Sports and Fitness Clubs in Germany

Looking for a gym in Germany can be a daunting and trying experience if you want to have all the amenities and conveniences to which you were accustomed back home. Depending upon what you are searching for in a gym, the typical expat will find that the facilities are sub-standard, the service is minimal at best, and convenience (locations and opening times) are severely lacking in comparison to American gyms.

Since the body building and aerobics craze started in the 1970s, keeping fit has grown into the most successful area of the sports and leisure industry. About 5.5 million people in Germany lift weights or take part in courses in about 6,000 fitness centers.

The fact that Berlin citizens also want to stay in shape is proven by the large range of fitness offerings in the city. Keep fit enthusiasts sweat it out to lose weight and get their much-sought after washboard abs on countless treadmills, step machines, power stations and power plates. A side effect was that the fitness craze was followed by the spa wave. In many clubs, you can recover from exercising with the help of massages, spa treatments or yoga courses.

Young mothers and fathers can also exercise with no worries because child care is already offered as a standard service in many studios. Some clubs even let the kids take part, offering special (mother-and-)child courses or “mommy memberships.”