RiminiWellness 2026 Broke Records. Here’s What US Brands Can Learn

Arm wrestling at supplement booths, a pasta brand sponsoring a fitness stage and more. Now in its 20th year, Italy’s annual wellness expo just wrapped its largest edition ever, with attendance up 15% and international participation up 25%

There’s a moment on the floor of RiminiWellness that’s hard to explain to someone who’s never been.

The scale of Italy’s annual fitness and wellness expo is staggering: 30 halls, more than 10 active stages, nearly two million square feet of indoor and outdoor space, over 400 brands and attendees from 140 countries at the Rimini Expo Centre on the Adriatic Riviera.

But it’s the organic energy that is most impressive.

It’s a testament to what happens when an event opens its doors to both trade professionals and ardent health consumers, resulting in energy that can only be described as contagious. 

And if RiminiWellness’ attendance numbers are any indication, that energy is only growing.

Now in its 20th year, RiminiWellness just wrapped its largest edition ever on May 31, with attendance up 15% and international participation up 25%.

The numbers come as European fitness memberships reached 75.5 million by the end of 2025, with total revenue climbing 9.1% to $44.5 billion, according to the European Health & Fitness Market Report 2025 from Deloitte and EuropeActive.

On every stage and during every activation, people of all ages are moving together, dancing with Zumba’s Beto Perez, riding with Technogym and competing at Hyrox. The topic of GLP-1s? Practically non-existent. Young children in activewear are also among the crowd, the beginnings of a healthy lifestyle taking root.

At the FGM04 booth, a line of consumers waited to try on the Italian brand’s signature activewear, while over at Vitastrong’s booth, sports nutrition met raw spectacle with a crowd circled to watch an arm wrestling match. Sportswear brand Teveo had turned its section into something closer to a rave and even nonna would approve, as pasta giant Barilla got in on the action, sponsoring an entire fitness stage through its Protein+ line.

Altogether, it’s a reminder that in Europe, the relationship between the fitness industry and the fitness consumer feels fundamentally different than it does in the U.S. 

That’s not a critique of America’s wellness ambitions. The U.S. fitness and wellness market is the most powerful in the world. Yet obesity rates remain stubbornly high, as do depression rates among young Americans and access to preventive healthcare continues to be a challenge. In contrast, two-thirds of Europeans report exercising at least once per week and experience food quality standards that are widely regarded as among the most stringent.

The emphasis on genuine social connection and on movement as a way of life rather than an obligation is an energy the U.S. fitness industry is still working toward. 

Europe, on the other hand, is already living it.

There’s still room to grow, and one of the biggest takeaways from RiminiWellness 2026 suggests there are things the U.S. can learn from its neighbors across the Atlantic. 

Fitness With a Finish Line

Hyrox, the functional fitness race concept, has become a defining force in the European fitness scene, and its four-day presence at RiminiWellness was impossible to miss. It’s a special place for the brand, having launched its first competition in Italy at the expo in 2023.

It also exists at a time when consumers are eager to train for something and do it alongside others.

Some U.S. operators are all in, and while Hyrox is certainly growing stateside, RiminiWellness panelists say operators have only cracked the surface.

In a panel moderated by FitTech Club founder Natalia Karbasova, Trouble Global founder Emma Barry said the magic is less about the race and more about what it represents: a model of fitness built around shared experience and social accountability, one that extends beyond the gym and into travel and destination experiences for those who aren’t local.

“There is a very long runway for this sort of activity,” she said of the U.S. market, while later adding a sense of belonging is a powerful retention tool. “You will never leave a circle of friends.”

Jörg Fockenberg, vice president of strategy, expansion and franchise at the RSG Group, the parent company of Gold’s Gym, McFit and John Reed, agreed with Barry’s assessment. 

([RSG Group) and hybrid fitness work very well together,” he said. The group has skin in the game. In 2025, its Gold’s Gym brand launched North America’s first Hyrox Performance Center in Texas, with more planned.

GLP-1s: A Tale of Two Markets

In the U.S., blockbuster weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have changed the conversation around the role of the gym, leading some operators to dive into gym-as-clinic models, complete with prescribing arms for eligible members.

Celebrity endorsements, Super Bowl advertising and pharmaceutical marketing have only accelerated acceptance, Barry noted, while GLP-1s have created an entirely new category of gym-curious consumer — people who have lost weight and now need strength training. 

However, the issue she sees is that the industry isn’t always ready to receive them.
For U.S. operators, the opportunity may be less about the drug and more about the door it opens, while making sure your club is ready to walk someone through it.

“It’s already intimidating to come to a club if you’re not a person who would never go to a gym,” she said of a consumer who has shed weight and is now navigating strength training for the first time. “We have to be more welcoming.”

She added that GLP-1s represent a gateway to strength training, pointing to research suggesting users who don’t pair the medication with strength training and adequate protein risk significant muscle loss. 

While one in eight U.S. consumers are taking a GLP-1, European consumers are substantially more skeptical of a pharmaceutical intervention for weight loss than their American counterparts, Fockenberg pointed out.

Barry agreed. “Europe has not had a Super Bowl moment,” she said.

The Middle-Market Squeeze

There is one area where the U.S. and European fitness markets appear to share common ground: the middle market identity crisis.

Luxury operators are thriving, with spaces crafted for emotional attachment and full lifestyle integration. It’s a model that allows members to linger for hours if they choose, moving from a workout to a game of padel, a cold plunge and then emails in a dedicated workspace. Low-cost operators like Planet Fitness, meanwhile, are winning on accessibility and price, capturing budget-conscious Gen Z. The operators in the middle, however, are where it gets complicated.

Fockenberg cited a professor’s blunt analogy that applies to middle operators right now. “There’s either meat or fish — decide what you’re going to be,” he said.

For mid-market operators, he added, the path forward requires being unambiguous about why a member should choose you over the budget gym down the street or the premium club across town. “If you want to play a good game in the middle of the market, be very straight about what you are,” he said.

Zooming out, RiminiWellness 2026 was, by every measure, an inspiring look at the best of what fitness and wellness is at its core. Organic, intergenerational and a reminder that movement is a shared human experience. 

“I come here and I see life,” Barry said. “I urge you to hang on to this culture. Don’t let it go, because lots of things that happen in the United States are not healthy, they’re just fast. It’s not always the slow way, the human way.”