Light manipulation at gyms on the rise to make users less self-conscious and improve workouts
- More fitness studios around the world are dimming their lights to help reduce the anxiety of users and help them focus on their moves
- While light manipulation is effective in eliminating feelings of self-consciousness in the gym, can it help your performance?
Inside a chic studio in Hong Kong, a group of young professionals wearing form-fitting outfits are shuffling along to blasting dance beats and flashing blue and red lighting. But this isn’t a bar or dance club. It’s a boxing class.
Lights Out, in Causeway Bay, is a concept boxing gym that infuses a club-style decor and pulsating music with high-intensity movements.
Owner Billy Tam has been in the fitness industry since 2012, first opening a Muay Thai gym in Hong Kong then moving into personal training and general fitness. He opened Lights Out in 2018 and is looking for a second studio location closer to Central.
“I’ve been seeing a lot of women approach Muay Thai and boxing in the last few years but a lot of the hesitation has been the intimidation factor,” Tam says.
“Early last year, I went to the United States and the United Kingdom and checked out a couple of gyms that have similar concepts, and I realised there was a [large] female presence.”