Introduction and Personal Positioning

My initial research question was: “How can gyms reduce psychological barriers for first-time users and support long-term motivation?” However, through observation, interviews, literature and intervention testing, I realised that anxiety may not be the central issue. Beginners may instead experience uncertainty, low confidence and limited belonging in an unfamiliar social environment. This shifted the project from removing anxiety to designing a transition that helps beginners become more confident participants.

The Chinese Fitness Industry Context

The development of the Chinese fitness industry provides an important context for this research. By December 2023, China had approximately 69.75 million paid fitness members and 117,000 fitness venues. However, the industry also experienced considerable instability. In major cities, commercial fitness clubs had a reported closure rate of 14.07% in 2023, while club numbers continued to decline (China Fitness Industry Data Report, 2024).

By December 2024, the number of fitness members had increased to 87.525 million, representing a 25.47% increase, while the number of broad fitness venues reached approximately 143,000. At the same time, traditional commercial clubs declined from 36,447 to 28,683, while fitness studios increased from 42,177 to 43,232. The report also identified rapid growth in monthly and weekly memberships and smaller personal-training packages, suggesting increasing demand for more flexible and accessible fitness services (China Fitness Industry Data Report, 2025).

These changes suggest that the challenge is not simply attracting people into gyms. The industry is increasingly responding to consumers who expect flexibility, personalisation and service quality. Professional guidance is also identified as an important factor in decisions to use commercial fitness facilities (Zhang et al., 2025). Therefore, the first experience can be understood as part of a wider service-design problem: how can gyms help new users move from being customers who have entered the space to participants who feel capable and connected?

From Observation to First Intervention

At the beginning of my research, I observed a gym in Kunming to understand how members used the space. Regular members appeared familiar with the equipment, routines and social interactions. Staff also noted that middle-aged members were more likely to remain because they had developed friendships, while younger users were more willing to compare gyms based on price, equipment and environment.

These observations challenged my assumption that gym anxiety was universal. Instead, familiarity and social connection seemed to influence whether people stayed.

For my first intervention, I joined a beginner trial session and recruited four participants, aged approximately 25 on average. They worked in pairs, reflecting my observation that people often visited gyms with friends or family. The session progressed from conversation and warm-up to physical assessment, cardiovascular equipment, resistance machines and free weights.

This structure was informed by Bandura’s (1997) concept of self-efficacy: small successful experiences can gradually build confidence. It also related to Berger and Calabrese’s (1975) Uncertainty Reduction Theory, as trainer guidance, gradual equipment introduction and peer support made the unfamiliar environment more predictable.

The results were mixed. One pair considered the membership too expensive, three participants were willing to return and one felt the gym was unsuitable. I also realised that the intervention was underdeveloped because I had spent more time planning than testing. This became an important methodological lesson: practice reveals problems that speculation cannot. It reflects Schön’s (1983) concept of the reflective practitioner, in which knowledge develops through reflection on action.

A major turning point

Based on this insight, I arranged a tutorial with Georges and began contacting and interviewing five gyms in my hometown. During an interview with a front-desk staff member at HRSTART, I gained a perspective that changed my understanding of the project. When I asked whether beginners might feel shy or psychologically pressured, she replied:

“Only those who have mentally prepared themselves can enter the gym. Their decision to enter already shows that they can cope psychologically. Although they may initially feel uncomfortable or worry about others’ opinions, these feelings usually decrease with time.”

This response made me reconsider my focus. From the staff’s perspective, entering the gym is already a psychological leap. I had focused on why beginners were afraid to enter and how to remove this fear, but beginners may enter while still feeling uncertain or self-conscious.

Turner (1969), developing van Gennep’s theory, describes liminality as a state of being “betwixt and between”: a person has left one state but has not fully entered another. The first gym visit can therefore be understood as a transitional experience rather than a problem that must be completely resolved beforehand.

Ryan and Deci (2000) argue that sustained participation depends on three psychological needs:

• Autonomy: feeling able to choose what to do.
• Competence: believing that one can do it.
• Relatedness: feeling connected to the environment and others.

This changed the direction of my intervention. Rather than simply trying to “reduce beginners’ psychological pressure,” I began asking: Once beginners have entered the gym despite their uncertainty, how can we help them adapt to this unfamiliar environment?

