Is Freeletics for fir or lazy?

Live begins after 40?! We have heard that many times. But I did not like how I felt, didn't I like how I looked and generally many things at my 40 started irritating me.

It all has changed when met a group of like-minded people. We all worked in startups, we were all around 40 and we all had one thing in common - a commitment to discipline. The happy life after 40 only working for those of us who learn to get a harmonic set of values that resonates with our body and mind. And that requires discipline.

After various startups and attempts to raise a new unicorn I started to look for a business that could connect my passion for sport and a startup drive.

With several companies on the market, I have joined Freeletics to set on a personal journey bringing fitness into a day-to-day habit and working on a truly meaningful mission to helping people become a better version of themselves.

The desire to overcome laziness and other perfectly human traits is the main driver behind a multi-billion dollar industry. The global wellness industry is a $4.5 Trillion market?— physical activity accounting for?$828bn. There are countless books, podcasts, e-courses, video content, and millions of gym memberships to prove it. But as much as there are gym memberships, there are people who don’t go as often as they promised themselves they would.

The pandemic forced us to find ways to stay active at home. As a result, people’s behaviors are changing — potentially permanently. 40% of regular exercisers surveyed stated that they worked out at home for the first time. 50% percent started using VOD offerings both free & paid. Exercise equipment sales have skyrocketed in many countries. The UK reported a?5,800% increase?in fitness equipment purchases over the lockdown period. In fact, the US even saw supply shortages for dumbbells.?10%?of surveyed gym regulars bought a piece of smart equipment.

One of the biggest winners this year:?Peloton. Last year, the company had a bumpy IPO. A large number of people didn’t see the need for a 2,500€ spinning bike. In a world post-Corona, that has changed. The company created an unprecedented user experience of unparalleled convenience and immersion and promised to investors the power of platforms & monetizing streamable content. Now, Peloton is?expecting $3.9bn?in sales and $300m in adjusted operating profits for this fiscal year.

Entrepreneurs are betting big on building the next big thing in fitness. The market was already fragmented pre-Covid and many investors would categorize it as a “red ocean”. Now, the momentum of change has accelerated.?

Is it HIIT or X-Fit?

Established fitness products today are mostly based on the exercise you already knew. HIIT can be traced back to a German athletics coach called?Woldemar Gerschler?in the 1950s. Yoga stems from India, some 3,000 years before Christ. And X-Fit pullup and barbell lift is nothing new either.

So what is it - that makes you being fit?

Motivation seems to be an ethereal concept & notoriously tricky to exploit.?Researchers then found?that the simultaneous presence of high extrinsic and high intrinsic motivation is likely to yield the most positive benefits for adult athletes.?

Building on that, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi coined the “state of flow” which was exuberantly picked up by coaches, managers, and artists worldwide.

Problem: most of this research was conducted on professional athletes. If you’re not a professional athlete, there are limits to how far this can get you.

The mind is a product of the brain, and the brain is a product of evolution. Our struggle to work out and eat healthily is a struggle with comfort. About 2 million years ago, humanity transitioned into a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Hunting was a group effort, involving lots of running, jumping, hiding, climbing, and coordination with a group of co-hunters.?2.25 hours per day?was the average physical activity of a hunter-gatherer. The activity was?physically and mentally demanding?and our survival depended on it.

That is why exercise is a mood booster. It is?shown?to have a direct, acute impact on both your prefrontal cortex & hypothalamus activity. Exercise will leave you with a better mood, higher energy, better memory, and higher attention levels. The long-term?positive effects?include reduced depression symptoms or anxiety levels. The parts of our brain activity during a complex activity such as hunting are the same areas that also play a key role in memory and executive functions such as problem-solving and planning. These exact same areas also seem to profit from the exercise.

The problem: these effects appear during & post-workout. In modern society with readily available, calorie-rich food, and no need for physical activity to survive, our evolutionary wiring makes it hard for us to be active & healthy. Avoiding physical activity that is unnecessary and rewarding in the long run is a?fundamental, universal instinct among adults. In times when calories were scarce, going for a run around the meadows for fun was frowned upon. For 90% of human history, there was no “need” to be motivated to exercise. Evolution provided us with hunger, a sufficiently strong urge to stay active. Exercise as we know it is an invention from the era of industrialization. Nowadays, you need to trick your brain into wanting it.

For 90% of human history, there was no “need” to be motivated to exercise.

Neuroscientist?Evian Gordon describes?how the safety and comfort of the couch and “comfort food” creates pleasant short-term gratification. The pain of getting up at 6 am to leave the house in Berlin’s Siberian winter conditions — not gratifying at all.

Building a TEAM vs belonging to a TEAM

Hunting was a team effort and there is a?reciprocal relationship?between social bonds and exercise. Not only does exercising with your friends motivate you more, it also strengthens the friendship, which in turn — you guessed it — makes you exercise more.?42%?of gym members miss exercising with other people and 22% miss their class instructor or personal trainer.

The social reward of working out together extends further. It is proven to become a signifier of belonging & social recognition — which sounds familiar to those of us?sharing Strava runs on Instagram? Especially in recent years, upscale & experience-focused gyms have had tremendous success with younger generations. From Pilates, Yoga & HIIT boutiques to premium gyms such as Equinox, Soulcycle, or Barry’s Bootcamp, these strong brands cracked the code. Social media boasting accelerated the trend to become a social must for many, creating almost tribal-like energy for the brands.

The Game of Gladiators

Since successful hunting was key to survival, it was key in mate selection. Studies found that competition is an even?stronger motivator?for exercise than friendly support. Giving “friendly” support actually made some subject groups less likely to go to the gym. Competition instead triggers a social escalation process. In a competitive setting, people make each other more competitive, driven by?sexual selection?and other social recognition drivers.

Hunting included collaboration, strategy, and a stalking game. It was an activity closer to a video game — or team sports. Running on the treadmill or lifting weights in a windowless room is just lacking those dimensions. People who wear a virtual reality headset while running or biking?enjoy their experience more?than people who do the same exercise while staring at a wall in a gym (no surprises here…). Even watching TV provides a measurable boost in enjoyment. A?“cognitively impoverished”?environment will bore you and make you less likely to come back.

2022 The year of big fitness bets and big wins.

While there are many different models in this industry and the market is highly fragmented, there is still room for a big winner. There are a lot of pain points around motivation triggering, brought into focus by Covid-19, that still remain unsolved. The formula to win this market will ultimately be: delivering results.

Consider testing Freeletics, here is the invite CODE

Credit to: Enrico Mallis and Sharanya Eswaran from Project A for their medium blogpost.