Commercial Gym Neon Signs

Gym owners know they need to create a welcoming atmosphere where the clients will feel comfortable exercising. Using neon lights in a gym can help make those working out feel confident. Neon signage is excellent for getting people’s attention, so it is unsurprising it has been used for advertising for decades. Whether it is an outdoor neon sign with your gym logo or a ‘Gym Open’ or an ‘Open for Fitness’ sign in your shop window, a neon light-up sign is guaranteed to catch the eye of potential customers.

Neon wall signs are useful inside a gym’s premises as well. Modern LED neon lights are safe, waterproof and low-cost to run. Using neon wall lights to direct people to changing rooms, bathrooms, toilets, weight rooms, gym classrooms, fitness studios and where to sign in is a cost-effective way to brighten up your space. Neon letters can also be used to make motivational gym signs to encourage your clients to keep exercising, such as ‘Let’s do this’, ‘Work it’, ‘No excuses’, ‘Just breathe’, ‘Eat, sleep, gym, repeat’, or ‘Every day is a good day to workout’.

Home Gym Neon Sign

Home gyms are becoming more commonplace, especially during recent lockdowns. A spare room or the garage is often repurposed with exercise equipment to help with fitness goals. A neon gym door sign is a fun way to let people know that this is what you have done.

When you are sweating through your reps, it can help to have distractions. Hanging neon wall art is a great way to do this. Motivational signs for a home gym look great in neon, for example, ‘Believe in yourself’, ‘Rise & Grind’, ‘No pain, No gain’, ‘Never give up’, Look great, feel great’. On the other hand, you may be the kind of person who is encouraged more by humour so you could prefer having funny workout signs to boost your energy levels.

Custom Neon Gym Signs

A personalised gym sign is a practical present. Some of our favourite ideas for custom neon lights are’ Welcome to Gary’s Home Gym’, ‘It’s not a garage, it’s Jane’s gym’, Bob’s Gym, Pumping Iron since 1999′, and ‘Sally, Fitness Freak lives here’. Having your gym name and logo in neon letters for a commercial gym is a fantastic way to build your brand recognition. We have a Bespoke Neon Sign Builder to assist you with making your own neon sign or get in touch to discuss the design you would like.

Motivational Gym Signs

If getting fit was easy, everyone would do it, but sadly, it is hard work. Having a motivational gym sign can inspire you to keep going even when your energy levels drop.

Examples of light-up wall signs you could hang in your fitness room for encouragement are ‘Beast mode activated’, ‘I’m doing this for me’ and ‘Go hard or go home’. If you think you need more, you could choose ‘Strength comes from within’, ‘You don’t find willpower, you create it’, and ‘Train insane, or remain the same’

Funny Gym Signs

When you are hot, tired and sweaty, a bit of humour can be just the thing to help you focus on your goals and boost flagging energy levels. Sometimes you need something snappy and to the point to help you keep going, such as ‘Hustle for muscle’, ‘Gym is the best Tonic’, ‘No ifs, just great butts’, and ‘Be a badass, with a good ass’. A large neon wall sign to amuse you while you work out could say, ‘Sweat is fat crying, make it rain!’ or ‘I will never break up with gym, we just seem to workout’.

What is the History of Gyms?

You may think of personal training as a modern-day phenomenon, but humans have been working out for centuries! In Beni Hasan, Egypt, tombs dating back to the XI Dynasty over 4500 years ago. The walls are decorated with scenes of everyday life, including Egyptians working out. There’s evidence that during the Neolithic era in Britain, competitions were held to compare men’s strength and in the months before our ancestors had fitness programmes to prepare.

The Greeks and Romans are well-known for the value they placed on athleticism. Numerous artefacts and records detail how they trained their young men to perform in contests. The most famous of these games is the forerunner of the modern-day Olympic Games, and they were held every four years near Olympia in honour of the Greek god Zeus and the winners received a crown of olive leaves. Every two years, the Isthmian Games were held near Corinth in honour of the god of the sea, Poseidon and the victors were given a crown of pine leaves. The Pythian Games were held near Delphi, with the champions crowned with laurel, and there were also the Nemean Games, where the prize was a garland of wild celery.

Contestants committed to a rigid ten-month training schedule to prepare for the games. The judges of the Games would live with the athletes and supervise their training. Events included running, wrestling, boxing, chariot races and throwing the discus and javelin. Interestingly, the ancient Greek athletes trained and competed naked with just a coating of olive oil. The word ‘gym’ is short for gymnasium, which comes from the Greek word for ‘a place to train naked’. Thankfully we wear gym clothes when we exercise nowadays!

The Roman Games were more about spectacle and centred around gladiatorial contests. These could be on a large scale, with Emperor Trajan once hosting an event with over 10,000 gladiators. A gladiator’s life was all about the Games, and they trained every day with wooden replicas of the weapons they used in the arena. As well as specific training for their event, gladiators also had a fitness regime to develop their strength, speed and stamina. They used a ‘tetrad’ system with a four-day cycle that had built-in rest periods. Many of their exercises would look similar to the kind of thing we do today. Sadly, with the fall of the Roman Empire, personal training was no longer viewed as essential.

It wasn’t until the Renaissance in the 14th century that interest in personal training started again. Many of the artworks of the time celebrated the human body, and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were deeply interested in how the body worked and how muscles could be developed. Medical knowledge was expanding at this time, too, and physicians were studying Romana and Greek manuscripts and exploring their concepts of health.

The first real gym of modern times was opened in Dassau, Germany, in 1774 by Johann Basedow and trained its students in activities like wrestling, running and riding. About the same time, another German, Johann Muths, published a widely read book titled ‘Gymnastics for Youth’.

By the early 1800s, the Highland Games were well established in Scotland, and young men trained and competed in events including tossing a caber, shot put, running, wrestling and jumping. Meanwhile, in England, athletic competitions were introduced in 1849 at the national military academy at Woolwich. Soon afterwards, Archibald MacLaren set up a gym at Oxford University, and the British Army started using his training programme. Over in France, Hippolyte Triat, a French strongman, used his fame to open a large gymnasium, popular with aristocrats as well as the lower classes.

By the late 1800s, most schools had physical training as part of their timetable. Gyms were still regarded as the preserve of professional athletes until Jack Lalanne opened his gym in Oakland, California, in 1936. He called it a health club and pioneered the idea that everyone should exercise. He invented some of the first pieces of gym exercise equipment, some of which are still in use today. As more machines were invented, more people could easily train and exercise without injuring themselves. The natural progression has seen exercise machines designed for home use, and now many houses come with home gyms.