5. Second Intervention: Identifying and Responding to Discomfort

In August, I planned my second intervention at HR START, chosen for its more accessible pricing. With staff, I distributed 20 emoji stickers representing comfort, indifference and discomfort. Existing members used them to identify spaces or equipment that might cause uncertainty for beginners. This helped connect emotional responses with specific spatial and material features.

Based on these responses and photographic documentation, I designed a small-scale intervention offering additional support in the identified areas. I recruited six participants online and offline. Before entering the gym, they completed a questionnaire. Staff then introduced them to the layout and facilities, after which each participant selected an area to try. A floor trainer provided guidance in that area.

Afterwards, participants completed a second questionnaire and recorded a 20-second voice message about their immediate reactions. The questionnaires enabled a structured comparison of perceived comfort before and after the intervention, while the recordings captured tone, pauses and emotional intensity. Coffee vouchers were provided as an incentive.

This experiment tested a low-cost process of “identifying, supporting and reassessing.” It transformed the vague experience of environmental discomfort into specific areas for improvement. However, the sample was small and the process became overly detailed. In the next stage, I plan to explore simpler and more accessible activities for understanding beginners’ experiences.

Reflection and Current Direction

The second intervention was more structured than the first, but it also revealed limitations. Six participants are insufficient to make generalisable claims, and the intervention risked becoming overly detailed and complicated. More importantly, I began to recognise that not every beginner needs the same intervention.

My research has therefore moved from asking “How can gyms reduce psychological barriers?” to asking:

“How can a multidimensional first gym experience help beginners build confidence and become part of the gym community?”

The word multidimensional is important. My current intervention does not depend on one solution. Instead, it combines spatial familiarity, equipment guidance, trainer support, peer companionship and personal choice. These elements correspond closely with competence, relatedness and autonomy in Self-Determination Theory.

The project has also changed my understanding of design research itself. My early approach attempted to solve a problem that I had already defined. Through fieldwork, unexpected staff perspectives and unsuccessful intervention testing, I learned to allow the problem to change. This iterative process has moved the project from designing an intervention to designing a transition experience.

Ultimately, I am not trying to create a gym where beginners never feel nervous. Instead, I want to explore how the first few moments inside a gym can provide enough knowledge, support, choice and connection for uncertainty to become familiarity, familiarity to become confidence, and confidence to become participation.

References

Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.

Berger, C.R. and Calabrese, R.J. (1975) ‘Some explorations in initial interaction and beyond: Toward a developmental theory of interpersonal communication’, Human Communication Research, 1(2), pp. 99–112. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1975.tb00258.x.

China Fitness Industry Data Report (2024) 2023 China Fitness Industry Data Report. Shanghai: Shanghai University of Sport, Santiyundong and China Bodybuilding Association. Available at: https://english.news.cn/20240322/9890dfbdee3e4623a82c67cd4422062f/c.html (Accessed: 24 March 2025).

China Fitness Industry Data Report (2025) 2024 China Sports and Fitness Industry Data Report. Shanghai: Shanghai University of Sport, Santiyundong and IWF International Fitness Expo. Available at: https://www.ecosports.cn/informationDetail?id=4972 (Accessed: 24 March 2025).

Goffman, E. (1959) The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. (2000) ‘Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being’, American Psychologist, 55(1), pp. 68–78. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68.

Sanders, E.B.-N. and Stappers, P.J. (2008) ‘Co-creation and the new landscapes of design’, CoDesign, 4(1), pp. 5–18. doi: 10.1080/15710880701875068.

Schön, D.A. (1983) The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M.E., Lawrence, A. and Schneider, J. (2018) This is service design doing: Applying service design thinking in the real world. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

Turner, V. (1969) The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Chicago: Aldine.

van Gennep, A. (1960) The rites of passage. Translated by M.B. Vizedom and G.L. Caffee. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

The Chinese fitness industry provides an important context for this research. According to the 2023 China Fitness Industry Data Report, there were approximately 69.75 million paid offline gym members in China at the end of 2023, while the fitness participation penetration rate was 4.89%. The country had approximately 117,000 fitness-related venues, including more than 36,000 commercial fitness clubs and more than 42,000 fitness studios.

