Barcelona launch puts Spanish gym management playbook on Amazon

Nacho Perelló’s Capitanes del Fitness is now on Amazon in hardback and paperback after a strong reception at Barcelona’s recent Mastermind gathering, where the book was introduced to operators looking for something more useful than motivational fluff. Built from conversations with 23 gym managers in Spain, the title is framed as a practical business book about numbers, operating discipline, and growth strategy, with the stated aim of helping independent owners make sense of a sector where margins, staffing, retention and differentiation matter more than floor space.

The book’s pitch is deliberately operator-first. Perelló, who identifies on his own site as the founder of MPG, a marketing, consulting and fitness M&A business, has been developing the project through three seasons of interviews with leading Spanish operators. The Amazon listing says the sector is polarized between hyper-scaling and niche models, and asks which business model works today. The UK listing also points to examples from long-running clubs such as DYS GYM and Club Jimbe, which it describes as having survived for more than half a century, giving the book a longevity angle as well as a scaling one.

That focus lands at a moment when the Spanish fitness market is looking more like a serious industry than a lifestyle category. Fundación España Activa, with Deloitte and support from FNEID, said Spain’s fitness sector generated a record €3.24 billion in revenue in 2025 and had 8.3 million users. A separate Spanish sport-and-fitness report put the sector at 3.3% of GDP and counted 4,561 gyms and 5.4 million users. EuropeActive and Deloitte widened the lens further, saying Europe reached 75.5 million members, €39.1 billion in annual revenues and 67,515 fitness clubs in 2025.

The timing also fits the mood inside Spain’s operator community. BDO’s 2025 fitness outlook said more than nine in 10 Spanish fitness companies expected revenues to improve, and 95% believed 2025 would be a good or very good year. Against that backdrop, Capitanes del Fitness reads less like a vanity publication and more like a published operating manual for a market that is getting larger, more competitive and more professional at the same time.

Perelló’s launch followed a clear run-up. Gym Factory reported on May 29, 2026 that he would present the book at Mastermind MPG on June 5 at Dir Paradise in Mataró. It then said the Barcelona Mastermind included the launch and a co-creation session aimed at solving operators’ bottlenecks. The same ecosystem has already been building for a while: Gym Factory said the Capitanes del Fitness podcast returned for a second season in September 2024 after 30 episodes. Together, the book, the podcast and the live events show a Spanish fitness market that is starting to package its own know-how, not just consume it.