The founder
The first Friskis&Svettis association was started in Stockholm in 1978. The founder, Johan Holmsäter, was a young physical training master who received his education in Switzerland. While there he saw how the combination of gymnastics and music attracted a big part of the university students. Men and women did the sport together in big groups. With his experience as a gymnastic teacher, Johan wanted to create a new form of gymnastics. He believed this should be based on simple, natural movements, done with timely and inspiring music.

A fresh breeze through old traditions
Other associations already had a wide range of aerobic training to offer, but Friskis&Svettis gave a new aspect to this tradition. The form of aerobic training this association offered had never been seen before. At Friskis&Svettis people could jympa (= Friskis&Svettis’ way to exercise). The expression jympa was decided by The National Council of Friskis&Svettis. This word is now even stated in the Swedish Academy's List of words.

Fast growth
The first year, Friskis&Svettis had 1.500 members. Five years later there were 28 associations with a total of 28.000 members. In time for the 10th anniversary, the number of associations had increased to 65 and the number of members to 75.000. When Friskis&Svettis celebrated 15 year in 1993 the total number of members was 130.000 in the 97 associations. There were seven associations outside of Sweden. Four located in Norway and the other three were located in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. Between 1990 and 1993 the number of members grew by 15% per year. Today Friskis&Svettis has some 376 000 members. Apart from in London, there are associations in Norway, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Luxemburg and Aberdeen.