Group Fitness in Europe
In 2012, EuropeActive started to systematically conduct research on multiple topics in the
health and fitness sector. The first publication in this series was the book titled The state of
research in the global fitness industry. This publication was based on a systematic search and
review, summarising 5,348 studies in total.
In 2018, the most comprehensive study on personal training in Europe was published by
EuropeActive and Edelhelfer (Gronau and Titze, 2018). This study provided an extended
profile of personal trainers in Europe, based on almost 3,000 respondents.
In the fitness sector, whilst group fitness is an important activity that is offered by many
operators and used by millions of members, there remains a lack of knowledge on this
subsector. The present study is one of the first to conduct research on this topic. This book is a
must-read for all who are involved in group fitness (management).
Dr. Jan Middelkamp is a fitness entrepreneur, behavioural researcher (PhD) and a previous
COO of multiple international fitness chains (www.janmiddelkamp.com).
EuropeActive is the not-for-profit organisation representing the whole of the European health
and fitness sector in Brussels (www.europeactive.eu).
Drs. Peter Wolfhagen earned his master’s degree in human movement sciences, he is the
research director at BlackBoxPublishers and published many books.
Jos Eemstra is the development director at BlackBoxPublishers and specialised in group
fitness management.
