Fitness centres' membership increase, public health awareness rises

Public health awareness increases, 64 per cent of the adult chose to go to the fitness centre to be healthy.

Public parks start to provide some simple fitness facilities.

The trend of having a healthy lifestyle has brought up the development of the fitness industry in Malaysia.

According to Statista, the revenue of fitness industry included the fitness centres, the bodybuilding supplements shops and the sports equipment shops in Malaysia is expected to have the amount of $40 million by end of 2018.

Besides commercial fitness centres in the shopping mall, there are fitness rooms in schools, universities and newly-developed residential areas.

Due to the increase of public health awareness, there are small areas that have been neglected were developed to become new public parks for the public to get free-of-charge fitness facilities.

Obesity in Malaysia

Malaysia became the fattest citizen country in Southeast Asia, with nearly 50 per cent of the adults and 30 per cent of school-going children are overweight.

The report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2018 shows that various non-communicable disease such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancers were related to obesity, which can further enhance the burden of diseases and the mortality rate.

Fitness can be your career

Ex-fitness instructor at a fitness centreMelanie Khor started her gym life four years ago when she was studying in college.

"I started joining the gym back then because I wanted to lose weight as I was deemed 'fat' and I didn't exactly fit into the society's norm of what they call as 'skinny'," Ms Melanie said.

She said she didn't expect herself to be in the fitness industry that she made up her mind to be a part-time instructor.

"To be a fitness instructor, a person has to take and pass the training exam and the salary depends on the company itself.

"In Penang, the salary per hour is around RM60 to RM80, and RM40 per class," she said.

She said from her experience with her students, most of the members are from medium to high-income group, which they earn more than RM5,000 per month.

"Most of the members in the commercial fitness centre are aged between 24 to 35," she said.

Fitness beyond the age limit

Fifty-eight-year-old bus driver Iren Ang maintains her healthy lifestyle by attending yoga class every Friday morning after fetching all the high school and primary school students to schools.

"It had been 12 years since I joined yoga because it helps me from backache," Ms Irene said.

She said if one has the motivation to work out for healthy lifestyle, and he/she does not have a high income, he/she can always opt for a budget fitness or follow the workout video online.

"Since we are living in a high technology era, there are some work out applications for the public to download and work out from home.

"Or, we can play badminton, bowling, attend Zumba and yoga class with family and friends. This also helps us in family and relationship bonding," she said.