GymNation Launches Workout Class in Total Darkness to Tackle Gymtimidation

The Middle East fitness giant is removing mirrors, screens and phones from its latest group fitness concept in a move to take judgment out of the gym experience

GymNation has frozen its gyms, put hotel rooms on its gym floors and leaned into Hyrox, Pilates and recovery. For its latest fitness experiment, the Middle East gym giant is simply turning off the lights.

GymNation is launching “Dans le Noir: Class in the Dark,” a 45-minute group fitness class performed in total darkness, with participants guided entirely by an instructor’s voice and an immersive soundtrack delivered through wireless headphones.

The concept will debut at select GymNation locations across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in September.

With mirrors, screens and phones removed — and participants unable to see one another — GymNation says the idea is to shift attention away from appearance and toward movement, while creating a less intimidating environment for people who might otherwise feel self-conscious exercising around others.

“We’re obsessed with the visual in fitness — mirrors, cameras, content,” GymNation chief marketing officer Rory McEntee said. “We’ve turned working out into a performance, and for a lot of people, that performance is terrifying before they’ve even picked up a weight.”

Can Working Out in the Dark Make Gyms Less Intimidating?

The concept takes inspiration from dining-in-the-dark experiences, which remove sight to heighten participants’ other senses.

Before the lights go out, GymNation members are guided through balance work, joint mobilization and proprioceptive exercises designed to prepare them to move without visual cues.

Once the room goes dark, participants work through functional movements, strength exercises and breathwork using weighted vests, wrist weights and dumbbells. The instructor, meanwhile, wears night-vision goggles to move around the room and monitor participants.

Beyond creating an unusual workout, GymNation is positioning the class as a response to one of the fitness industry’s persistent challenges: gym intimidation.

The operator’s 2026 Fitness Report found that 47% of people cite fear of judgment as the primary barrier preventing them from joining or returning to a gym.

GymNation also points to research suggesting mirrors can have unintended psychological effects during exercise, particularly for beginners. By eliminating them — along with virtually every other visual cue — the company is betting that exercisers can focus more on how their bodies feel rather than how they look.

“When we remove visual input, the body is forced to rely on proprioception — our internal sense of position, balance and movement,” sports scientist Aderito Manuel said, adding that the change forces the body to rely more heavily on stabilizing muscles.

Dans le Noir is the latest in a string of unconventional concepts from GymNation as the fast-growing operator looks to differentiate itself in the increasingly competitive Middle East fitness market.

Last summer, GymNation launched its “world’s coolest class” in response to the UAE’s soaring temperatures, incorporating ice-block sled pushes, frozen weighted vests, wind tunnel-style treadmill sprints and post-workout ice baths.

Earlier in 2025, the brand created an in-gym hotel concept at its downtown Dubai club, complete with four-poster beds, dumbbell-shaped towels and a “Press for Protein” button that delivered protein shakes on demand.

Those attention-grabbing concepts have arrived alongside more traditional fitness investments. GymNation has expanded into Reformer Pilates, recovery and Hyrox training while growing its footprint across the Middle East.

The low-cost operator now counts close to 50 locations and more than 200,000 members across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, up from 22 gyms across the UAE and Saudi Arabia in July 2025.