Training on devices: In the gym alone: ​​”Smart Gyms” are trendy

Operators of fitness studios are increasingly refraining from local staff and leave it to their customers to find their way around. At the beginning of the year there were 398 “Smart Gyms” in Germany, more than 100 more than in early 2024 and 200 more than 2023, as the board member of the DSSV industry association, Ralf Capelan. At the end of 2025 he expects 550 to 600 such offers. For comparison: Germany had 9127 fitness and health facilities at the beginning of the year. At the Fibo fitness fair, which begins in Cologne on Thursday, this type of facilities are one of the trend topics.

Opening times as a plus point, area as a minus point

Smart gyms are studios who either have no or only a few staff on site, in some places there is only a few hours to core times. Customers come to the studios with smartphone apps or cards that are camera-monitored. You have to find your way alone, but freelance personal trainers can book extra.

The opening times are comprehensive, access is possible from 6 a.m. to midnight or even around the clock. The studios are relatively small with 300 square meters of space, conventional studios have an average of around 1,500 square meters of space. The Smart Gyms are very relying on the neighborhood factor: the people who live around the corner should be able to come by uncomplicated. The concept is helpful for the operators because they do not have to go to the difficult search for specialist staff.

“The smart gyms are well suited for trainers with experience,” says DSSV board member Capelan. “In contrast, however, it can be more problematic if you do your exercises wrong and no coaches notice that.” He considers Smart Gyms as a sensible addition, but not as a replacement for normal large studios with staff. “It’s like the supermarket: For the small purchases you go to the nearby small market, but for the big weekly shopping you go to the large market where the selection is larger.”

Smart-gym chains are massively expanding

A driving force at the trend is just Fit from Cologne, the company opened in 2023 under the Next Door brand a first studio in which there is no permanent employee. In the meantime there are nine studios, at the end of 2026 there are 20. At the entrance you can see an employee on a display who is elsewhere. He monitors several studios at the same time and has an eye on 48 monitors. Customers can talk to him at the push of a button. If an accident happens, the employee should see and react.

“These are flip-flop clubs: they are around the corner with you and therefore so close that you can slip there,” says company boss Frank Böhme. Due to the proximity, the user needs less driving time in further distant studios. A training system around the corner also has an advantage: “You can easily overcome your inner bastard, you start and do not stay on the sofa at home.”

Just Fit has 21 studios with staff in the Cologne area who have an area of ​​1000 to 6000 square meters. The Next-Door systems, on the other hand, are only about 300 square meters in size, there are no showers. The range of devices is limited, there is no open space for gymnastics exercises. Depending on the length of the contract, Next Door costs between around 30 and 60 euros a month.

Corona has changed the use of gym. After the pandemic, he had a fifth of fewer members in his JUST-FIT studios who have staff, but had the same number of visits, Böhme recalls. “The customers came more often, but shorter – the times were over when they understood the gym as a healthier version of a Kölsch pub and met with their friends to train together and drink a shake.” People wanted to get out quickly and quickly.

Automatic character in the company name

The Fitomat fitness studio chain is different: it does not rely on large cities, but in rural areas. “We go to the” White Spots ” – so where there is still no fitness offer,” says brand manager Rami Marouf. The chain currently has 96 studios, at the end of May it should be 128 and 200.

The Fitomat studios also have no staff, apart from a service person who comes to clean in between, and a franchise partner who is there for checks every now and then. Fitomat’s locations include Stommeln west of Cologne, a village with 8400 inhabitants. Other locations are in Hammertal (NRW), Trossingen (Baden-Württemberg), Altomünster (Bavaria) and Bad Bevensen (Lower Saxony).

“Since we do practically no personnel costs in the studios, we need significantly fewer members for profitable operation, from around 200 it is worth it,” says company boss Björn Schultheiss, formerly marketing director at McFit. Little catch: Some customers take advantage of the lack of supervision and take friends with them. “According to our knowledge, these are individual cases that lead to the house ban and the termination of the contract.”

The Get Fit company has 30 Smart Gyms, in one year there should be 40. The childcare times are zero to 12 hours a week. “The digital systems enable personalized and efficient support, even without constant presence of the staff,” says Managing Director Eugen Leibman.

But it also works differently, as the example of the Fitx chain shows. With 29 euros a month with a minimum term of the contract of one year, the provider is quite cheap. The 109 studios in Germany, which have between 1800 and 1900 square meters, are open around the clock. The company does not aim at locations without staff. A FITX spokeswoman says. “There is always someone there, even at three o’clock at night.”