However, these large numbers do not necessarily mean that the industry has solved the problem of long-term participation. In 2023, the closure rate of commercial fitness clubs in major Chinese cities reached 14.07%, while the net growth rate was -8.94%. This suggests that attracting people into gyms and retaining them are two different challenges.

The situation also changed significantly in 2024. The 2024 China Sports and Fitness Industry Data Report reported that the number of fitness members increased to 87.525 million, a year-on-year increase of 25.47%, while the number of broad fitness venues reached approximately 143,000. However, the number of traditional commercial fitness clubs decreased to 28,683, while fitness studios increased to 43,232.

This suggests that the Chinese fitness market is becoming more diverse and segmented. Consumers may increasingly expect flexible, personalised and community-oriented experiences rather than traditional membership models.

The 2024 China Fitness Industry Operations White Paper similarly argues that although demand for fitness services is increasing, traditional gyms need to move away from an overemphasis on sales and focus more strongly on customer-centred service and experience.

This provides an important context for my project. If the Chinese fitness industry is increasingly focused on customer retention and service quality, then improving the first experience of a beginner could become an important design opportunity.

This test is aimed at individuals who have already started training at the gym, with the goal of identifying areas and equipment that cause discomfort through feedback from those familiar with gym environments.

OV GYM

Type: Professional gym.

Core Features: Founded by Yang Siwei, an IFBB PRO (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness professional athlete). Most of the coaching team hold the “Big Four” internationally recognized certifications (e.g., NSCA, ACE, ACSM, NASM). The gym offers healthy meals on-site, and every piece of equipment is loaded with heavy weights to support serious training.

Target Audience: More suitable for fitness enthusiasts who have high demands on equipment quality and training atmosphere, as well as those who aspire to compete in professional events.

Coach Model: All coaches are trophy-winning competitors with extensive professional knowledge, capable of meeting the diverse goals that members aim to achieve through their gym experience.

Hercules Fitness

Type: Mid-to-high-end commercial gym.

Core Features: Regional leader with large-scale operations. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Yunnan, it is a 5-star fitness club accredited by the General Administration of Sport of China and ranks among China’s top 100 fitness chain brands.

Target Audience: Mid-to-high-end, young, quality-conscious clientele. All locations are situated in premium commercial centers, catering primarily to young fitness enthusiasts who seek a high-quality experience. The gym strives to create a “warm and welcoming social space.”

Coach Model: Professional qualifications with transparent service. Coaches are required to hold national vocational qualification certificates as well as international certifications such as NSCA and ACE. Outside trainers are not permitted to bring clients into the gym for training.

Body&Soul Fitness

Type: Mid-to-high-end regional chain gym.

Core Features: A regional chain with a high-end environment and premium equipment. It maintains a long-term and stable membership base.

Target Audience: Serves both premium and mass-market segments. Through sub-brands, it covers different customer groups: the premium line (Bosu Sports / Bosu Club) targets high-spending consumers, while the mass-market line (Bosu Star / Qianmi Fitness) appeals to a broader range of fitness enthusiasts.

Coach Model: The coaching team holds internationally recognized certifications and offers both one-on-one and group classes. Specialized training such as Pilates and combat sports are also available.

RECORE GYM

Type: Mid-to-high-end commercial gym.

Core Features: Regional leader with large-scale operations. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Yunnan, it is a 5-star fitness club accredited by the General Administration of Sport of China and ranks among China’s top 100 fitness chain brands.

Target Audience: Mid-to-high-end, young, quality-conscious clientele. All locations are situated in premium commercial centers, catering primarily to young fitness enthusiasts who seek a high-quality experience. The gym strives to create a “warm and welcoming social space.”

Coach Model: Professional qualifications with transparent service. Coaches are required to hold national vocational qualification certificates as well as international certifications such as NSCA and ACE. Outside trainers are not permitted to bring clients into the gym for training.

Feedback

• Exercise 1. Choose 5 gyms from your hometown and create a profile for every gym.
  
  
  – Location
  – Size
  – Price of a membership
  – Services e.g. swiimming ppol, sauna
  – Opening hours
  – Is there a personal trainer/
  – Do they offer classes?
  – What is the age group of their customers?
  – Do they have social spaces?
  – Are they a luxury gym or a humble gym?
  
