Catalyst View
Our reading of the numbers
Co-Founder and General Manager, Catalyst Performance
The number that should bother every Singaporean is not the headline. Our National Population Health Survey reports that 84.7% of adults are physically active, one of the highest rates in the world. But 51.6% of that total is commuting and only 24.7% is leisure-time exercise. We are a country that walks to the train, not a country that trains.
The figure I keep returning to is the gap between lifespan and healthspan. Singaporeans live to roughly 83.5, but stay in good health only to roughly 74. That is close to a decade spent unwell at the end of life. Lifespan is a medical achievement. Healthspan is a training problem, and it is the one the fitness industry has largely ignored while it sold twelve-week transformations.
This is why Catalyst measures four pillars rather than a scale weight. Body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, stability and strength are the systems that decide whether the last decade of life is independent or not. The global trend is moving the wrong way: inactivity has climbed from 23.4% in 2000 to 31.3% in 2022, and is on track for 35% by 2030. The studios that matter over the next ten years will be the ones training for that decade, not for the next photo.
Lifespan is a medical achievement. Healthspan is a training problem.