Where are the UK’s most Instagrammable gyms?

Whether it’s for motivation, sharing health journeys or to engage with other fitness-focussed followers, we’re all used to seeing a #gymselfie on our feed. And, as of October 2022, the hashtag had 3.5 million posts, with that number growing every day.

Beyond taking selfies, gyms across the UK are often filled with impressive state-of-the-art machines and offer fun and innovative fitness classes that are too good not to snap. If you feel good about walking into a space then you’re much more likely to keep up good habits and come back, especially if the aesthetics help to take that #gymselfie to the next level.

With this in mind, we wanted to investigate which gyms across the UK are the most Insta-worthy.

To do this, we identified the 5 most popular gyms across the 50 biggest cities in the UK, before analysing Instagram location data to learn which ones had the most tagged posts. More than 250 gyms were in the running to help us learn which gym was the most Instagrammable – and which city had a particular penchant for sharing these snaps.

Which gyms are tagged the most online?

Psycle (@psyclelondon) in Oxford Circus, London, was the most popular, with 14,200 posts tagged at its location. Offering cycling, barre, strength, yoga and reformer pilates, there are plenty of opportunities to share a post when visiting this hotspot. Another Psycle gym at Canary Wharf didn’t quite make the top 50 list, but did still have 2,854 posts tagged.

Coming in second was UFit Fitness (@ufit_fitness) in Cardiff, with 12,800 posts, followed closely by another London gym, Equinox (@equinox), with 12,500 posts. BXR London (@bxrlondon), which runs group classes including Versaclimber and boxing, came sixth on the list and had more than 9,300 posts tagged.

JD Gyms (@jdgyms) in Coventry was the fifth most popular gym with almost 9,600 tagged images. The JD Gyms chain appeared on the top 50 list 12 times, while another known chain, CrossFit, featured five times. CrossFit Connect (@crossfit_connect), in Brighton, was the most popular with 4,442 posts.

The top 50 most Instagrammable gyms in the UK are:

Rank	Gym	City	Number of tagged posts
1	Psycle Oxford Circus	London	14,200
2	UFit Fitness	Cardiff	12,800
3	Equinox Kensington	London	12,500
4	Third Space City	London	10,100
5	JD Gyms Coventry	Coventry	9,757
6	BXR London – Paddington St	London	9,301
7	JD Gyms – Liverpool Dale St	Liverpool	8,345
8	Form Leeds	Leeds	7,686
9	South Kensington Club	London	7,607
10	Third Space Canary Wharf	London	7,204
11	Buzz Gym Reading	Reading	6,761
12	Ministry of Fitness	Bristol	6,186
13	Bodyism	London	5,717
14	Physique Evolution Gym & Fitness	Derby	5,609
15	Third Space SOHO	London	5,322
16	Pump Gyms Northampton	Northampton	5,299
17	Ware-House Gym	Swansea	5,197
18	KXU London	London	5,172
19	Method Training	Newcastle	5,051
20	U7 Gym Exeter	Exeter	4,878
21	Barry’s Worship St.	London	4,791
22	FeelFit Gym Oxford	Oxford	4,552
23	JD Gyms – Leeds South	Leeds	4,464
24	CrossFit Connect	Brighton	4,442
25	GymWorks Preston	Preston	4,437
26	BXF Gyms	Sheffield	4,425
27	JD Gyms – Glasgow North	Glasgow	4,089
28	ESPA Life At Corinthia	London	4,041
29	CrossFit Glasgow	Glasgow	3,896
30	Gym Co Belfast	Belfast	3,822
31	JD Gyms – Derby	Derby	3,808
32	KX Private Members Club	London	3,751
33	David Lloyd Cambridge	Cambridge	3,599
34	JD Gyms – Wolverhampton	Wolverhampton	3,595
35	JD Gyms Newcastle	Newcastle	3,371
36	CrossFit Cardiff	Cardiff	3,370
37	Whatever It Takes (WIT)	London	3,359
38	CrossFit BFG Leicester	Leicester	3,339
39	JD Gyms – Liverpool Edge Lane	Liverpool	3,143
40	JD Gyms – Whitworth Street	Manchester	3,089
41	JD Gyms – Nottingham	Nottingham	3,034
42	CrossFit Aberdeen	Aberdeen	3,033
43	BodyWorld Plymouth	Plymouth	3,018
44	UFC Gym	Nottingham	2,933
45	The Foundry Vauxhall	London	2,873
46	Barry’s – Eccleston Yards	London	2,864
47	Psycle Canary Wharf	London	2,854
48	CrossFit Putney	London	2,729
49	H3 Gym	Nottingham	2,613
50	Everlast Fitness Clubs	Glasgow	2,577

 

Which city makes the most gym posts?

Unsurprisingly, the London gym scene features heavily in the top 50. In total, 15 gyms from the capital city made the list, amassing a combined total of 98,802 posts.

Outside of London, gyms in Manchester were the second most popular, with members uploading 15,923 tagged images across three gyms. Three gyms from Nottingham also featured on the top 50 list, accumulating 9,684 posts.

Ryan Kelford, operations manager at Versaclimber UK, commented on the research:

“Many of us are guilty of a quick gym selfie, and when the gym looks as good as some of those featured on this list, it’s not surprising. Fitness is a passion for lots of people, which is why there’s such a big appetite to share their journey online

“Now that summer is over, and people’s evenings and weekends are set to be less busy, it’s the perfect time for people to kick-start their fitness routines once more. This gives gyms the incentive to invest in making their in-person member experience better than ever.

“Introducing joint exercise is a great way to do this, as people look to make their fitness experience more social. Many of our partner gyms are loving our Versaclimber Hi-Tri for this reason.

“Ultimately, a gym isn’t just a place to exercise. It’s somewhere to unwind and socialise as well as work out. As more and more venues understand the importance of facilitating this rounded experience, we’re sure that they’ll see their social tags soar.”

For more information on Versaclimber, visit www.versaclimber.co.uk.

Methodology

Versaclimber took the 50 biggest cities in the UK, according to WorldPopulationReview.com.

We then used Google Reviews to find the 5 most popular gyms in each city and searched their location on Instagram. From here, we used Instagram’s location data to determine how many posts were tagged to each gym.

Data is correct as of August 2022.