The cost of fitness

By the time Ashas Rahim parks his car outside the gym, most people are thinking about heading home.

His office day is over, but another routine is about to begin. An hour and a half of strength training is followed by mobility work. On some evenings, there is a yoga session. On alternate days, he heads to a padel court instead. Throughout the day, he keeps an eye on his water intake, making sure he drinks at least three litres, while his smartwatch quietly counts every step towards a daily target of 8,000 to 10,000. By the time he gets home, eats dinner and gets ready for bed, there is little left of the day.

Six days a week, this routine repeats itself.

Maintaining it takes discipline, but it also demands something that often goes unnoticed: time.

"It takes around two to two-and-a-half hours just for the gym," says Rahim. "Then yoga is another 45 minutes, and if I'm playing a sport like padel, that's another couple of hours. Sometimes it gets overwhelming because you still have to make time for your family and everything else that needs to be done at home."

The physical effort is only one part of the commitment.

The financial investment begins long before he lifts his first weight. Every month, he spends around Rs18,000 on his gym membership, about Rs15,000 on healthy food and another Rs5,000 on supplements. Add fuel, sports, clothing and training gear, and the monthly cost of staying fit reaches somewhere between Rs68,000 and Rs76,000.

Yet, surprisingly, he doesn't consider money the biggest sacrifice.

"People think the gym fee is the real cost," he says. "For me, the real cost is everything you have to give up. I've missed family gatherings, dinners with friends and even weddings because most of them happen during my gym hours. You either choose your routine or you choose the gathering, and I've usually chosen the gym."

Like many fitness enthusiasts, his routine has evolved over the years. When he first started exercising regularly, he says, all he really needed was a gym membership and a couple of pairs of workout clothes. Today, the list is much longer. There are supplements, specialised training gear, sports-specific equipment, premium activewear and fitness gadgets that promise to optimise every workout.

"When I started, all you needed was a gym membership and discipline," he says. "Today people feel they need smartwatches, lifting belts, premium shoes, supplements and expensive activewear before they even begin. Social media has changed everything. You see people from all over the world using different products and following different routines, and somewhere along the way you start feeling that you need those things too."

His monthly fitness bill may appear excessive to some, but for others it represents something else entirely, a lifestyle they aspire to but struggle to afford.

Across Pakistan's cities, fitness is no longer just about finding an hour to exercise. It has become an industry built around memberships, meal plans, supplements, specialised sports, recovery therapies and, increasingly, the pursuit of an ideal that can seem both physically and financially demanding. For many, the biggest challenge is not deciding to become healthier. It is figuring out what staying healthy really costs—and whether all of those costs are necessary.

The hidden cost of consistency

Not everyone, however, can afford to organise their lives around fitness.

For Kabir Hussain, another working professional, the desire to get healthier has never really been the problem. Finding the time, and convincing himself that he can keep up with what fitness now seems to demand, has been far more difficult.

By the time Hussain reaches home from work, only three or four hours remain before bedtime. Those few hours disappear quickly between dinner, spending time with his wife and children, helping around the house and preparing for the next day. Somewhere in between, he is expected to find the motivation to change into workout clothes, drive to the gym, train for an hour or more and return home with enough energy left to wake up and do it all again.

"I want to be fit," he says. "People think we don't go to the gym because we're lazy or because we enjoy eating junk food. That's not true. I try to avoid unhealthy food and eat as well as I can, but I also know that diet alone isn't enough. I'm around 20 kg above my ideal weight, and I know I need exercise to become healthier and build strength. The difference is that I have responsibilities that don't disappear when the workday ends."

Like many people trying to build a fitness routine, Hussain has joined gyms before. More than once, he has paid the membership fee with every intention of staying committed. The first few weeks usually go well. Then an unexpected office assignment, a family commitment or simply the exhaustion of juggling multiple responsibilities breaks the routine.

Once that happens, he says, starting again feels harder than starting in the first place.

Money, of course, is part of the equation.

