Will the future of the gym be in the home?

Overview

As we “celebrate” here in the UK our 1mth anniversary in Lockdown, and the inevitable changes to most of our everyday lifestyles that it has brought, I thought I would start to look at my crystal ball and take a look at how different types of businesses highly effected by the lockdown may be re-thinking their business models. This is particularly relevant for those who will be concerned by recent news that has suggested that

1)    There could be further pandemic waves to come due to the low testing levels that have been completed, and that future waves in the absence of a vaccine could be more damaging within micro-environments,

2)    Social Distancing as a policy will need to remain a way of life for quite some time, alongside policies that recommend using masks as much as possible to avoid contamination risk

Adjusting

The first one I thought I would briefly explore in this blog is the gym and provide some thoughts for both gym owners and gym users to consider. To put my personal perspective on this in context, I have been since the lockdown I have managed to exercise 6 days a week, just as I did before but

1)    I have had to incorporate more cardio work into my routine than I had done in the past,

2)    I have made significant adjustments to how I work out, adjusting it around the equipment I have which consists of a pair of dumbbells, a barbell, a skipping rope, ankle weights, and boxing gloves

3)    I have used my local park’s own facilities as much as I can, i.e. the park bench, and some of their walls

I have managed to cope so that, from what I can tell I haven’t yet seen any significant changes in my metabolism, resting heart rate, body mass and body fat ratios, and overall weight, but it has made me ponder what my gym should be doing, besides letting me freeze my monthly payment. (which they have done).

To everyone reading, it should come as no surprise that my gym, like others has been experimenting, via their portals with

1)    Holding certain types of on-line classes, where exercise equipment requirements can be at a minimum, and body movement/strength routines can be at the core of the class dynamics,

2)    Providing members with opportunities to engage in new ways with Personal Trainers, who offer single priced session that bring together training and nutrition. I think that some gyms are extending this idea so that one on one bookings outside of the gym can be offered too.

Data Opportunity

I do not know what my gym has been doing around the data that can be generated through providing these services, but if I was an owner, I would be

1)    Making sure I made everyone sign up for these services

2)    Sought to get as much immediate feedback on the sessions effectiveness as I could through quick and simple surveys

3)    Looked at opportunities to find out a bit more about my members to particularly infer whether home “working life” was going to be become more of a “new reality” for them than before. This is important because most gym goers who work in cities/large towns go to their gym from work rather than from home.

I am sure that everyone can appreciate that building data analytics from these inputs, cross referenced with existing client profiles and past gym activity (through check in data) could lead gym owners to conclude that there is a market opportunity to introduce “remote memberships” as a fitness service.

My Recommendation

While I think a significant period of social distancing alongside having to wear masks absolutely provides a supportive backdrop for this service, esp. if gyms need to go through considerable redesign or restrictive scheduling to re-open, I think to really make this idea a “flyer” so to speak, gym owners should consider

1)    The viability of extending their remote models to include an equipment package that can either be owned or rented. In the states, my son has a home furnishing package that is based on this model, and gym owners might find that they can adapt their purchase and use models with equipment into wholesale and lease models.  I have been exploring upgrading my home gym capabilities since the lockdown, and besides being frustrated by the delays in actually getting anything, have also noted that quality equipment across the entire gym ecosystem can be an investment that easily can run to the equivalent of 10yrs of membership and more.

2)    Bringing computer vision AI fitness capabilities into their overall offering.  I have been watching the progress that computer vision models are making in relation to reading and processing camera data in real time, and we are starting to see some amazing results. Gym owners can get a glimpse of this if they look at a platform like Kemtai (https://get.kemtai.com/), that is able in real time to actually assess how well you are performing an exercise.  This can help achieve something that a PT can not easily share with a class through of remote users, as well as inform the PT on how different users are actually doing, thus providing an opportunity to build additional revenue through follow-up short training sessions.

3)    How to make extended use of Bluetooth enabled fitness-oriented wearables. While I know that gyms have tried to install WIFI and in some cases, also introduce diagnostic fitness devises on premises, in a scenario where you may know have a computer involved, and computer vision working to measure performance in real-time, you have a tremendous opportunity to develop an integrated platform to work with Bluetooth enabled wearables.  These wearables could become monitor and transmitting devices in tandem with class and remote PT training, and thus part of a new type of subscription. This subscription would extend beyond remote fitness, into a full wellness program where personal trainers and nutritionists could become additional service providers, developing highly personalized goal based programs based on the data deliverable through computer vision gym classes,  combined with data from wearables (which by the way may also be using computer vision and expert systems within a geospatial framework)

Conclusion

I know that many of us do want to go back to the gym, and that some elements, particularly those related to social interaction, and peer inspired motivation cannot easily be replicated in a remote, home based setting, but it does seem to me that given the gym doing the right things in terms of marrying the best of its service capabilities to the realities of what their own clients are investing in themselves (often as part of going to the gym), it may be quite possible to develop a wide range of remote memberships that could fully replace a gym facility altogether, change the nature of how the facility is used, or allow the facility to be economically effective even when societal conditions restrict the capacity model.

Game arcades are long gone, but on-line gaming has never been stronger. This might be a significant overstatement of the future of the gym, but certainly, at the very least hybrid models are interesting and should be explored on any gym group’s roadmap. I am here to help.