About Body Life

Body Life

body LIFE is the German-language trade magazine for the fitness industry's decision-makers, published by the bodyLIFE Medien GmbH. The magazine addresses the industry's professionals: the micro-studio operators, the club managers, the sport hotels with fitness facilities, the sports physicians, the physiotherapists, and the sports therapists and clinics. With over 35 years of well-founded knowledge for the fitness industry, body LIFE — together with its sister titles TRAINER and the Functional Training Magazin — is the industry's professional medium: the business management, the training science, and the market developments. The annual subscription costs 79 euros; the single issue 8.90 euros.

Overview

The fitness industry is the health economy's growth business: the gym chains, the micro studios, the functional-training boxes, and the health-oriented clubs — plus the medical fitness providers. body LIFE addresses the people who run these businesses: the decision-makers deciding the equipment investments, the personnel strategies, and the business models. The magazine's program follows the fitness business's agenda: the club management, the training concepts, the equipment innovations, the marketing, and the industry's market developments.

The brand portfolio — the leading trade magazines body LIFE and TRAINER with their loyal readers and subscribers, plus the Functional Training Magazin (four times a year, the high-quality special-interest magazine for the specialists, its issues already collectors' items among the enthusiastic functional-training community) — covers the industry's segments: the classic club business, the trainer profession, and the functional-training boom. The long-term partnership with the FIBO — the international leading fitness trade fair — anchors the brand in the industry's central event. The HYROX special — the 2025 special issue "HYROX – fit for the race" — exemplifies the brand's trend journalism. The fitness race — the combination of running and functional workouts — became the industry's boom discipline: the competitions selling out, the studios adding the HYROX zones, the equipment makers launching the race lines. The body LIFE special explained the boom through the Munich Pace Club — the world's largest HYROX Performance Center on 700 square meters — with the authentic race feeling through the original race equipment, the functional studio design, the smart spot booking, and the flexibly bookable sessions. The exclusive interview with Ralph Wentz (HYROX365), the athlete portrait of Magdalena Schubert, and the equipment insights from Perform Better and CENTR x HYROX gave the industry's professionals the complete trend picture: the concept, the business model, and the suppliers. The milon special — ten pages on the philosophy, the innovation, and the product — showed the equipment journalism: the digital technologies transforming the training from the analog routine to the data-based personalized experience, the members expecting the transparency and the measurable progress.

History

body LIFE's "over 35 years" of fitness-industry knowledge dates the brand to the late 1980s — the fitness boom's early years, when the studios spread across Germany. The trade magazine grew with the industry: from the bodybuilding gyms through the wellness clubs of the 1990s, the discount chains of the 2000s, to the boutique studios and the functional training of the 2010s. The 2018 media-company founding deserves its strategic portrait. The consolidation — the market-leading body LIFE and TRAINER plus the new Functional Training Magazin under the one bodyLIFE Medien GmbH roof — was the fitness media's answer to the industry's fragmentation: the classic club business, the personal-trainer profession, and the functional-training movement each needing their dedicated medium, all served by the one fitness-focused publisher. The managing directors' division — Max Barth running the operations, Georg von Griesheim the strategy and M&A — signaled the growth ambition: the mergers and acquisitions as the publisher's expansion path. The new structures — the production, development, and service units, the extended events and online-services competences, and the HiPEB (high-performing end-user business) — built the cross-media machine: the trade magazines, the portals, the events, and the end-user business under the one roof. The advertisers' promise — "the perfect mix to successfully develop the market of professional, highly ambitious, and purchase-interested fitness specialists" — named the B2B logic: the suppliers reaching the buyers through the trusted trade media.

The new portfolio — supported by the new production, development, and service structures and the extended competence fields in events, online services, and the high-performing end-user business — positioned the publisher for the industry's next phase: the digitalization, the health orientation, and the hybrid training. The special-issue program — the HYROX special explaining the fitness-race boom, the milon special on the digitalization — extended the brand into the trend topics. Through the pandemic — the studios closed, the industry in crisis — and the recovery, the trade magazine continued its professional mission: the well-founded, well-researched specialist knowledge.

Coverage and Content

Each issue follows the fitness business's agenda. The club-management coverage treats the business: the business models, the pricing, the personnel, and the member retention. The training coverage addresses the concepts: the functional training, the HYROX, the digital training, and the health-oriented programs. The equipment coverage follows the innovations: the strength machines, the cardio, the digital systems — like milon's data-based personalized training. The marketing coverage treats the member acquisition: the online marketing, the community building, and the brand. The market coverage follows the industry's developments: the chain expansions, the consolidations, and the trends.

The special issues dive deep: the HYROX special — the world's largest HYROX Performance Center (the Pace Club in Munich), the race equipment, the studio design, the athlete portraits — explaining the fitness-race boom for the industry's professionals. The online platforms — bodylife.com and the sister portals — carry the daily news between the issues. The events competence — the FIBO partnership and the publisher's own events — extends the journalism into the live industry.

Organization and Ownership

body LIFE is published by the bodyLIFE Medien GmbH — the media company founded in 2018 for the three fitness brands body LIFE, TRAINER, and the Functional Training Magazin. The managing directors: Max Barth (operational business) and Georg von Griesheim (strategy, M&A). The publisher's program — "Der Branchenprimus wächst" (the industry leader grows) — positions the house as the fitness market's media leader: the platform for the well-founded, well-researched specialist knowledge.

Commercially, the magazine follows the B2B trade-press model: subscriptions from the fitness industry's professionals — the 79-euro annual price, the 8.90-euro single issue — and advertising from the industry's suppliers: the equipment manufacturers, the software providers, the nutrition companies, and the service providers. The portfolio — the three magazines with their online platforms — offers the advertisers the targeted reach into the professional, highly ambitious, and purchase-interested fitness specialists. The events and online services add the extended competence fields.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is bodylife.com (also reachable via body-life.de), the portal carrying the industry news, the magazine content, and the media data. The online platforms of the three brands — body LIFE, TRAINER, and the Functional Training Magazin — deliver the daily news flow between the print issues. The Yumpu presence archives the digital issues and the special prints: the HYROX special, the milon special, and the industry reports.

The digital strategy follows the B2B media logic: the print magazine for the curated professional reading — the well-founded knowledge for the fitness industry — the online platforms for the daily news, and the events (with the FIBO partnership) for the live industry. As the fitness industry's trade magazine — from the late-1980s founding through the 2018 media-company consolidation to the HYROX present — body LIFE remains the industry's professional medium: the business, the training, and the market — in print, online, and at the industry's events.