A customer buys a post-workout meal at a restaurant in a gym in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, which only provides low-fat dishes. [Photo/Xinhua]

According to Lin Xianpeng, vice-director of the Management College of Beijing Sport University, the fitness trend is a result of fears about worsening health. "Almost half of the Chinese population is sub-healthy. About 150 million people have chronic ailments, and cases of both diabetes and cardio-cerebral vascular disease have reached 190 million," he said.

Furthermore, insomnia and obesity rates exceed those in developed countries, and they continue to rise among younger people. "We need to be clear that, although China is getting rich, its people's health should not be poor," Lin said. "China should avoid being the sick man of Asia."

Liu Qing, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Association of Sport Industry, said public awareness of fitness begins when a nation's annual per capita GDP hits $5,000. If it surpasses $8,000, the fitness industry becomes a pillar of the national economy.

China's per capita GDP exceeded $5,000 in 2011, and reached $8,016 last year, according to official data.

In 1995, the government issued the Outline of the Nationwide Physical Fitness Program, pledging that sports and health-building services would be aligned with national economic development.

In 2014, the government updated the fitness program into a national strategy. In June, it released the National Fitness Program for 2016-2020, predicting that 435 million people will regularly play sports by 2020, and total sports-related consumption will reach 1.5 trillion yuan.

Sports will become the new engine to boost domestic spending in a slowing economy, said Liu Peng, minister at the General Administration of Sport.