Overseas, fitness is already shifting from mirrors and barbells to something entirely new, but at the same time very old. In the US, UK and parts in a few gyms in Sydney and Melbourne are moving away from somewhere to just train. They’re becoming somewhere people spend time. Somewhere that sits between home and work. Not an office. Not your lounge room. Something else entirely. Australia always follows these trends. We just do it a few yers later and pretend we discovered them.

The Third Space We Didn’t Know We Lost

To get this fully, and why it’ll work, you have to understand that for most of modern history we had three spaces to exist. Home. Work. And somewhere in between: the pub, the local footy club, the surf club, the shed. (It’s what the Men’s Shed is trying to create.) Go back a few years and there was the barbershop where you talked rubbish and solved the world’s problems badly. A few decades before and you had the men’s club full of curmudgeonly, pipe-puffing old duffers in leather armchairs.

That third space mattered more than we realised. It was where identity formed without pressure. The idea of the “third space” isn’t new. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg described it decades ago. His argument was simple. Societies weaken when people only move between home and work.The third place is where trust forms. Where loneliness softens. Where connection happens naturally, without apps or calendars. Modern gyms accidentally filled that gap and it’s being called the SOHO-ification of gyms.

What the Hell Is “Sohoification” Anyway

Yes, it’s a ridiculous word. But it fits well for what’s happening. Quick backstory and you’ll get the gist in immediately. Soho House began in London as a private members club for creatives, the artists, writers and thinkers of the day. The brilliance wasn’t the furniture or the lighting. It was the feeling. You weren’t joining a venue. You were joining a group and very clever people Same faces. Same vibe. Same sense of belonging to a tribe in a safe space. Eventually “Soho” stopped being a place and became an adjective. And once something becomes an adjective, it’s officially cultural. Now we have Soho-style hotels, offices, apartments and increasingly, gyms.

Soho House didn’t just create a club. It created a template that’s now being copied across industries from SOHO . The formula is simple. Take an activity people already do. Wrap it in environment, access and identity. Then make it somewhere people want to stay, not rush through.

Today, Soho House locations aren’t just bars and lounges. Many include gyms, yoga studios, pools, meditation pods, co-working floors, restaurants and outdoor spaces all under one roof. Some locations have rooftop pools, others have screening rooms or shared workspaces designed specifically for members who don’t want to work from home but don’t want an office either.

Fitness is just one pillar of the ecosystem.

You don’t arrive, train and leave. You arrive, train, eat, sit, talk, work and sometimes stay all day. That’s the key distinction.And once that model proved people would pay for it, the fitness industry paid attention.

In London, clubs like Third Space took the idea further. These aren’t gyms with cafés tacked on. They’re purpose-built health clubs that combine training floors with recovery suites, spa zones, cafés and quiet areas. Many locations include infrared saunas, cold plunge pools, compression therapy, guided breathwork rooms and lounge seating designed for post-training downtime. They create places you never want to leave, and that’s the idea.

In the US, Life Time has effectively built athletic country clubs. Some locations feature indoor and outdoor pools, pickleball and basketball courts, cafés, coworking areas, childcare and recovery lounges. Members don’t “go to the gym”. They schedule their day around it.

Pickleball alone has become a major drawcard. It’s social, low barrier and communal. Less intensity, more interaction. Exactly the kind of activity that suits a third space model. These clubs are selling time and structure.

Equinox followed the same path at the premium end. Flagship clubs include recovery pods, cold exposure zones, spa facilities and restaurants. Memberships can exceed several hundred dollars a month, yet demand remains strong in major cities. Because members aren’t paying for equipment. They’re paying for environment, access.

It’s also why mirrors are disappearing. Many of these clubs deliberately reduce mirrors and visual noise. The goal is less performance, less comparison and less “gym anxiety”. The space is designed to feel calmer, more controlled and more human.

Fitness has moved from being transactional to habitual. From something you squeeze in to something you build your day around. And that’s where the third space comes roaring back in through the side door.

Not as a pub. Not as a club. Not as a workplace. But as a modern, paid, curated version of community. You show up at the same time. You see the same people. Your absence is noticed. Your presence matters. No small talk required. The shared ritual does the work.

As traditional social structures weaken, people don’t stop needing connection. They just find it somewhere else. Gyms didn’t plan to fill that gap.

They just happened to be the place people were still willing to show up to consistently. That’s why the sohoification of gyms isn’t a fad. It’s a response to a structural problem. And like most trends that start overseas, Australia is already next.