I think this article makes a lot of assumptions. It states gym members ships increased by 37% in ~ 1 decade. But, was that total memberships or % of population?

I think this article makes a lot of assumptions. It states gym members ships increased by 37% in ~ 1 decade. But, was that total memberships or % of population? How long do the memberships persist? It only mentions 6 months, pre-covid. Are these people actually utilizing their memberships? I know when I had an LA Fitness membership, I went like... 3 times in a year because I hated the environment and fighting for a damn rack with gym tren bros. It wasn't until I found rock climbing that I began training 3x/week for 2+ hours. What about obesity rates? Are they declining and, if so, is the decline directly attributable to increased gym memberships? And again, what about more rural areas where people might have turned to hiking/backpacking/outdoor sports? Seems like soulcycle subscriptions et al. are such a tiny part of the fitness industry as to be almost insignificant. This article is entirely speculation, and rather thoughtless at that. Personally, I think it's probably a grey mess. I stopped climbing for 2 months (March & April) as quarantine depression took hold. I substituted with lots of bodyweight workouts, but it wasn't the same. I lost my psyche. But, as soon as I could, I went back to bouldering and rock climbing outside 3x/week again, and it's remained steady at that level, with new habits of bodyweight workouts as supplemental work. I know many of my friends experienced similar drops in activity during quarantine, and only about 50% of them have bounced back and resumed training. The others have seriously put on weight or had their diets go to shit or switched to simple walks/runs instead of weights or other sports.