  
• 
  George
  
  
  20:53
  Exercise.2. How do you convince beginners that going to the gym and adopting a healthy lifestyle is important?
  – Tell them the importance of working out
  – Tell them that going to the gym is also about community building and building motivation
  – Gyms are social spaces
  – Gyms are a place for learning
  – etc.
  
  
• 
  George
  
  
  20:56
  Intervention brainstorm. Ask a group of people.
  1. are you someone who goes to the gym?
  2. are you someone who wants to start going to the gym and does not know where to go?
  3. are you someone who does not go to the gym?
  

Rethinking Psychological Barriers for First-Time Gym Users

Before this intervention test, I had always focused my research on a relatively clear question: How to reduce the psychological stress that beginners experience when entering the gym? I think that people who enter the gym for the first time may feel anxious and insecure due to the unfamiliar environment, fitness equipment, body shape differences and concerns about others’ evaluations. Therefore, my initial intervention direction was to help first-time gym visitors build a sense of security and confidence through more friendly guidance, simple fitness experiences, and emotional feedback. Without a complete train of thought, I conducted several small-scale intervention tests, including personally experiencing the beginner’s classes at the gym and inviting participants without fitness experience to have their first gym experience. During the testing process, I observed their reactions when they entered the gym, touched the equipment and interacted with the coach, and at the same time, I understood their psychological changes before and after the experience through simple emotional feedback.

However, during a conversation with the gym staff, I gained a perspective that made me rethink the entire project. When I asked her, “Do you think beginners who just enter the gym will feel shy or have a psychological burden?”

She replied:

Only those who have mentally prepared themselves can enter the gym. The moment they come in, it actually indicates that they can bear it psychologically. As for the inability to adapt and whether one cares about others’ opinions, these will exist at the beginning, but after some time, these things will gradually disappear.

This sentence had a great impact on me. From the perspective of gym staff, “entering the gym” itself is a psychological leap that has already been completed. What she saw were people who had already entered the space, while I had been more concerned about why they were afraid to enter and how to reduce this fear before. This made me realize that my previous understanding of “psychological disorders” might have been too simplistic. I misunderstood psychological stress as a problem that needs to be eliminated, but in fact, people who enter the gym for the first time may not do so only after they are completely free of psychological stress. On the contrary, they might have mustered up the courage to enter the gym while there was still uncertainty, shyness and worry.

This made me rethink what problems my intervention should solve. I no longer think that my project should simply “relieve the psychological pressure of beginners”. Because a certain degree of tension and uncertainty may be a normal experience when entering any unfamiliar environment for the first time, and this kind of pressure does not necessarily prevent a person from eventually entering the gym. In contrast, I think a more important question might be: Once a beginner has mustered up the courage to enter the gym, what can we do to make it easier for them to adapt to this unfamiliar environment?

Berger & Calabrese (1975) proposed that uncertainty is particularly evident when people interact with strangers for the first time. People will enhance their predictability of the environment and the behavior of others by obtaining information, observing and interacting. In my experience design, I arranged for the coach to have a brief exchange and warm-up, and then gradually introduce the fitness equipment and different training areas. At first, I understood these steps as methods to “reduce anxiety”. But now it seems that their more important role might be to reduce uncertainty.

When a novice doesn’t know what he should do, he may feel nervous. When someone tells him what the next step is, how to use the equipment and where to train, the unfamiliar environment begins to become predictable. As this sense of familiarity increases, the original psychological pressure may naturally decrease. Therefore, this test made me realize that my intervention doesn’t necessarily have to tell the participants “Don’t be afraid”, but should provide them with sufficient support so that they can still continue to experience when they are afraid.

This brought about a significant shift in my design direction: From “reducing anxiety” to “supporting adaptation”.

