9.9m people in the UK had gym memberships<\/a><\/strong>, but with stories of harassment and intimidation at gyms continuing, some fitness fans are facing additional challenges when it comes to reaching their goals. Here\u2019s what our research revealed.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”||||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\nHussle\u2019s Gym Harassment Survey<\/h2>\n
The results of our survey into experiences of harassment in gyms vary quite significantly between men and women. But there are also marked differences between different age groups, along with a number of regional differences which reveal more about the issue and how it might be tackled in the future. Read on and we\u2019ll explore the data in more detail.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”||||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Harassment in gyms: the experiences of men vs women<\/h2>\n
Let\u2019s start by looking at how experiences of harassment vary between men and women. <\/p>\n
Hussle\u2019s survey found a marked difference here, with females 2.1 times more likely to have felt harassed or intimidated whilst in the gym than men. Of the women surveyed, 18% reported feeling harassed or intimidated by other gym members, compared to 9% of men. <\/p>\n
The impact of harassment was also more significant amongst female respondents. Hussle\u2019s research found that 16% of women have felt pressured to change what they were wearing in the gym to avoid unwanted intimidation, while only 8% of men had felt the same way.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”||||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
A link between age and likelihood of harassment <\/h2>\n
Harassment appeared to affect younger demographics more than older ones. The age group most likely to experience unwanted attention at the gym was females aged 16-20, with 20% of them reporting this. <\/p>\n
The percentage of people who had had negative experiences at the gym declined as age increased. Of those aged 21-30 and 31-40, 13% and 14% had experienced harassment. Compare that to the oldest demographic surveyed, those aged 61 and over, and experiences of harassment drop down to 4%.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”||||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Reporting harassment and intimidation<\/h2>\n
Thankfully, Hussle\u2019s research found that the majority of respondents would feel comfortable reporting harassment if they were to experience it at the gym. Of those surveyed, two thirds (69%) agreed that they would report any negative incidents. <\/p>\n
The likelihood of harassment being reported did vary depending on the age of those impacted, however. Younger demographics (those aged 16-20) were least likely to report unwanted attention to staff (66%). By contrast, 82% of those aged between 51 and 60 stated that they would report harassment if needed.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”||||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Meeting people at the gym<\/h2>\n
While some people see the gym as a great place to meet new people and potentially form relationships, the vast majority do not agree. <\/p>\n
Hussle\u2019s research found that a whopping 88% of people agree that the gym is not a suitable environment to approach a stranger and ask them out on a date. More men thought it was acceptable (14%), than women (11%), but those who thought it was a great place to meet people were in the minority for both genders.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”||||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Regional differences in experiences of harassment <\/h2>\n
Hussle\u2019s survey revealed interesting regional differences when looking at gym goers\u2019 experiences of harassment during workouts. <\/p>\n
There were also clear discrepancies in whether people were more or less likely to think it was acceptable to approach others at the gym, depending on where they were located. <\/p>\n
Take the North East of England, for example. Here, just 5% of respondents found approaching others at the gym acceptable. Of respondents surveyed in the East of England, a much higher number (17%) thought it would be ok to approach other gym goers to ask them out on a date. <\/p>\n
The likelihood of people experiencing harassment at the gym also varied quite considerably, according to location. <\/p>\n
Gym members in the West Midlands were found to be least likely to encounter unwanted attention during a workout, with just 8% stating that they had. Those in the South East were far more likely to experience harassment. Of those surveyed in this region, 18% stated that they had been harassed or intimidated at the gym. <\/p>\n
Sentiment regarding reporting harassment remained relatively similar across all regions, with the vast majority of respondents in all areas stating that they would report harassment if they encountered it. Those most likely to do so were located in the North West, where 76% said they would report harassment. Those least likely to report it were in the North East. Here, 64% of respondents stated that they would make similar reports when necessary. <\/p>\n
Hussle also examined how far gym goers\u2019 behaviour had been impacted by experiences of harassment, and regional differences were found here too. Of those surveyed in the South East, Greater London and Wales, 14% stated that they had felt that they needed to change what they wore to the gym to avoid unwanted interest. A far smaller percentage of people felt the same in the North East, however. Here, just 5% had felt it necessary to alter their choice of clothing due to harassment at the gym.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”||||||||” custom_padding=”20px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]Hussle is the UK’s largest marketplace for gyms and health clubs, working with almost 2,000 venues in 94% of UK postcode regions. Hussle provides access to thousands of gyms across the UK, with a range of options designed to help people meet their fitness goals. Find out more about Hussle and how it works at hussle.com<\/a><\/strong>. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Conversion-Banner-scaled.jpg” title_text=”Conversion Banner” url=”https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/” url_new_window=”on” _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recent years have seen widespread discussion of an issue that is yet to be resolved: that of harassment in gyms. While the number of us visiting gyms on a regular basis continues to rise, so too do reports of harassment in gyms up and down the country. We decided to shine a light on how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":10070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"infloai":null,"yoast_head":"\n
Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? | The Hussle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? - Find Out More And Visit Hussle Today For Gym Passes & Memberships Near You.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? | The Hussle Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? - Find Out More And Visit Hussle Today For Gym Passes & Memberships Near You.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Hussle Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-06T12:19:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-28T23:48:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shutterstock_524837569.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Neil Harmsworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@neil@hussle.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Neil Harmsworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? | The Hussle Blog","description":"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? - Find Out More And Visit Hussle Today For Gym Passes & Memberships Near You.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? | The Hussle Blog","og_description":"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? - Find Out More And Visit Hussle Today For Gym Passes & Memberships Near You.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/","og_site_name":"The Hussle Blog","article_published_time":"2023-02-06T12:19:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-28T23:48:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1333,"url":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shutterstock_524837569.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Neil Harmsworth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@neil@hussle.com","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Neil Harmsworth","Estimated reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/"},"author":{"name":"Neil Harmsworth","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ae4c636d5c4b4ae541e983730a3cff96"},"headline":"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms?","datePublished":"2023-02-06T12:19:02+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-28T23:48:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/"},"wordCount":1183,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Fitness"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/","url":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/","name":"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? | The Hussle Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-02-06T12:19:02+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-28T23:48:07+00:00","description":"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms? - Find Out More And Visit Hussle Today For Gym Passes & Memberships Near You.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/who-experiences-harassment-in-gyms\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Who Experiences Harassment in Gyms?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/","name":"The Hussle Blog","description":"All things fitness","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Hussle","url":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Logomark-3-copy.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Logomark-3-copy.png","width":318,"height":356,"caption":"Hussle"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ae4c636d5c4b4ae541e983730a3cff96","name":"Neil Harmsworth","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6575a74fe0fafb66b920571b11279014?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6575a74fe0fafb66b920571b11279014?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Neil Harmsworth"},"description":"Neil has been the co-founder and COO of Hussle since 2010. Using proprietary marketplace data gathered through a network of thousands of Hussle partner gyms, Neil shares his expert insight to provide a unique perspective on trends and opportunities in the sector for gym operators, employee benefit providers and national brands seeking to use fitness as a reward for their customers.","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/neil@hussle.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/author\/neil-harmsworth\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shutterstock_524837569.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10065"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10580,"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10065\/revisions\/10580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hussle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}