MINI REVIEW article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport, Leisure, Tourism, and Events
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1574966
This article is part of the Research TopicShaping Tomorrow: Trends and Transformation in the Sports IndustryView all articles
The Rise of Unmanned Gyms: Innovation, Spatiotemporal Characteristics, and the Future of Urban Fitness
Provisionally accepted
- 1北京体育大学, 北京市, China
- 2北京科技大学, 北京市, China
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With the acceleration of urbanization and the growing awareness of health, traditional gyms face challenges related to space, time, and operational costs, particularly in meeting the fragmented fitness needs of urban residents. Unmanned gyms, integrating advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), provide flexible, personalized fitness solutions available 24/7, addressing the increasing fitness demands of modern urban populations.Moreover, through innovative business models such as dynamic pricing, data monetization, and value-added services, unmanned gyms optimize their revenue structures and enhance user experiences. However, despite their significant growth potential, unmanned gyms still face challenges in terms of technology, ethics, and regulation. This paper reviews the current development of unmanned gyms, their spatiotemporal characteristics, and future trends. Future research should focus on the sustainability of technologies, user engagement, and the improvement of regulatory frameworks to foster the healthy growth of the unmanned gym industry.
Keywords: Fitness industry, Unattended fitness system, urban space, Exercise time, Sports industry
Received: 06 Mar 2025; Accepted: 11 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Peng, Liang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tianhang Peng, 北京体育大学, 北京市, China
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