Norwich Crowned Britain's Home Gym Capital in New Industry Report

GLASGOW, UNITED KINGDOM — 12th August 2026 — Norwich builds more home gyms per person than any other British city, according to The UK Home Gym Report 2026, published today by Sprung Gym Flooring, one of the UK's largest gym flooring suppliers.

The report, drawn from six years of complete trading data covering 55,000+ UK home gym installations, ranks Britain's cities by home gym building per 100,000 residents. Norwich tops the table at around 46 orders per 100,000 — roughly eight times London's rate — followed by Reading, Preston and Cambridge. London leads in absolute volume but ranks near the bottom per person, which the report attributes to flat-dwelling and space constraints.

The data also overturns the industry's oldest assumption: that January is peak season. November 2025, driven by Black Friday, was the single busiest month for home gym building — 6% ahead of January — while May and June 2026 combined outsold January and February by 8%, as garden gyms and garage conversions spread demand across the year.

Other findings include:

The average home gym order value reached a record high in 2026, up 22% on the 2021 lockdown era, as single-mat purchases give way to full-room builds. After three flat years, category revenue rose 16% in 2025 and is up a further 6% in 2026 to date — evidence, the report argues, that the home gym has become a permanent fixture of British housing rather than a pandemic fad.

The report also documents the HYROX effect: UK searches for the indoor fitness race grew from a few dozen a month in 2020 to more than 150,000 a month at the 2026 peak, reshaping demand toward functional training spaces. And it records a structural shift in how Britons research fitness purchases, with Microsoft's Copilot AI citing the company's guides 13,400 times in a single quarter.

Richard McKay, founder of Sprung Gym Flooring, said: "Everyone assumes London and January. The data says Norwich and November. The home gym stopped being a lockdown improvisation years ago — what we see now are planned rooms, built year-round, in ordinary houses across mid-sized Britain." 

On the findings about equipment choices, McKay added: "85% of the rubber tiles we sell are the standard 20mm. People have stopped over-buying thickness — they floor the room sensibly and put the heavy-duty tiles only where the barbell actually lands. It's the most financially literate the market has ever been." 

The full report, including methodology and city rankings, is free to read and cite at: https://www.gym-flooring.com/blogs/stats-hub/the-uk-home-gym-report-2026

Notes to editors Sprung Gym Flooring (gym-flooring.com) is a Glasgow-based gym flooring specialist founded in 2020, supplying rubber, foam and modular flooring to more than 55,000 UK home gyms and 1,500 commercial facilities. The company is rated Excellent on Trustpilot. Regional data breakdowns, the underlying figures, and interviews with founder Richard McKay are available on request.

Media contact: Richard McKay, Founder — [email protected]