A list of 250 of the UK’s most popular gyms on Instagram has crowned Psycle in Oxford Circus the most posted club. According to the list drawn up by Versaclimber UK, it has accrued 14,200 posts on the social media network.
UFit Fitness in Cardiff came second with 12,800 tags, and Equinox Kensington a close third with 12,600. London’s Third Space City was in fourth position with 10,100 and JD Gyms in Coventry racked up 9,757.
Overall, 15 gyms from London made the top 50 list with almost 100,000 posts. Gyms in Manchester were the second most Instagrammed, with members uploading 15,923 tagged images across three gyms. JD Gyms chain appeared on the list 12 times, CrossFit gained five entries and three of Third Space’s luxury London clubs were included.
“Many of us are guilty of a quick gym selfie and when the gym looks as good as some of those featured on this list, it’s not surprising,” said Ryan Kelford, operations manager at Versaclimber UK. “Fitness is a passion for lots of people, which is why there’s such a big appetite to share their journey online.”
To create the list, the team identified the 50 biggest cities in the UK using data from World Population Review. They then selected the five most popular gyms in each city with reference to Google Reviews. Once the 250 sites were chosen, Instagram’s location tags were used to find out how many posts were associated with each gym.
Meta’s Instagram is the most popular image-sharing social media channel with more than 1bn users. It has a strong and ever-growing fitness community with hashtags such as #gym with 250m posts, #fitness with over 500m and #workout with over 200m.
While the methodology used to generate the list isn’t an exact science – members could have posted about clubs using a general hashtag instead of manually entering the location, with posting frequency depending on the club’s community and Instagram engagement level – flagging up gyms that are the most tagged on Instagram can provide a useful guide to operators, particularly as the demographic for Instagram users and gym members are in sync.
Data shows that Instagram users are 49.3 per cent female and 50.7 per cent male, with 31 per cent of users aged between 25 and 34 years. IHRSA figures show that 18-34-year-olds hold the majority of gym memberships at 30.9 per cent.
“Ultimately, a gym isn’t just a place to exercise, it’s somewhere to unwind and socialise as well as work out,” said Kelford. “As more and more venues understand the importance of facilitating this rounded experience, we’re sure that they’ll see their social tags soar.”