Basic gym memberships have become more expensive over the years. Hiring a trainer can almost triple that monthly expense, while maintaining a protein-rich diet adds another financial commitment. But he insists that the membership fee is only one part of the overall cost.

"If gyms became free tomorrow, my life wouldn't change much," says Hussain. "The biggest challenge is still finding the time. Then there are all the other things people associate with fitness. It's not just the gym anymore."

That perception, he admits, almost stopped him before he had even begun.

Hussain remembers watching colleagues transform themselves over the years. Their routines involved finding a good gym, ideally near home or workplace, getting a membership, acquiring a personal trainer who delivers results, buying the right supplements, specialised gear and pursuing sports such as padel. When they casually discussed what they were spending every month, the figure, between Rs40,000 and Rs50,000, came across as a shock.

"I remember thinking that if this is what it takes to get fit, then I simply can't afford it," he says. "I even considered joining the gym on my own, but after hearing what everyone else was doing, I decided not to start because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up. There is this pressure now that if you're serious about fitness, you either have to do everything, or do nothing at all if you are not able to keep up."

That pressure isn't limited to conversations among friends. Social media, Hussain believes, has quietly raised the bar.

Every scroll brings another transformation video, another supplement recommendation, another expensive gadget or specialised programme promising quick and better results. For those already struggling to find the time or money to exercise, the message can feel discouraging rather than motivating.

“If you want to be on social media then you have to look good, and to look good you have to follow everything that is shown in the videos, which obviously most of us can’t afford,” says Hussain.

He also talked about how people think about the ones who don’t train, but don’t know the real reason behind it.

"Sometimes I'm sitting on the sofa after work, completely exhausted, and I genuinely want to go to the gym," he says. "Other times I'm at a family dinner during the hours I planned to work out, and I feel guilty because I know I've missed another session. People think the biggest barrier is the membership fee, but for me it's everything that comes with trying to stay consistent."

Hussain’s experience highlights a different kind of cost, one measured not only in rupees, but in time, energy, competing priorities and, increasingly, the feeling that getting fit requires buying an entire lifestyle that many ordinary Pakistanis simply cannot afford or sustain.

 

The cost of looking fit

Walk into almost any gym today and it becomes clear that fitness is no longer just about lifting weights.

Rows of treadmills and dumbbells are now accompanied by shelves stocked with protein powders, pre-workout drinks and recovery supplements. Sportswear brands release specialised collections for maximum endurance and comfort while doing different workouts, while fitness watches promise to monitor everything from heart rate and sleep quality to recovery and calorie expenditure. On social media, transformation videos sit alongside advertisements for gym gloves, lifting belts, compression sleeves and performance footwear, creating an ecosystem where almost every aspect of fitness appears to come with a price tag.

For someone standing on the outside, the message can be overwhelming.

Earlier, Rahim admitted that his own spending had gradually increased over the years as he added supplements, sports, specialised gear and gadgets to his routine. Hussain said watching colleagues spend between Rs40,000 and Rs50,000 every month on fitness was enough to convince him that he simply could not afford to keep up.

Shehzar Muhammad, a first-class cricketer, fitness trainer and the owner of a gym, SMF Studio, believes social media has played a significant role in creating that perception.

"Fitness culture has changed tremendously over the last five years," he says. "Earlier, you would see gyms empty during certain hours of the day. Today, they're packed almost all day. Young people are coming, older people are coming and more people are taking their health seriously than ever before."

Greater interest, however, has also created a larger marketplace. "Anything that has demand creates products around it," he says. "Social media has definitely made fitness look more expensive because everybody is selling something. Personal trainers are expensive, so are performance products and weight-loss/fitness programmes. When you're constantly exposed to all that information, you begin to feel like you need all of it."

That perception, he believes, often becomes the first hurdle for beginners.

People assume that they would be able to get better results for their time, money and choices if they go for the most premium that is running across our screens as we scroll. Workout divas tell us exactly how to achieve the body they have. In reality, people end up spending more time planning what they need than actually getting started.

