Happy Birthday ACTIV FITNESS! By your side for 40 years    

Happy Birthday ACTIV FITNESS! We are actually already 40 years old. In these four decades, ACTIV FITNESS has grown from a modest one-man business to a likeable market leader in Switzerland.

Born in 1984 from the vision of Armin Fach, today we are by far the largest fitness gym network in Switzerland with 121 gym. Quite a fit performance! 

Small gym, big dreams

Erlenbach, 1984: This is where a young Armin Fach, himself a former competitive athlete in athletics, founded the very first gym under the name ACTIV FITNESS.

In its humble beginnings, the first gym was a mere 140m2 and just 12 fitness machines fitted into the disused storage room of a furniture store.    

For comparison: our current category 3 ACTIV FITNESS in Lucerne covers almost 4000m2!

« I had lots of ideas on how I could improve the fitness experience, so the motto was: Think Big! The aim from the outset was to have several gyms. More gyms meant better pricing and, above all, the ability to reach more people.» 

Armin Fach, a man with a vision

A versatile range as a recipe for success

Armin Fach was fascinated by the nascent fitness industry in Switzerland at the time. He felt the urge to create something of his own. And he took a new approach, moving away from the bodybuilding-oriented mukluks of the time.

Right from the start, he focused on good value for money, a wide selection of group fitness classes and service!  

“ACTIV FITNESS has always stood for functionality and accessibility. It has always been important to me that fitness is affordable for everyone. Especially for families. That’s why we introduced the children’s area early on. I also approached things differently than others in the industry early on thanks to the personal advice and constant exchange with my members.” 

Armin Fach

A plan that worked. As the gym slowly took off thanks to personal recommendations from members, the small storage room was bursting at the seams. Again and again, Armin had to push the temporary partition wall to the back of the furniture store to give the members a few more square centimeters of space for their workout. In the end, the very first ACTIV FITNESS gym in Erlenbach had 742 members!

This was soon followed by the second gym in Meilen – the oldest ACTIV FITNESS gym still in existence in Switzerland. The rest is history! ACTIV FITNESS has become a phenomenon. Fitness for everyone – strength, endurance and group fitness.  

Armin tells us: “The very first subscription I sold is still framed and hanging in my home today.”