From leisure operator to health activator

People

LEISURE CENTRES CAN AND SHOULD BE PART OF THE HEALTH SYSTEM

WellNation speaks to Steven May, CEO of Mytime Active, about how the operator is using EGYM to engage with health partners and drive positive community health outcomes

Steven May has a clear ambition. As CEO of Mytime Active, his goal is to reposition public leisure at the heart of Bromley’s health system; not as places people simply go to be active, but as essential community infrastructure for preventing ill health, extending health span, and reducing pressure on primary care services. At a time when the NHS is under unprecedented strain and local authorities are being asked to do more with less, May believes leisure operators have a critical role to play in the shift from healthcare that repairs problems to whole systems that prevent them.

Here, he explains how Mytime Active is using the EGYM digital fitness ecosystem to evidence real- world health outcomes, strengthen partnerships with health and community stakeholders, and build a data-driven model for public leisure.

What is Mytime Active’s overarching mission? We’re currently in the process of writing a new five-year health and wellbeing strategy in full consultation with the council, NHS, public health and a wide range of community partners. Our previous strategy was developed on the back of the pandemic and comes to an end in March 2026, with the new one launching from April.

The direction of travel is very clear. We’re moving towards a whole-system approach to health, where leisure, healthcare, local government and the third sector all work together rather than in silos. If we genuinely understand each other’s ambitions, challenges and capabilities, we can design solutions that not only deliver far better health outcomes for residents but are also commercially more viable. There is a wealth of experience and resources that already exist within the community; we just need to get better at optimising what is available. This can only be achieved through cross-sector, cross-organisation collaboration.

A big part of this process is a shift towards prevention rather than repair. This aligns perfectly with the government’s long-term health strategy - Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England and Sport England’s Uniting the Movement vision. It also reflects what communities need; more support earlier, in non-clinical, neighbourhood settings, before issues become acute.

We’re also focused on reaching those people who are furthest away from physical activity but stand to benefit the most from an active lifestyle. For example, those living with long-term health conditions, people recovering from trauma or injury, and individuals with disabilities.

How do you initiate and maintain strong links with community and health partners? Working in partnerships is fundamental to everything we do. I chair ProActive Bromley and sit on a borough partnership group chaired by the London Borough of Bromley Council. These forums bring together public health, healthcare and third sector organisations, including Mytime Active, to look at live priorities and ask a simple question: what can we collectively do to address this?

Our leisure facilities and services have huge potential to support population health, but the key is understanding where the real needs are and designing pathways that genuinely make a difference. Our primary driver is always improved health or social outcomes, rather than income generation.

That’s a really important distinction. Of course, we need to be financially sustainable, but the purpose of Mytime Active is to improve the quality of life for local people. Leisure centres can and should be part of the health system. We need to be on the field of play rather than watching from the bench.

How does EGYM help you achieve your community health and wellbeing ambitions? My initial perception of EGYM was completely wrong. I assumed it was designed for older adults. In reality, it’s designed for everyone, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

Our gyms welcome users from as young as 11 years old, right through to people in their senior years. At both The Pavilion and The Spa at Beckenham, EGYM is positioned as an integral part of the gym floor, not a separate or specialist provision. It’s open, visible and part of the core experience.

At The Pavilion, we replaced some older modular strength equipment with EGYM Smart Strength and positioned the individual units as standalone pieces. At The Spa, the EGYM equipment is still on the gym floor, but set up in more of a traditional circuit format. Both are supported by the EGYM Fitness Hub, plus the EGYM Member and Trainer Apps. We’ve fully invested in the ecosystem, with third-party providers such as InBody also fully integrated. This creates a fully connected experience for our users where they can access all their data through a single touchpoint.

YOUNG PEOPLE LOVE THE GAMIFICATION. THEY’RE MOTIVATED BY THE LEADERBOARDS, THE CHALLENGES, THE DATA

How is EGYM helping engage and onboard more people? The onboarding process has been transformational. Everyone is offered an EGYM induction, and the volume we’re now able to process compared to before we installed EGYM is on a completely different scale.

In December alone, we onboarded 1,502 people into the EGYM ecosystem. That put us second on the EGYM UK leaderboard for public sector facilities for the month.

Before EGYM, an induction could take an hour, sometimes longer for people with complex needs. Now, the automated setup and digital hand-holding through each repetition reduces this time to just 20 minutes. Our teams now spend far less time on setup and far more time on what actually matters: mentoring and coaching people towards their goals.

