Global Fitness Report 2 - Mexico

by Ryan Hogan | Tuesday, May 03, 2011

The second report of the fitness industry at large comes from hot and sunny Mexico! Long considered to be behind the times in comparison to its big northern neighbour, there is still a lot going on fitness wise in this amazing country.

By Australian or NZ standards, the fitness industry in Mexico is still young. However, being a country of more than 100 million in population (and growing!) all anecdotal evidence points to huge growth in the medium term. One of the major limitations of growth is of course economy. With a GDP well below that of many developed countries, there is a large proportion of Mexicans who cannot afford the basics of life, let alone a health club membership.

There is also a cultural reluctance towards using credit cards and signing long term contracts. While this many seem strange to many of us who live in Oz, this can provide a huge challenge to the large chain clubs who rely on direct debit memberships for their income. Up until recently, direct debit was unheard of and, as such, unavailable for many of the small or medium-sized operators. This meant that an owner would have to rely on their customers paying in cash every month, and on time!

Having said that, there are a handful of large operators with facilities around the country, mostly offering high end services and charging high membership fees, even comparing it with their Aussie or American counterparts. Sports World and Sport City are probably the biggest and most recognised of them. Bally's also has one flagship facility in the northern city of Monterrey, but at time of research no plan to grow. Strange?

Unsurprisingly, Mexico has little or no regulations regarding instructor and trainer licensing or education. There are tonnes of schools who offer certification courses with no support from any national or state body. An attempt to form a national body to regulate 'aerobics' was attempted in the late '90s but never came to pass. This means that in comparison to Aussie levels of training, the overall knowledge level is mainly empirical and non-scientific. Through conversation I did meet some trainers and instructors who had studied very hard and attempted international levels of certification (generally through companies from the USA) but they were in the minority.

Personal Training is in its infancy in comparison to developed economies, but is emerging as a growing trend for the middle and upper class. Rates were generally low and most of the trainers I spoke to had to share a commission with the owner of the club. The rental model is virtually non-existant, which I suspect is due to the low level of participation in PT in general. There were, however, a lot of Gym Instructors working the floor at the gyms I visited, and most were happy to help anyone without trying to sell sessions.

Group ex-wise, Mexico is not as far behind as with PT. They've had all the big trends from the USA, like step, indoor cycling and kickboxing. The current craze, like everywhere else, is for anything dance-related, and being latinos they are very good at it! Classes are fast and furious and involve all kinds of gyrations and moves that I couldn't imagine ever being able to do! The Les Mills licensed programs are popular as well, however piracy and copyright enforcement is a problem.

With a growing economy and population, and big obesity problems, Mexico is sure to become one of the big fitness markets in the years to come.

Next stop - Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia!

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