Fitness seasonality analysis

Living in the modern world means living in the information society: a huge amount of data ready to be interpreted.
And interpreting them allows us to answer questions such as whether there is such a thing as “operation bikini” or whether seasonality in fitness is really a factor.

Who hasn’t heard of operation bikini? How many people have ever tried it? The summer season, the days at the beach, at the pool and, in general, the tendency to unveil the body in public during the months of June to August would make anyone think that they cause, in turn and directly, an increase in gym members and people who dedicate their time and effort to improve the good look of each muscle group.

Likewise, for any lay person, another remarkable period would be in January, with the fulfillment of the New Year’s resolutions under one arm and the motivation to lose the kilos of the Christmas season under the other.

However, do the data support these theories with any certainty?

Indeed, the data show that Operation Bikini is a hoax.
Neither memberships nor Internet searches for gyms or sports activities increase significantly in June or in the months prior to June.
However, there are two major peaks of activity: in September and January.

The explanation seems simple: it’s all about getting back in shape after the excesses of the holidays.
In this sense, the myth of New Year’s resolutions seems absolutely right.
In fact, between the two peaks, searches and memberships are clearly higher after Christmas.

The answer is also yes.
The nutrition sector, always twinned with fitness, as well as sports apparel and even technology – both smartbands and smartwatches – are influenced by this seasonality, by the tendency of people to get rid of the extra kilos after the great months of excesses.

For just like that bracelet or that watch that you probably wear on your wrist, they serve as an indispensable tool to satisfy the desire to decipher the exact components of your daily routine and physical activity, to beat sedentary lifestyles and to cry out to the heavens for a healthy life, there are certain types of management software -TIMP, for example- that allow, in turn, to manage the variables of what happens in your business, which, at the end of the day, means the possibility of knowing and controlling all those data provided by the information society to create business strategies suited to the needs of each individual.

In short, the information society shows us that this sector is indeed affected by a certain seasonality in fitness, as popular wisdom would have it.
However, this general knowledge was wrong about Operation Bikini: only September and January are the peaks of fitness activity.