This has huge operational benefits, but it’s also critical for inclusion. The easier it is to onboard people, the easier it is to reach and spend quality time with those who might otherwise feel intimidated, invisible or disengaged.

What impact are you seeing on user behaviour and outcomes? The data is incredibly powerful. EGYM gives people continuous feedback on their progress based on evidenced improvements to key health markers rather than vanity. We’re seeing users train more consistently, largely because they can see tangible improvements in strength, flexibility and BioAge. These regular check-ins reinforce the value of their effort and keep them engaged. Our EGYM users train, on average, 4.4 times per week. We all know that the more times people turn up to train the more engaged they are and the longer they remain so.

Members who joined in December have seen a collective strength improvement of 9.4% and an average BioAge reduction of 5.8 years in just two months, demonstrating a physiological shift, not just a cosmetic one. These improvements will drive good health and build resilience.

EGYM is changing mindsets. People are moving away from purely aesthetic goals towards a deeper understanding of health, resilience and longevity. This drives a much healthier relationship with exercise, encouraging long-term behaviour change that supports good health and prevents ill health.

You’re seeing strong uptake from young people. Why do you think that is? We currently have the highest number of under 21 EGYM users in the public sector in the UK. That’s not by accident; it’s the result of intentional product positioning.

EGYM is visible on the gym floor, everyone gets inducted, and it’s never framed as something just for older adults or rehab. Young people love the gamification, the technology, the performance tracking. They’re motivated by the leaderboards, the challenges, the data.

They can safely compete with friends. Performing a one-rep max with a dumbbell would run a high risk of injury but, using EGYM, youngsters can challenge each other to perform the highest one-rep max with little risk of overload. EGYM taps into the motivations and becomes an engagement driver of this demographic.

How is EGYM supporting referral and recovery pathways? One powerful example came out of a partner meeting, where we identified several local firefighters who were off work due to injury or trauma. Together with the fire service, we created a referral pathway hosted in our facilities specifically to support their recovery and return to work.

Each month, the fire service sends us a list of individuals who might benefit and we onboard them through EGYM. It gives participants a safe, structured, measurable way to support their clinical rehabilitation, whilst also creating social opportunities and keeping them moving while they wait for availability of medical support services.

PEOPLE ARE MOVING AWAY FROM PURELY AESTHETIC GOALS TOWARDS A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF HEALTH, RESILIENCE AND LONGEVITY

We’re also working closely with local GPs and other integrated care partners to deliver cardiac rehabilitation and a range of GP referral programmes. Many of our activity-led programmes are funded and being able to evidence proven health outcomes helps justify current and future investment. EGYM makes this incredibly simple.

Why is data so important in this model? For the first time, EGYM means we can genuinely evidence impact in a language our health partners understand.

The depersonalised data from the EGYM ecosystem allows us to demonstrate, at scale, how engagement in leisure services is improving health outcomes. Metrics like BioAge reduction and strength improvements show real physiological changes that support good health and longevity.

We’ve always known physical activity is beneficial, but now we can prove it with statistical evidence. This is incredibly powerful when talking to public health teams, primary care networks and funders.

Once stakeholders can see how our services are improving resilience, reducing future health risk and potentially lowering demand on clinical services, the value of investment in public leisure becomes obvious and undeniable.

EGYM supports the transition of leisure centres from being perceived as cost centres to being recognised and accepted as a vital solution to the health crisis.

Are there plans to expand EGYM to other venues? Yes. EGYM will be installed at both Walnuts and West Wickham Leisure Centres. Walnuts reopens in the spring following a multi-million-pound regeneration, with West Wickham following in 2028.

Our vision is to create a connected network of data-driven health and wellbeing hubs across the borough, all operating on EGYM’s digital ecosystem, all contributing to a shared evidence base.

What’s next for Mytime Active?

Our focus is on scaling engagement and deepening partnerships. EGYM gives us the infrastructure to deliver truly personalised physical activity pathways at population level. Through EGYM’s connected ecosystem, we can now support individual needs while also demonstrating collective impact. That’s the holy grail for public leisure.

If we want to be taken seriously as prevention partners within the health system, we must speak the language of outcomes, evidence and data. EGYM allows us to do exactly this and it’s changing the conversation around what leisure is, and what it’s capable of delivering.