Walk into a David Lloyd club on the right day and you might leave knowing more about your skeleton than you ever expected. The UK based chain, which runs around one hundred health and fitness clubs, has started piloting bone screening days that bring a clinical style diagnostic into the middle of a normal workout trip. It is part of a wider push from Power Plate and its partners to build a prevention focused system for bone health. And it nudges the fitness industry one step closer to turning the gym into something closer to a clinic.
How the Screening Works
The on site checks run through Screen My Bones, a Power Plate partner that relies on a method called REMS. Unlike a traditional DEXA scan, REMS reads your bone mineral density using sound waves rather than radiation. There is no X ray exposure and you get results within minutes, which makes it practical to run inside a club between classes. From there Power Plate pairs the scan with its PrecisionWave whole body vibration platforms and the bioDensity strength system, building a small ecosystem designed to act on whatever the readings show.
Training Coaches to Focus on the Skeleton
David Lloyd did not just plug in the equipment. The club wrote its own skeletal health training module, which includes vibration training, and put its coaches through it so they can explain the work and guide members session by session. The goal is to treat bone density as a trainable metric rather than a distant medical worry.
Why the Industry Is Moving This Way
Proponents argue that vibration training helps stimulate bone formation, and there is real interest in the idea. The honest caveat is that research on exactly how much these platforms shift bone mineral density is still mixed. That does not stop the trend from growing, because the appeal here is not only the science. It is the feeling of finally being able to measure something about your body that you could never see before.
The gym as clinic model adds diagnostics and preventive care straight into a membership. It taps the same consumer appetite for measurable health data that already drives wearable sales, continuous glucose monitors and the boom in at home biomarker tests. Iain Murray, managing director of Power Plate UK, describes the approach as meeting people where they are, whether that means their home, a gym, a hotel, an office or a hospital. He points to rising awareness around bone health that connects with menopause, healthy aging and even interest linked to the wave of weight loss drugs.
A Global Problem Most People Do Not Know They Have
The scale behind all of this is sobering. Estimates suggest roughly two hundred million people around the world live with osteoporosis, and the majority of them do not know it. Most people never think about their bones until something breaks. Giving members an early, painless scan changes that conversation.
The Franchise Angle
OsteoStrong has already turned the concept into a franchise model built on osteogenic loading. Its sessions are short and targeted, using resistance devices in brief workouts of about ten minutes a week. That stripped down, repeatable format shows how far the idea has traveled from a niche clinic add on toward something clubs can scale commercially.
What This Means for You
If you want to protect your bones as you age, the tools are no longer locked behind a referral. You can ask your club whether it offers screening, pay attention to strength and resistance work that loads your skeleton, and treat bone health as part of your routine rather than an afterthought. The gym is changing from a place that only builds muscle to a place that watches over your whole body.
