Time to tear up your traditional gym membership and work out with something more flexible.

Sometime in the past decade, you bought a gym membership with the admirable intention of mastering weights. But then you moved offices and got really into cycling and now you’re paying a hefty premium to loaf in a sauna once a month.

If this is familiar, it’s time to look towards the new model of flexible fitness memberships designed to meet the high expectations of the on-demand generation.

It began with ClassPass, the brainchild of Ms Payal Kadakia, a former digital strategist. The app gives users access to a network of studios and classes for one monthly fee. It launched in New York in 2013 then rolled out in over 30 cities worldwide.

“It’s a convenient way for people to find out if they like a service without committing long term,” says Mr Patrick Jessel, founder of GB Active, a bootcamp-style work out scheme in Green Park, London, available on ClassPass. “Clients like the variety of classes on offer and the ease of booking: if you're in town for work, you can just book in for a class the night before.”

The same year ClassPass went live, British entrepreneur Mr Alister Rollins launched MoveGB, an unlimited activity membership gives users access to more than 5,000 UK gyms and studios with no joining fee. The scheme operates in Bristol, Bath, Brighton and – as of September – London, with pilots in New York and Shanghai.

“The average person uses a gym membership for eight to 12 weeks in a year, then they stop attending and then they cancel,” says Mr Rollins. “The premise of MoveGB is to match a service to consumer behaviour, and our research shows us consumers dip in and out of exercise – and that could be parkour one day and stand-up paddleboarding the next.”

“Movers” are four times more likely to be active at the end of 12 months than a single venue user and Mr Rollins says the portable model allows users to hop from one exercise to another, but “you've never cancelled anywhere, never gone through the psychology of quitting, which is a powerful side effect”.

It’s a concept spotted early on by Messrs César Carvalho, João Barbosa and Vinicius Ferriani, who launched Gympass in Brazil in 2012 and have since rolled out the format in several countries including France, Spain and recently in the UK. For £34.99 a month, users can access over 250 gyms in the UK.

Gyms are taking note of this new approach. 1Rebel, which has two sites in London, and four more opening in 2018, eschews traditional membership for a pay-as-you-go model. “If you're forced to stand by the quality of your product, you’re forced to make it a phenomenal one,” says co-founder Mr Giles Dean. “If people see we’re offering a good product, they want to come back and if they continue to come back, we don’t need the membership.” But make no mistake, this is a club everyone wants to be a member of – just take a look on Instagram, where you’ll find pumped up members of the “Rebel Army” documenting their sweat-soaked achievements.

The same goes for Chelsea’s hot new launch KXU, which opened last month and is the brainchild of the team behind exclusive private members health club KX. At the 7,500 sq ft space, clients pay £24 per class, after which they can then pop into the on-site restaurant, or the spa, which offers conventional treatments, plus infrared saunas and a cryotherapy suite.

If all this sounds good, there’s only one thing left to do: work out how to extract yourself from that dull gym membership you’ve been guiltily carting around for years.