I was a bit of a golden girl, both at work and at home. I come from a loving family with one brother. My ex-partner and I started a business together and had a son and a daughter. Everything was perfect. But when I was 48, my partner decided he didn't want to continue with our marriage and family; he wanted a different future and my life was turned upside down.
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features
Life lessons: Marjolijn Meijer
The entrepreneur and co-founder of the Urban Gym Group tells Kath Hudson how personal loss inspired her to establish Renessence, one of Europe’s first wellbeing clubs
Published in Health Club Management 2025 issue 11
Marjolijn Meijer, entrepreneur and co-founder of the Urban Gym Group Urban Gym Group
I was a bit of a golden girl, both at work and at home. I come from a loving family with one brother. My ex-partner and I started a business together and had a son and a daughter. Everything was perfect. But when I was 48, my partner decided he didn't want to continue with our marriage and family; he wanted a different future and my life was turned upside down.
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Gallery
Marjolijn Meijer, entrepreneur and co-founder of the Urban Gym Group Urban Gym Group
Renessence was inspired by social wellness concepts in the US Urban Gym Group
Renessence has a focus on interventions that calm the nervous system Urban Gym Group
The group’s brands include Gymbox, TRIB3 and TrainMore Urban Gym Group
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Into the fitaverse
Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
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Ali Jawad
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Fit Tech people
Hannes Sjöblad
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“We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting”
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Jamie Buck
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“We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems”
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“The team is young and ambitious, and the awareness of technology is very high. We share trends and out-of-the-box ideas almost every day”
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Building on the blockchain
For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation
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“We ended up raising US$7m in venture capital from incredible investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Primetime Partners, and GingerBread Capital”
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Sency’s motion analysis technology is
allowing users to check their technique
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Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to
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workouts to the next level, with an
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Many apps help people track their
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have put the focus on ageing,
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App analysis
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Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
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Physical activity monitors boost activity levels
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
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Two-way coaching
Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
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