Silver lining for China's fitness industry amid COVID-19 outbreak

Gyms shut down, sporting fixtures suspended, and owners faced with financial losses. China's fitness industry has taken a huge blow from the COVID-19 outbreak, with people now fighting to get back on their feet.

Under the pandemic, the industry bent but didn't break. With the pandemic now largely contained in China, the country's fitness industry is now hitting the reset button, as it seeks to regain its momentum, embrace changes and find the silver lining in the cloud.

ONLINE FITNESS BOOM

With gyms forced to close, home workouts have snowballed in popularity. Since the outbreak, the fitness industry has adapted to life in lockdown by going digital. With live streaming services and social media, fitness classes from yoga to Pilates are available to stream at home from smartphones, computers and televisions.

The boom in stay-at-home fitness has created huge online traffic for sports apps. PPTV, a sports video website, and fitness app Keep both launched in-home fitness courses designed for different ages.

According to Chai Guohui, founder of a fitness app with nearly 500 trainers, his Chinese Kung Fu trainers were "forced" to offer online sessions, as more users chose to take up the martial art to stay active and in shape during the pandemic.

Blogger Song Fei, who has over half a million followers on China's popular video sharing platform Bilibili, has become a new star after seeing her fandom spiral over the past few months. Her channel on wellness and beauty tips is popular with female fans who wish to keep fit while staying at home.

"Women who aspire to have a healthy figure are my target audience. People are now focusing more on their life quality and I'm quite positive about the perspective of my career," Song said.

Yoga mats, dumbbells, and even accessories for Nintendo's fitness game Ring Fit Adventure are in high demand across China's different e-commerce platforms.

At-home fitness equipment was another popular category that saw a surge in e-commerce sales with live streaming also playing its part. In February, livestream sales of fitness equipment on Alibaba's main e-commerce site Taobao grew by 213 percent.