Something has shifted in how Indians think about fitness. The growing realization that you can't exercise your way out of a sedentary life has taken hold. Movement and fitness are not the same thing, and confusing the two has been costing people more than they know.
The Rise of Community Sports and Daily Movement
Across Indian cities, this change is visible. Pickleball courts are packed on weekday evenings. Hyrox events are selling out months in advance. Weekend cyclists are a regular fixture on roads that once belonged entirely to cars. Morning walkers have become morning runners, and morning runners have become morning community. The gym, for a long time the default setting of Indian fitness culture, is no longer the only game in town, and for many people, it's no longer the point.
Hans Peter Jensen, Sports Director at Decathlon India, has had a ringside view of all of it. In a role that puts him at the intersection of consumer behaviour, sporting trends and how Indians are actually living their physical lives, he's seen the transition from the aesthetics era—the decade of the six-pack and the before-and-after photo—toward something that's harder to photograph but considerably more useful: movement as a daily default, fitness as a function of how you live rather than a separate activity you schedule.
Why Movement Matters More Than Exercise
According to Jensen, "Fitness and health are essential elements of life today. We are not only seeing changes to how people are working out, but also to how they’re living. Fitness is not only done at a gym or in a scheduled block of time in the morning; it’s a component of all daily activities and part of the overall feeling of well-being."
With more jobs that encourage sedentary behavior—sitting at a desk—and an increasing number of lifestyle-related illnesses such as obesity in India, people are beginning to understand that working out one hour cannot offset the effects of living a sedentary lifestyle for the other nine hours of the day. Movement throughout the day—yoga in the morning, walking in the park or around the block, commuting by cycling, playing with children, playing badminton with friends on an evening or playing football on the weekend—is what contributes to this transformation.
Jensen emphasizes that fitness is becoming much more accessible to everyone. The definition of fitness has changed from being only concerned with how someone appears physically to one that encompasses overall health, mental wellness and longevity. "The future of health in India is about incorporating movement into daily life as seamlessly as possible; it's about making activity enjoyable instead of following a structured approach."
Pickleball and Hyrox: Surprising Growth Drivers
When asked which emerging sport or activity has surprised him the most in terms of growth and participation, Jensen points to two forces: "We have evidenced that while one force captures the massive growth of pickleball and paddle as a social sport with low barriers to entry, the other force creates an extraordinary and unprecedented excitement for the global fitness race known as Hyrox, which has overtaken urban India, with thousands of average gym participants cramming into large arenas in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi to participate in very demanding running and functional circuits."
Community as the Glue for Long-Term Engagement
Community plays a critical role in fitness today. Jensen explains, "Today, the fitness community is no longer a luxury. It has become the primary glue that will keep participants engaged in fitness long-term. Due to COVID-19 and the various ways it has pushed society into a virtual work-from-home mode, people are looking for authentic and genuine connections with each other."
Fitness and movement have emerged as the new "third place" replacing traditional social venues such as cafés and malls. Jensen notes, "People are coming to understand that when they have a shared experience with others—such as running a 10K, surviving a Hyrox relay race, or competing against one another in a game of Pickleball—they provide themselves with a real sense of belonging to that community and a vulnerability that cannot be obtained through a virtual platform."
The Next Decade: Functional Longevity and Default Movement
Looking ahead to the next ten years, Jensen predicts a tremendous systemic change in the average Indian's definition of fitness. "The last decade represented 'aesthetics', the present is about 'wellness and community' while the next ten years will revolve around functional longevity and default movement. Ten years from now, the average Indian will not see fitness as an isolated chore requiring a gym but rather as an integral part of his/her daily routine."
He anticipates three significant changes. First, active living will become a default behaviour, not a decision. Fitness will move from pre-planned exercise sessions to being built into daily activities due to changing infrastructure in cities and increased awareness about health-spans. Active commuting—such as cycling to transportation systems and using adapted walking or cycling paths—will become completely normal, as will micro-activities from activity breaks at work.
Second, an onset of an increased amount of "Silver Fitness" types of activity will occur. Ageism will no longer exist in fitness. In 10 years there will be a culture of multi-generational sports. Instead of being a rare occurrence to have a 60-year-old competing in functional fitness competitions, trekking up a mountain on the weekend, or owning the Pickleball courts, having all of these individuals—who are 60 or older—engaged in some form of physical activity will become common. The objective is to maintain functional independence and mobility throughout one's life.
Third, using sport as pre-cognitive healthcare will become a priority. Recognizing that physical movement is the key to preventing diseases associated with modern life, it will create a shift in governments' perspective on health policy from spending money on "curative" medicine to focusing on investing in people's well-being. Sport will become synonymous with a life-long source of joy and asset protection.
What Jensen is describing isn't a fitness trend. It's a quiet restructuring of how a generation relates to its own body. The gym-or-nothing mentality is losing ground, and in its place something more honest is emerging: movement that fits into real life, sport that builds real community.
