Why your gym WiFi falls over at peak times

Your WiFi works fine at 2pm on a Tuesday. Then 6pm hits, the floor fills up, and suddenly the front desk can't take a payment and members are complaining they can't stream. That isn't bad luck. It's a network built for a quiet office, not a busy gym.

What goes wrong at peak

Every member brings a phone, and plenty bring a watch and earbuds too. Add cardio screens, music, class timetable displays and staff devices, and one router with a couple of access points runs out of room fast. Concrete walls, mirrors and kit all make the signal worse.

What to check

• Separate your networks. Members, staff, and your business systems (tills, door access, CCTV) should each have their own network. If a member's phone is slowing down your card machine, they're sharing the same one.
• Wire the important stuff. Tills, turnstiles, door controllers and CCTV should be on a network cable wherever possible, not WiFi.
• Count your access points. One in the corridor won't cover a gym floor, a studio and a changing room. Several smaller access points beat one powerful one.
• Check your broadband. A standard consumer line has no guaranteed fix time. If it drops at 6am, who do you call, and when do they turn up?
• Test it when it's busy. A speed test at 11am tells you nothing. Test at your busiest hour, in the busiest corner.

Quick wins

Put cardio TVs and smart displays on a wired connection or their own network so they stop eating member bandwidth. Switch off any old access points nobody uses, because they cause interference. And make sure your member WiFi has a sensible limit per device, so one person streaming in 4K doesn't hog the lot.

Coach's tip: walk your gym at peak time with your phone and a speed test app, and note where it drops. That map is the first thing any decent IT provider will ask for, and it will save you paying for a survey.