Les Mills sees 700% rise in users in the Middle East during Coronavirus crisis

Fitness platform Les Mills has experienced a 700% rise in users in the Middle East and 800% rise globally since the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis, according to Glen Stollery, Chief Executive of Les Mills International in the Middle East, India and Africa.

Known for its 30-minute high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts shot in high production and virtual reality settings, the New Zealand-based company's brand is distributed across 20,000 clubs around the world.

In the Middle East, it attracts an audience of 24-43 year olds of which 85% are female.

Speaking to Arabian Business, Stollery said the company’s core business, its live group exercise classes, has suffered due to gym closures as part of governments’ COVID-19-related safety measures.

However, its Les Mills On Demand platform has seen a massive rise in uptake with an average of 25,000 people joining per day.

Stollery explained "our core business is actually live group exercise classes, so in that respect, because we have about 20,000 clubs that distribute our product all around our worldwide - so if you’ve ever done a body pump class in a Fitness First or Gym Nation, those are our classes - in that retrospect we have been affected.

“(And we've been) quite fortunate that we’ve got a number of strings to our bow and we already have an existing online platform that has really great content on it and that’s seen a massive spike, because everyone is home-bound at the moment. So our core business has been affected significantly but this other part has seen a massive uplift. We’re kind of in both camps."

Les Mills four most viewed programs in the Middle East since the pandemic have been Body Combat, Body Pump, Les Mills Grit and Body Balance.