,000 members across the six clubs. Demand is through the roof: in our initial three-day pre-sale alone, we sold a record-breaking 12,500 memberships.

Many come to Saudi with assumptions about what’s possible, but we’re here to push the boundaries and explore the incredible opportunities the Kingdom has to offer. The demographic is remarkable: 63 per cent of the country’s 35 million population is aged under 30 and fully tuned in to fitness, health and wellness, with the appetite among women particularly notable. Saudi women have never really had access to what we offer at the price point we’re offering and they’re crying out for it. Meanwhile, the government – particularly the Ministry of Sport and the Saudi Sports For All Federation – is putting a big spotlight on sport, health and fitness.

You don’t have to choose between signature and pre-choreographed programmes. Moving exclusively to signature is, in our view, a mistake.

True to our brand, we’ve therefore been brave in our messaging and our offering. We’ve put music into our clubs. We’ve launched men’s group exercise and seen really strong uptake. We’ve priced women’s gyms the same as men’s – why should they pay more for the same product? – and in response to demand are looking at bringing new classes such as HYROX to our female members.

We’ve even run a few mixed events which have done very well. And we’ve designed our clubs so all it would take to create mixed gyms – should the time come that these are permitted and the demand is there – would be to knock down the dividing walls.

We’ve found the Kingdom to be very open and willing to forge a new path. It just shows you don’t know what can be done until you try.

How significant is group exercise at GymNation?

Each of our 20 clubs offers 30–40 scheduled classes a day on average, with around 40 per cent of our members taking part. The majority of our classes are live instructor-led, but we do schedule some virtual classes in shoulder periods and on-demand virtual is available off-peak for a 24/7 class offering.

Most classes, including the full Les Mills repertoire, are included in our Core and Plus memberships: GymNation Core gives you single-club access for AED180–200 a month, while GymNation Plus gives you full reciprocal access for AED200–229 a month.

Ours is an affordable gym brand and we want everyone to enjoy high-quality group exercise, so we put a lot of thought and investment into our studios and core class offering. Taking cycling as an example, we think carefully about the lighting, the placement of the 20–25 bikes, the high-spec sound systems, the staging for the instructor and the LED screens that allow us to run Les Mills THE TRIP and Les Mills Virtual. These studios feel like premium spaces, delivering great experiences at no additional charge to members.

New lighting will be inspired by the nightclubs of Ibiza and we’ll bring some of the competition of HYROX to the cycle studio

We also invest in our instructors; they’re all freelance but still the face of our brand. We want the very best instructors, so in a competitive market we work hard to make them feel valued and part of our team. We treat them as we would want to be treated and put them through qualifications and upskill programmes based on internal quality assurance and member feedback; members are invited to rate every class.

You also have signature classes…

We will always make high-quality group exercise available to our Core and Plus members, but we’re aware of our demographic’s desire for experience-led classes and communities. We’ve therefore created a series of boutique-style, experience-led signature classes that take place in dedicated studios: HYROX, BLITZ, Box ’N’ Burn and Reformer Pilates, with more to come including indoor cycling and recovery – think ice baths, infrared and assisted stretching.

Signature membership costs AED349 a month, or AED399 including reformer pilates, and includes full, reciprocal access to all GymNation clubs. When you consider that a single class in a standalone boutique costs around AED150, it’s incredible value.

Signature membership isn’t available in all our clubs. It needs to represent good value for money and, with the possible exception of reformer pilates, we believe this requires more than one signature studio per club. That isn’t always possible when retrofitting.

We encourage free trials. Once people see our signature studios, they’re amazed and it’s the easiest conversion ever.

Our HIIT concept BLITZ is available in five clubs so far, as is Box ’N’ Burn, while HYROX is currently being rolled out across multiple locations. We launched it in style in our recently refurbished Al Quoz club, creating the world’s largest – and the Middle East’s first – HYROX Performance Centre at over 500sq m. Reformer pilates is only available in Al Quoz at the moment, but it’s going into three more UAE clubs shortly and is included in all our Saudi plans.

From now on, every club will have a minimum of three core studios – a main group exercise studio, mind-body and cycle – plus two to three signature studios depending on demand, demographics and clusters; reciprocal access means Signature members can mix and match clubs around their homes and/or places of work.

Crucially, we’ve realised you don’t have to choose between signature and pre-choreographed programmes such as Les Mills. They work in harmony. If anything, they bolster each other. Thinking you can do it better and moving exclusively to signature classes is, in our view, a mistake.