"Everybody wants the latest gadgets or branded clothes because they think it will motivate them," he says. "But after a few days, that excitement fades. The clothes don't keep you accountable. The gadgets don't keep you disciplined. You still have to do the hard work, even on the days when you're tired or bogged down by work, and don't feel like showing up."

The same pattern, he says, is reflected in the questions he receives from followers online. "The biggest myth is that people think they have to do everything at once," he says. "They want to fix their diet, training, sleep, water intake and buy everything they see online all at the same time. Fitness doesn't work like that. It takes time to build habits, and those habits have to be built one at a time."

For many aspiring gym-goers, however, that distinction is becoming increasingly blurred. As the fitness industry continues to expand and social media fills with carefully curated routines, expensive equipment and picture-perfect physiques, the line between what is essential and what is merely aspirational has become harder to recognise. Somewhere between the desire to become healthier and the pressure to look the part, the cost of fitness is no longer measured only in monthly bills, but also in expectations.

Cutting through the noise

For someone scrolling through social media, fitness can seem like an expensive pursuit. From pillows to Pilates, everything offers a promise of comfort, performance and perfection.

One video recommends whey protein before stepping into a gym. Another insists on creatine. Then come the lifting belts, specialised shoes, fitness watches, recovery gadgets and expensive meal plans. Before long, getting fit starts to look like a shopping list.

Shehzar sees that confusion every day.

As a fitness trainer, he says many beginners walk into a gym believing they need to invest in everything at once. They ask about supplements before asking about exercise. They worry about branded clothing before developing a routine.

"After being subjected to steady pressure from social media, people feel they need everything and they need it fast,”he says. “It doesn't work like that. Fitness is about building one habit first, staying consistent with it and then moving on to the next."

That, he believes, is where many people end up spending money unnecessarily.

Walk into any supplement store and the options seem endless. Protein powders line entire shelves, while creatine, pre-workouts, fat burners and recovery products promise quicker or better results. For someone just beginning their fitness journey, it's easy to assume these products are part of the entry fee.

"Supplements are an add-on," Shehzar says. "The first thing people should spend money on is getting their food right and training consistently. If those two things aren't in place, supplements won't magically change anything."

He makes a similar argument about equipment.

Expensive machines may make workouts more comfortable, he says, but they are rarely essential. If there isn't a treadmill, there's always the road outside to walk on. If there are no weights, body-weight exercises can still be effective. The same applies to premium gyms.

"You can learn almost anything today," he says. "There are hundreds of videos available online. You can work out at home, in a park or at the beach. Moving your body doesn't cost anything."

His advice may sound straightforward, but it also highlights the contradiction at the heart of today's fitness culture.

Never before have there been so many products, programmes and services linked to staying healthy. Yet, according to him, the foundations remain much the same as they always were: consistency, sensible eating and regular movement.

For many people, however, separating those essentials from everything else has become increasingly difficult. Between rising gym fees, expensive accessories and a constant stream of carefully curated fitness content online, the challenge is no longer simply finding the motivation to exercise. It is figuring out what is genuinely necessary and what has become part of the business of looking fit.

More than a workout

Rahim has accepted that staying fit comes at a price. Every month, he sets aside a significant part of his income, plans his evenings around training and, more often than not, chooses the gym over family dinners or social gatherings.

Hussain wants the same outcome, but his reality is different. Between work, children and household responsibilities, finding the time is difficult enough. The growing cost of gym memberships, healthier food and everything else associated with modern fitness only makes that journey feel even further away.

Their stories are different, but they arrive at the same place.

Staying healthy has never been more important, yet for many people it has also never seemed more expensive. Whether it is the rising cost of gyms, the pressure to keep up with trends or the image of fitness presented on social media, the journey often appears far more complicated than simply putting on a pair of shoes and going for a run.

Perhaps that is the real challenge, not convincing people that fitness matters, but convincing them that it doesn't have to look like everything they see online.aa