Forget Place Lux, power lunch and Aperol Spritz — the hot new spot for Brussels wheeling and dealing is the upmarket gym.

From lobbyists timing their workout schedules to bump into commissioners, to journalists securing a scoop from an adjacent bike at spin class, the EU bubble is catching on to the power of so-called sweatworking.

“It creates a bond that’s not just professional,” said one sales executive from a media company, who added that happening across a client at the tennis club had proven a game changer in their working relationship. “It’s much better when the person has no idea that you want to sell.”

More conventional networking in the bubble typically involves hopping from one drinks reception to another and ingesting large amounts of cheap wine — something that’s becoming less appealing as wellness takes on more prominence in everyday life. 

Consultant Alex Braley from Sustainable Public Affairs said while the trend is “not necessarily deliberate, that’s how Brussels works. Sooner or later, the people you meet doing sports might become a professional contact — whether you want it or not.”

See and be seen

With its quiet corridors, glass windows, black-uniformed waiters and high-end exercise gear, Aspria Arts-Loi cultivates the image of a pricey hotel in the middle of the European quarter. 

“Networking is not new. Is it now taking place more in luxury clubs or health clubs? The answer is yes,” said Brian Morris, who co-founded Aspria, the gym and members’ club beloved by lawyers and seasoned officials from the EU institutions.

Morris said giving Aspria’s members a chance to hone their networks as well as their abs has been part of the business model since the first location opened near Square Frère-Orban in Brussels in 2001.

“We actively create networking opportunities … we have had every prime minister pretty much since the time we opened,” he said.

A hot tip for the new mandate: Esther de Lange, who heads new Luxembourg Commissioner Christophe Hansen’s cabinet, is a regular at Aspria’s indoor cycling classes.

Hipster central

While Aspria’s leafy environs and gleaming equipment might be catnip for the boomers of Brussels, up-and-comers are taking their business elsewhere to see and be seen.

“When you step up in your career progression, you really move from [budget gym] Basic-Fit to ANIMO,” said a consultant in her twenties.

One finance lobbyist is sold on the networking power of ANIMO’s group classes, which clock in at up to €20 per session or up to €199 for unlimited monthly access. In one class alone, she said, there were “three MEPs and a NATO director.”

“Talk about networking at ANIMO … but why are all these people training in the middle of the day?” she wondered.

Walking into ANIMO’s three gyms in Brussels, you could be anywhere from a trendy café to a concept store to a millionaire’s apartment. And they have all the hipster mainstays necessary to draw a younger crowd — after sweating it out with a contact, you can share an oat milk flat white or a protein smoothie with added collagen or artisanal nut butter.

Founders Alexandre de Vaucleroy and Antoine Derom, both 31, are expecting to take this to the next level when they open their new gym near Parc du Cinquantenaire, in the heart of Brussels’ European quarter, in early 2025. As well as an exercise space the new gym will have a spa, restaurant, café and a meeting room which can be rented out for corporate events.

De Vaucleroy described the future gym’s vibe as a “hybrid between a hotel lobby and a co-working space.” An imaginary future member could be “going to the gym at 7 a.m., working out for an hour and then maybe meeting someone for breakfast over an acai bowl in the social space and then doing his emails for an hour before heading to the office,” Derom said.

The founders wanted the space to be social — even down to gym-goers taking ice baths together to recover after a workout.

“We have three ice baths and you’re sitting next to one another. We want people to do it together and again, make it into a social experience,” de Vaucleroy said.

Getting them hooked

Sanne Pieters, a PhD researcher at KU Leuven investigating the link between beauty and inequality, thinks the reason “sweatworking” is so effective is because “people assume that, by going to high-end gyms, they would meet like-minded people.”

“This is something that is way more prevalent with high-end gyms than with €20-per-month Basic-Fit,” Pieters noted, pointing out that “people have started to attach other notions of what it means to work out at a premium fitness place.”

Pieters predicts that professionals will increasingly spend their day in one place where “they can work on their health, their fitness and their career.”

It’s the same trend Aspria and ANIMO are betting on.

Morris said some members have even given up their offices and have migrated to clubs. “What we’re developing … is making sure that more of our members can spend more of their time with us.”

In that environment, he said, networking “just happens.”

“It’s not always: ‘I am going to network.’ I meet an instructor, I meet a friend, I meet someone else in the club enjoying the same class or activity — and suddenly you connect,” he said.

Do not approach

But not everyone in Brussels is down to talk compromise amendments and trilogues in between reps.

Some even time their workouts to avoid seeing contacts while huffing and puffing.

A public affairs specialist says that her problem is just the opposite — hoping not to be seen while “doing glute bridges.”

Journalist Viktorya Muradyan, 29, said although she reluctantly opted for a gym (with an annual subscription of €400) near the European Parliament, she makes a point of showing up “at different times so as not to meet the same people over and over again.”

Although Muradyan said she has crossed paths with “a lot of journalist colleagues, old course mates and people working in the Parliament,” she said the setup only works because there’s an unspoken rule that “we should acknowledge each other’s existence but not try to approach each other.”

Politico

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