Yang Lei’s tight black T-shirt shows off his admirably bulging biceps. The chiseled 29-year-old is the head personal trainer at the Beijing Hujialou branch of Impulse Fitness, one of China’s top three fitness chains. A floor of weight machines and a lap pool—the latter surrounded by white marble columns—occupy the basement level of an upscale new residential complex. In recent years, as Chinese fitness chains have sought ways to transform working out from a niche interest to a mainstream pursuit in the world’s most populous country, it’s become increasingly common for gym franchises to strike deals with residential developers. “More people are starting to put health on their list of top priorities,” says Yang.
Personal trainer assisting and correcting a client during a fitball stretching exercise Category:Fitness Category:Fitness_training Category:Personal_training (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When Yang was born in 1984, commercial gyms were all but unheard of in China. The first domestic and international fitness chains began to make slow inroads in the 1990s. By the time Yang graduated from high school in the early 2000s, it seemed a logical choice to enroll at Tianjin Physical Education University to study for a new profession in China: becoming a full-time personal trainer. In wealthy cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, it’s now a fairly lucrative gig. Trainers typically charge between $35 and $200 an hour—fees that they split with club management. Of course, hustling also is part of the job. As Yang puts it, “A coach is not only a coach, but a salesperson.”
Finding clients has become much easier in China’s leading metropolises as more young professionals hit the gym. Lawrence Fang, a 31-year-old journalist in Beijing, goes to the gym three times a week, alternating yoga and weightlifting, and says his aims are “health and trying to look good.” He Ping, a 35-year-old engineer, works out with a personal trainer in Beijing for 250 renminbi ($40) an hour because “a good instructor will help me form good habits.” And a petite 32-year-old reporter, who declined to give her name, says she started hitting the gym regularly a few years ago after her foreign boyfriend teased her for “only getting exercise in bed.” All three said the most important factor in choosing a gym was convenience—ideally a location next to their home or office.
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