AMSTERDAM TALKS - How Fit are the Citizens of Amsterdam?

In our November edition of the Amsterdam talks, we wanted to know how Amsterdammers are staying fit and healthy – both physically and mentally –particularly during the dark and colder months. Here a short recap of the great evening at Zoku.  

First, we had an example of indoor sports with Roxy van der Noordt, the co-founder and COO of a fitness company called Rocycle. It was initiated in 2015 in Amsterdam together with the founder Rogier van Duyn. The main activity at Rocycle is a workout on a bike. However, Rocycle is not a place where you go simply to get your regular fitness dose – Roxy emphasized that Rocycle is about an overall empowering experience and having fun. The ambiance is very important for this experience, and Roxy explained to us how it is created with carefully chosen lights, candles, acoustics and the whole setup – not forgetting the energizing music that allows you to let go.

Rocycle wants to provide an inclusive and safe environment where people can connect with their feelings and share and overcome worries in their personal life. One of the important principles in Rocycle according to Roxy is also growth; this refers not only to fast growth of the company, but also to the fact that they want people to grow both physically and mentally after joining Rocycle. The well-being of employees is not forgotten either, which means that blending of work and personal life at Rocycle is encouraged and the working hours are flexible. 

Our second speaker, Nicoline Smalbraak, is a life coach, trainer, philosopher, and founder of the Peace of Mind Society. Nicole wants to raise awareness of the more neglected components of fitness – mental and emotional. Nicole brought up how we should be able to embrace also working on our mental health. In fact, she proposed it should be equally socially acceptable to “brag” about seeing a therapist as going to the gym – unfortunately, we are not there yet.

Nicoline also shared how it is important to find “moments of piece” amidst the overly alert state that modern society causes us, and to regularly “check in” with yourself and your feelings – while cutting down on checking your phone. Although Nicoline said changing your mindset and routine might be difficult at first, she assured it will get easier with time. Why not give it a try?    

In the third and final part of the presentations we dived deep into Amsterdammers’ fitness habits with Ben Kuzey, the Head of Business Intelligence and Data at Onefit, who shared with us a great deal of infographics about the topic. The information was based on the user data of Onefit which allows members to utilize over 1000 diverse locations for training in 5 different Dutch cities including Amsterdam.

For instance, we learned that Monday evening is the most popular workout time for Amsterdammers, and that from different types of workout HIT (“high-intensity training”) has grown in popularity recently. Ben also shared some demographics of the users in Amsterdam; interestingly, the share of female users at Onefit is as high as 70 %. Lastly, Ben assured that Amsterdammers are fit people overall, and, maybe not surprisingly being the capital city, also compared to other Dutch cities.  And even so, he thinks that Amsterdam is a very fit city in comparison to other capitals in Europe.

From left to right, Ben of Onefit, Nicoline of Peace of Mind Society and Roxy of Rocycle.

All in all, it was a versatile evening where we received loads of inspiration on how to stay fit during the winter period. In a busy city like Amsterdam, and perhaps especially now when the days are shorter, it was an important reminder to focus also on our mental (and emotional) fitness.
So, perhaps the key to staying truly fit and combatting the darkness is being active while also taking time for ourselves to avoid getting lost in the everyday hustle and bustle.

December was too busy to host any events, but we’ll be back in 2020 for another inspiring series of events celebrating liveability in cities. Stay tuned and happy holiday season!

Words by Elina Pirhonen & all imagery by Hamzah Kashash