That is to say, I no longer only focus on how to make people who enter the gym for the first time “not feel nervous”, but start to pay attention to how to help them move from being strangers to becoming familiar, from being uncertain to having a sense of control, and gradually from being an external observer to a participant in the gym community. Ryan & Deci’s (2000) Self-Determination Theory (SDT) holds that people’s sustained motivation is related to three fundamental psychological needs:

Autonomy – I can make my own decisions

Competence – I believe I have the ability to do it

Relatedness – I feel that I belong here and have a connection with others

Meanwhile, this test also enabled me to discover a limitation in the research. Gym staff believe that the discomfort and concern for others’ gazes of beginners will naturally disappear over time, but this does not mean that everyone will go through the same process. Some people may still feel very uncomfortable after their first entry and even choose not to come back because of a negative experience. Therefore, I cannot merely judge that psychological pressure will naturally disappear based on the experience of the staff, but need to further verify it through the feedback of the participants themselves.

This also reminds me that in subsequent research, I need to pay attention to both “people who enter the gym” and “those who eventually do not come back”. There may be different psychological experiences between them, and this could be the key to understanding long-term engagement and sustained motivation.

Overall, the greatest value of this intervention test is not to prove whether my original intervention was effective or ineffective, but to enable me to discover a new research perspective.

When I returned to my hometown, I first visited a local gym and experienced how staff and trainers welcome people who are visiting the gym for the first time. I also joined a beginner trial session myself, so I could experience the process from the user’s perspective and understand what kind of psychological pressure a first-time user might experience.

Before starting my own testing, I initially expected that there might be a gap in how gyms support beginners.However, after talking with the gym staff, I realised that gyms have already developed many ways to attract new customers, such as distributing flyers, offering low-cost trial sessions, and providing a free personal training session.This changed my expectations about my intervention.I realised that simply encouraging people to come to the gym might not be enough to solve the problem I am interested in.

I recently started testing my intervention ideas through several small-scale experiments.The beginner trial session I experienced was structured into several stages.

Firstly, there was a warm-up.During the warm-up, the trainer also had casual conversations with the beginner.This helped create a more relaxed atmosphere and allowed the trainer and participant to become more familiar with each other.

Secondly, the participant tried some aerobic equipment.These machines are relatively simple to use, so they did not require too much technical instruction.       This gave the beginner an opportunity to become familiar with the gym environment without feeling overwhelmed.

Thirdly, the trainer introduced fixed resistance machines.The participant was shown how to use different machines for different parts of the body, such as the shoulders, back, glutes and legs.This helped the participant understand how the equipment works and where different exercises take place.

Finally, the trainer introduced the free-weight area.The participant was not required to use the equipment in this area because it was considered more difficult for a beginner.       Instead, the trainer mainly explained what the area was used for.

I then invited two people with no previous gym experience to participate in a similar experience together.I chose to let them experience the gym as a pair because my initial research suggested that some first-time gym users feel more comfortable bringing a friend with them.

I observed how they entered the gym, moved between different areas, used the equipment and interacted with the trainer.I was particularly interested in moments when they appeared uncertain, uncomfortable or needed reassurance.

Based on the feedback from the two groups participants so far, the guided experience was useful in helping them understand the layout of the gym and what they could expect when using different areas.They also reported feeling less psychological pressure because they did not have to figure everything out by themselves.

However, the testing also revealed an important problem with my intervention.the real-world intervention has not produced a strong enough effect for me to evaluate it confidently.The number of participants is still very small, and the conversion rate from people showing interest to actually entering the gym and completing the experience is relatively low.Therefore, I cannot yet conclude whether the intervention itself is effective.

This has made me reconsider the direction of my testing.

I want to collect more first-hand experiences from potential gym users before developing the next version of my intervention.I am particularly interested in understanding what stops people before they enter the gym, what they are worried about, what kind of support they are looking for, and whether these concerns are different from the problems they experience once they are inside the gym.

Based on my first questionnaire survey, I found that it took 2 to 3 minutes to fill it out. As an onlooker, one feels that the time is very long and the examinee needs to keep their attention focused while reading the text. For this questionnaire survey, I chose to use stickers to answer the questions. Regarding the questionnaire format, after the first survey questionnaire was completed, I needed to visualize the results. I couldn’t complete the visualization process well in a short time, and I think I should reduce this part of the ineffective work. So this time I chose the answer board to present everyone’s answers on a flat surface, making it easier and clearer to see the survey results.

Q1. Perceived comfort level with the gym environment after the experience.
(Evaluating changes in familiarity and environmental anxiety)