Tell us about your signature cycle concept.

Indoor cycling is one of our most popular live classes, especially in Saudi where there are a lot of newcomers to fitness. With its simple movement and full control of your own intensity, it’s a very accessible option. We also have a lot of serious cyclists and triathletes who, in the summer, want to escape the heat by training indoors.

Cycling is also our #1 virtual class, led by THE TRIP and with SPRINT a close second. If you’re on your own, it’s more comfortable to be in a dark studio than in a bright space where everyone can see you.

So, our indoor cycling classes already attract a diverse audience. However, even with our mix of programmes – Les Mills SPRINT, RPM and THE TRIP, as well as some freestyle classes and Les Mills Virtual – there’s scope to progress our offering and increase the use of our dedicated cycling studios.

We know how to manage and segment a signature product: how to make it feel premium, encourage free trials and upsell

We’re therefore creating two boutique cycle programmes, one rhythm and one performance. The brand names are still in development, but we want to appeal to serious cyclists and experience-seekers, those inspired by competition and gamification, those new to cycling, those ready to progress and those whose passion will be reignited by something fresh.

Will signature cycling launch in all clubs?

No – but where our demographics justify it, we’ll upgrade our existing cycle studios. New lighting will be inspired by the hospitality sector, from bars to the nightclubs of Ibiza. We’ll also use our existing screens to implement new motivational technology, bringing some of the competition of BLITZ and HYROX into the cycle studio.

We’ll launch signature cycling in one of our new Riyadh clubs, which will open around June. We’ve lined up instructors who are interested and now need to train them, giving them the confidence to incorporate tech and create their own classes and playlists.

We’ll create guidelines to ensure the classes have a structure and a GymNation identity, but we’ll give instructors the freedom to inject their own personalities. We particularly want them to push the boundaries when it comes to music, so we’ll run music workshops and encourage them to seek inspiration from the real world – theming classes around global events and local concerts, for example – as well as members’ preferences.

Does boutique work in a budget club?

There’s definitely an initial hurdle to overcome, because people make assumptions about how it will be before they even see or experience it. That’s why we’re so keen to encourage free trials: once people see our signature studios, they’re amazed and it’s the easiest conversion ever.

The fact we’re doing it at scale means we can execute really well – with premium equipment, instructors and fit-outs – all for an affordable fee. But we also understand the operational requirements, from the coach-led interactions to the front-of-house experience, the email communications to the celebration of milestones. These are the things boutiques do well, but that big boxes don’t always think about.

If we grow at the pace we’re expecting, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be the number one player in the Middle East in three to five years

In our signature clubs, we even have dedicated sales agents who are almost like studio managers. They only look after Signature members, from welcoming and checking them in to facilitating free trials and making sure the studios are properly maintained.

Having launched BLITZ as we came out of lockdown, we now have several years’ experience of additional paid products co-existing within the gym. We know how to manage and segment a signature product, how to make it feel premium, how to encourage free trials and how to upsell. We know what works and what doesn’t and we’re extending that insight across our other signature products.

What are your growth plans?

Since our 2023 MBO, we now have full control and decision-making autonomy. This is enabling us to expand across the region untethered and at scale, with the full backing of our investment partners Tricap Investments and Ruya Partners.

By the end of 2025, we’ll have doubled our estate to 40 gyms – we already have 12 locations signed – and will probably reach 220,000–230,000 members. We’re then looking at 20 new openings a year for at least the next three to five years.

We’ve already announced two new locations in the UAE this year, both in Sharjah, and will potentially have two to three more towards the end of this year. But we’ve already captured a lot of the UAE and we don’t want to cannibalise ourselves. There may be more opportunities as the UAE expands, but in the short term we’re probably only looking at three to four more new openings here on top of those already planned for this year.

The majority of our new sites will be in Saudi, with our first two gyms in Riyadh already announced. There’s huge potential in this market: our biggest competitor has 200 locations and a US$2.3bn valuation on the Saudi stock exchange.

We therefore have a dedicated team in Saudi now and are building a head office there. This will be the regional head office not only for Saudi, but for the whole GCC region.

So you’re eyeing new markets?

We’re already starting business formations and property searches in some other GCC markets – namely Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. These aren’t as large as the UAE or Saudi, but we could likely open two to three gyms in each.

While we have discussed other markets, we have more than enough opportunity in the GCC to keep us busy for now. If we grow at the pace we’re expecting, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be the number one player in the Middle East within three to five years, be that in terms of member volume and/or gym locations.