Big Ambitions Gym Guide: Setup, Equipment, Staff

A gym in Big Ambitions needs at least one workout machine, gym lockers, a public shower, a fitness planning board and a drinks fridge before it can open. Each piece of workout equipment serves 2 customers per hour, your building sets a hard customer cap, and you cannot act as the trainer yourself — so staffing decides when you actually open the doors.

Minimum setup to open

The game requires: a workout machine (boxing bag, treadmill, trampoline or similar), gym lockers, a public shower, a fitness planning board, and a drinks fridge stocked with energy drinks. Cheap filler equipment counts toward capacity too — a recorded 1.0 start opened with a boxing bag, trampoline, kettle bells and a gym mat, spending only ~$550 on the extra small items. Add a cleaning station and storage shelf in the back before opening day.

Capacity math you need to know

Every equipment item adds 2 customers/hour: hover a boxing bag, treadmill or trampoline and it shows customer capacity 2. A 75 m² starter building caps at 15 customers/hour, and the weak links are real — in one playthrough gym lockers (10) and the single public shower (10) held the store to 10/hour until a second locker and shower were bought. A fully trained gym trainer covers 20 customers/hour, so one trainer per shift is enough for a small gym.

Where to buy gym equipment

Gym equipment is sold at Essential Appliances in Lower Manhattan — community advice states it plainly: "Equipment is at Essential in LM." Recorded prices from a 1.0 start: bathroom stall $2,100, wall-mounted loudspeaker $500, water cooler $130, uniform locker $2,000 (at AJ Pison and Son), barbell $80, bathroom sign $45. Energy drinks come from any wholesaler at $240 per box.

You can't run the floor yourself

Unlike a supermarket, where you can man the checkout personally, a gym has no counter role for the owner — customer service requires an actual gym trainer. One player deliberately kept the gym "temporarily closed" for days while hiring, rather than open with zero customer service and eat bad reviews. Cleanliness you can handle yourself early on: grab the mop at the cleaning station and click dirt as it appears.

Hiring and training

Use the recruitment agency (e.g. Anderson Recruitment): $500 fee, one candidate, one day per campaign. Candidates arrive at low skill (20–40%), so hire, unassign them from the schedule, and pay for daily skill training — for example $113/day raised one cleaner to 52%, and $254/day a trainer to 37%. Train toward 100% before assigning full schedules; employees also demand things like full-time hours, a water cooler ($130) and a clean work environment, and will message you when unhappy.

Income expectations

In a documented 1.0 start, the gym went from zero to roughly $3,000/day profit within 30 days at 98% satisfaction and 150+ customers per day, running double shifts with 100%-trained staff. The community counterpoint: gyms "don't make much compared to other stuff" — they are cheap to enter and rarely contested (one district had only 2), but for pure profit veterans point to the Big 4 instead. Treat the gym as a strong first store, not an endgame empire.