That China’s fitness industry has been in disarray for many years is being thrown in to the spotlight with the high-profile bankruptcy of a well-known gym, one which had hundreds of thousands of memberships, in Suzhou of our very own Jiangsu Province.
江苏省苏州市一家拥有数十万会员的知名健身房的高调破产，让中国健身行业多年来的混乱状况成为人们关注的焦点。
“Join us and create miracles together”; today, the home page of InGym’s website still displays their invitation to the world. Founded in Suzhou 20 years ago, at its peak, InGym was once at the forefront of the domestic fitness industry, with fitness centres across the Yangtze River Delta and hundreds of thousands of members.
“加入我们，一起创造奇迹”；时至今日，InGym网站首页依然显示着他们向全世界发出的邀请。 InGym成立于苏州20年，鼎盛时期曾走在国内健身行业的前列，健身中心遍布长三角，拥有数十万会员。
But it would now appear to be all over. Government departments in Suzhou have confirmed that InGym has filed for bankruptcy. Poor management is the reason that has been given, while efforts have also been made to reassure InGym members as to their subsequent rights.
但现在看来一切都结束了。苏州政府部门证实，InGym已申请破产。 InGym 给出的理由是管理不善，同时也努力安抚会员的后续权利。
It’s a bankruptcy that has been looming for a while now. Since August, many have reported through People’s Daily Online’s “Leadership Message Board” that InGym is in arrears with employee wages and has difficulty refunding members for their private training.
这是一场迫在眉睫的破产案。 8月以来，不少人通过人民网“领导留言板”举报InGym拖欠员工工资，且难以退还会员私人培训费用。
Employee Chen Li was among those taking to the People’s Daily. Chen said she is owed more than ¥60,000 in salary for nearly half a year, reports The Paper.
员工陈莉是向《人民日报》发帖的人之一。据澎湃新闻报道，陈女士称，近半年来她被拖欠工资6万多元。
Hu Mi, Director of the Sports Department of East China University of Political Science & Law, has analysed the industry’s predicament. Hu believes that fitness companies are overly dependent on the sale of prepaid cards and private-teaching classes, which account for approximately 90 percent of their income.
华东政法大学体育系主任胡宓分析了行业的困境。胡认为，健身公司过度依赖预付卡和私人授课的销售，这两项收入约占其收入的90%。
In addition, the rapid development of personal training in recent years has called in to question the professionalism of many coaches, such that cannot meet the needs of high-end clients.
此外，近年来私教的快速发展也让不少教练的专业水平受到质疑，无法满足高端客户的需求。
Many gyms’ coaches are as a result pressurised by management to sell more classes to members. With that hardly their field of expertise, the result is often angry members and coaches who leave their jobs in search of a stressful position elsewhere.
因此，许多健身房的教练受到管理层的压力，要求向会员出售更多课程。由于这几乎不是他们的专业领域，结果往往是愤怒的会员和教练离开工作岗位，去其他地方寻找有压力的职位。
Hence the emergence of a new trend, namely fitness institutions termed “small but sophisticated”. With minimalist venues and a focus on short-term packages, these scaled-down gyms cooperate with freelance coaches to reduce the price of personal training courses.
因此出现了一种新趋势，即“小而精”的健身机构。这些规模缩小的健身房拥有简约的场地和注重短期套餐，与自由教练合作，降低私人训练课程的价格。
Such a solution may well be the saviour of the industry, as InGym is also hardly the first to go under. The sector has been plagued by bankruptcies, lost memberships, mergers, hostile takeovers and a host of other problems for at least these 2 decades.
这样的解决方案很可能成为该行业的救世主，因为 InGym 也不是第一个倒闭的公司。至少在过去的二十年里，该行业一直受到破产、会员资格丧失、兼并、恶意收购和许多其他问题的困扰。
And personal issues. Many women are turned off from going to a gym on account of the behaviour of the opposite sex, many of whom also even make a habit of smoking in what, after all, is a place of health.
还有个人问题。许多女性因为异性的行为而不愿去健身房，其中许多人甚至养成了吸烟的习惯，毕竟这里是一个健康的地方。
One local foreigner with whom The Nanjinger spoke today, said, “My gym has changed hands three or four times in the last couple of years. I stopped going recently because of the incessant smoking, by both customers and coaches! I hope they go bankrupt too”.
今天接受《南京人》采访的一位当地外国人说：“我的健身房在过去几年里已经易主三四次了。最近我不再去了，因为顾客和教练都不断吸烟！我希望他们也破产”。
