Lyndey Milan gets on board with a local trend towards nurture in fitness

How local boutique gyms catering to an older clientele are going from strength to strength and muscling out their big city counterparts.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature but beautiful old people are works of art, Eleanor Roosevelt once famously said. Combine this with long-term social changes caused by Covid-19 and you get a hint of the powerful forces underwriting the new gym: smaller, elegant, with an older clientele, and more women than men.

Television chef, cookbook author and Waverton resident Lyndey Milan, 68, is a classic example of today’s “older” woman utilising this new style of gym – energised by life, moving from professional strength to strength, and aware she needs a gym that matches a new set of needs.

“Big barns of sweaty men and twenty-somethings doing 35 barbell bicep curls in record time are not appropriate for my age group,” Milan says. “Science says to get the benefit out of gym workouts, older people need a longer warm-up, a paced workout and then a long warm-down.”

Like others in her age group, Milan is also grieving the loss of her partner, Flame Media’s John Caldon, who died early last year. So she’s valuing nurturing environments and a little more cosseting.

Lyndey Milan working out at Avalon House. Picture: John Appleyard

Australians over 65 are advised to get 30 minutes of moderately intense activity, such as brisk walking, on most days for their heart and lung fitness. They also need additional exercises several times a week focusing on strength to help maintain bones, flexibility to maintain movement and balance to prevent falls.

This health and fitness awareness drives their gym membership. But they’ve also got high disposable incomes, a commitment to fitness and can tell the difference between a good gym instructor and a bad one.

“Baby boomers have got the time, the money and the inclination to prove we’ve still got it,” says chief executive of the Health and Fitness Industry Association Barrie Elvish.

“We don’t go to the gym to look good, we go to the gym to feel good. And part of that is going to a place where we feel comfortable, so often that means the smaller space.”

Milan meets a group of like-minded women for two workouts a week at Avalon House, Neutral Bay, which is exclusive to women. It’s a contemporary, elegant and soothing space on Military Rd with a palette of soft greys and subtle sage greens – completely unlike the usual hot, heaving gym.

Milan’s workout group met more than 10 years ago through previous gyms and have stayed connected, unabashed about changing gyms with their changing needs.

“We all said we wanted to stay together and we attended various gyms in Neutral Bay before we found this one. They were usually mixed gyms, with little supervision, so we really didn’t feel the love,” she says.

Gym manager Elle McCabe at Avalon House. Picture: John Appleyard

This sense of community is now being sold as part of the gym package. Community Moves, for the over-50s and also at Neutral Bay, says one of its four pillars of success is creating social connections: “An emphasis on social interaction via group classes, regular health workshops and social events, helping to keep people connected and socially included.”

With good trial offers at the moment, as gyms attempt to woo clients in the face of new competition, Angela Boyd, 62, of Chinamans Beach is testing them out.

“I think yesterday I found the one – Homestretch Pilates Mosman. It’s upstairs in a little studio with only seven beds. It’s run by Leanne Learoyd and the team really get it,” Boyd says.

“Last week I went to a place that was the Nick Kyrgios of Pilates. The music was really loud and the pace was really fast. The instructor was wearing a face mic and yelling ‘go team, we can do this’ faster and faster. Even though it was a beginners’ class there was no one-to-one supervision and no adjustments. It wasn’t for me.”

Elvish says the boutique gyms of the Lower North Shore reflect a pattern happening nationally and he believes they are the fastest-growing model. Retail outlets in the UK are working hard to entice inviting gyms into their spaces, so people can do a workout, then have a coffee and stay on to shop. He expects that to happen here, too.

Leanne Learoyd and Katherine Sheppard at Homestretch Pilates Mosman. Photographer: Richard Learoyd

The Covid-19 Fitness Industry Impact Report, April 2020, bleakly showed 70 per cent of gyms experienced a 100 per cent decline in memberships and 81 per cent of exercise professionals lost their job or main source of income during lockdowns.

Elvish says that, fortunately, the industry has bounced back.

“We’ve only had 1 per cent of gyms go out of business, not just close temporarily, compared to 30 per cent in the USA and nearly 50 per cent in Europe,” he says.

“That’s because of our governments’ stimulus packages. And now gyms are back to pre-Covid usage levels, if not higher.”

But wild predictions came from America’s Bloomberg in early 2021, suggesting 75 per cent of lockdown-restricted gym members would stick with online classes or move to a hybrid model after Covid. Not so here, says Elvish, who adds that the class environment is more popular than ever and gym membership for 18-24-year-olds is the highest on record.

It’s as though we all woke up and realised how good a class is, both physically and mentally, to buttress against the isolation and anxiety of modern life – pandemics, rising floodwaters and even faster-rising interest rates.

People of all ages who’d pivoted online couldn’t wait to get back. They like the equipment in a gym, having a personal trainer to guide them and the social interaction.

“People struggled with the lack of space, too. While they worked out in the bedroom or tiny living room they kept bumping into the bed or wall,” says Amy Hong of Corepower Pilates, a nine-bed studio in Ennis St, Milsons Point.

Amy Hong and her dog Sebastian at Corepower Pilates studio. Picture: John Appleyard

It’s cosy, friendly and Hong has consciously built a sense of community.

“My clients know each other from the studio, so after the class they have a chat and a catch-up,” she says. “Every time someone attending the gym walks in, my pet dog gets off his little bed and goes to the door to greet them. He’s my door greeter.”

Hong’s method relies on equipment, not just mat work, so she suffered a loss of clients and revenue during Covid.

But there was a surprise silver lining: “In a strange way, Covid actually helped my business. People were working from home, so they wanted something local. Since they were at home, they could sneak out to the gym. They weren’t catching the train into the city, and once they realised how good that is, they decided they didn’t want to go back.”

Elvish confirms this factor has had an impact on large CBD-based gyms all over Sydney.

Kerrie Chambers, 61, a partner in a large city law firm who lives in Kirribilli, is a classic example. Pre-Covid, she went to a big gym in the city, near her skyscraper office. When Covid hit she started at Hong’s Corepower Pilates, a short walk from home.

“I have nothing but praise for it,” Chambers says.

“I suppose I became really careful of the large spaces with lots of people crowded in and in a way I still am. This feels safer.”

Hong found that people wanted a local gym instead of travelling to the city. Picture: John Appleyard

There are new threats on the horizon for gyms, which consumers regard as luxuries rather than essentials. As interest rates creep higher, inflation starts to bite and mortgage pressures chomp at incomes, gym membership is vulnerable to being dropped.

But not for those over retirement age. They watched their savings and investments flatline for years, with interest rates getting even lower during the pandemic. As those interest rates now rise, they’re getting a little more bounce in their step. And in larger numbers than ever before, they’re bouncing right back into the gym.