Gen Z Is Trading the Neighborhood Bar for the Spin Studio

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Gen Z Is Trading the Neighborhood Bar for the Spin Studio

Twenty-somethings are drinking less, exercising more—and changing the way they socialize with others

By Oyin Adedoyin, WSJ

April 10, 2026

Some young adults are choosing fitness activities over drinking for socializing, a trend called “the great moderation.”

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On a recent Sunday morning, my friend Kyoko and I decided we were overdue for some quality time together. So we spent 45 minutes in a dimly lit room riding stationary bikes at intense speeds while an instructor shouted affirmations from the front of the room.

Afterward, we rewarded ourselves with dirty chai lattes.

We could have met for brunch and had a few mimosas, but we wanted to do something that felt more productive—and healthier. Turns out that we are part of a national trend.

Young adults have traditionally met up with co-workers at a local bar to rehash the week’s events or with friends for weekend cocktails to catch up on life. But now, many in my generation are choosing to spend more of our downtime—and our money—socializing around fitness, not booze.

This movement among 20-somethings like myself is fueled in part by a concern about our physical and mental health as Americans live sicker for longer. But it also comes down to finances. We want to use our limited spending money and free time in ways that feel more rewarding. Paying for an evening workout class with friends is less likely to feel like a financial hangover because we accomplished something positive with our money. And, of course, it won’t give us a literal hangover.

“We’re seeing something that we’re calling ‘the great moderation,’ ” says Joe Wadford, an economist at the Bank of America Institute. “Younger people are just gravitating to more healthy hobbies.”

The workout hangout

Before she texted me about the cycling class, Kyoko had already decided to spend less money on drinking to improve both her health and finances. Between January and February, she had spent nearly $100 less on dinners and drinks as a result.

Kyoko had enjoyed the community she found through sign-language classes. To maintain that sense of community after ending the classes, she reallocated some of her budget to fitness and got a ClassPass membership for $19 monthly. “I always like to have some kind of class that I’m going to that’s improving my life,” she says, and “it gets me out because I’m such a homebody.”

Since I already had a ClassPass membership, we agreed to make workout hangouts a regular thing. After our workout, however, we still had enough energy to spend more time together. A morning class became an afternoon coffee which led to a late lunch. We talked about our work lives, the latest books we had read and the movies we planned to see.

That energy is a contrast to what we sometimes felt after gatherings involving cocktails. At a brunch at Kyoko’s apartment a while back, we cooked together, listened to music and made cocktails. But when I got home, I took a nap in an attempt to fight off the inevitable hangover.

The workouts definitely feel like a better use of our time and money.

Rebecca Palmer, a certified financial planner and head of financial guidance at Fruitful, says her clients, who are in their 20s and 30s, view fitness and wellness spending as an essential expense, not a discretionary one. “Wellness is one of the last things that they will cut from their budgets,” she says.

That’s because we see spending on our health at a younger age as a way to prevent sickness later in life. At my age, my parents didn’t really think about their health down the road. Part of that shift in thinking is due to technology’s omnipresence in our lives; it makes us more aware of the state of our health minute-by-minute. We carry phones that track our steps and wear rings and watches that monitor our heart rate, the calories we burn and the quality of our sleep.

And an extension of that awareness, Palmer says, is young people “increasingly meeting friends for workouts instead of going to happy hour.”

Changing priorities

How did my own thinking evolve? Like many people my age, I experienced financial whiplash after the pandemic. I wanted to go out to make up for the time when restaurants had closed their doors. I would regularly spend about 20% or more of my monthly budget on dinners and drinks.

I knew that kind of spending wasn’t sustainable so I started using a budgeting app. I also started seeing the “dry January” trend on social media and noticed that more of my friends were taking breaks from alcohol. So in January 2024, I decided to give it a try.

I didn’t go completely dry but I drank less during social events and suggested outings with friends that didn’t include going to a bar. I created a tab for “bars and nightlife” in my budgeting app so that I could track how much I spent solely on drinks.

That’s when I also started shifting more money toward fitness. In 2024 alone, I doled out $90 to participate in two races with friends, about $67 monthly for high-tier ClassPass and another $47 for a monthly gym membership. While I was happy with the shift in my priorities, I did find myself easily tempted to overspend, just as I had with going out. I was paying for something that’s good for me and that can’t be a bad thing, right? Wasn’t it better than the extra round of happy-hour cocktails?

So last year I took a hard look at my fitness budget. I moved my ClassPass membership to a cheaper tier, replaced my gym membership with one through work that costs a fraction of the price and started going on runs in my neighborhood. In addition, I’ve set a calendar reminder to put in for the quarterly fitness reimbursement my employer provides.

I admit that I didn’t even know I had that benefit until last year. Many workplace programs include subsidized gym memberships, activity challenges and health screenings. Yet participation rates are generally modest, says Paul Fronstin, director of health benefits research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Palmer says fitness and wellness subscriptions should make up less than 20% of nonessential monthly spending, adding that using any workplace fitness benefits helps keep that budget on target.

A way to make friends

Yes, giving priority to wellness earlier in life is good for our health, but it can come with another positive side effect: new friends.

According to a 2025 report from Strava, an app where runners and cyclists can track their workouts and communicate with each other, 39% more Gen Zers than Gen Xers said they use fitness to meet people who share their interests.

My boyfriend, Ean, can attest to that. Shortly after moving from Oklahoma to New York, he joined a run club. Three years later, many of the guys in the club have become his closest friends, showing up at birthday parties and house warmings. When one member recently got another job out of state, the group helped load the U-Haul.

“I’ve always felt like running is something that leads to a deeper relationship because you’re all suffering together,” Ean says with a laugh.

Having a set day and time to see the same people, and participate in a shared activity, does make it easier to maintain friendships. After all, you already have at least one thing in common.