After a year of being confined to their homes and local parks, more consumers are turning to exercise as a form of escapism.
With fitness apps growing by nearly 50 per cent throughout the first half of 2020, there is no denying that the fitness industry is capitalising on this trend, becoming more content-driven as people welcome new innovations and forms of entertainment to inspire their workouts.
Focus has shifted towards offering more accessible platforms and virtual services that find new ways to immerse and motivate people. One example is New York-based studio Forward_Space, which launched a virtual hub in 2020 and now counts virtual members in more than 50 countries.
After a year of being confined to their homes and local parks, more consumers are turning to exercise as a form of escapism.
CEO of Equinox Media – a subsidiary of luxury gym operator, Equinox Group – Jason LaRose says the “future [of fitness] is a blend of digital and physical”, an idea that also underpins digital fitness platform Obé, which developed its Workout Parties after noticing members were using video chatting to exercise together.
Also coming to the fore in recent months, thanks to the likes of TikTok and their appeal as a fun, equipment-free form of exercise, dance-based workouts have also seen a virtual boom, with their endorphin-boosting, therapeutic potential now realised.
Spotify, too, is shifting into the fitness space with new personalised HIIT sessions, which are set to music selected by users. Spotify Pumped allows users to choose their preferred music genre and receive a curated workout complete with animated visuals – fusing the platform’s existing offering with health and wellness content.
Complimenting this rise in popularity – and with recent studies revealing that up to 75 percent of consumers considering music to be beneficial to their fitness performance – more and more brands are beginning to leverage audio, with more than 385,000 workout playlists added to Spotify in 2020 alone.
Up to 75 percent of consumers consider music to be beneficial to their fitness performance
With the future of gyms remaining uncertain post-pandemic, perhaps the answer for fitness brands lies in a bend of physical and digital products and services that continue to empower consumers to take fitness into their own hands.
Stay tuned as Beulah continues to explore ways in which we can innovate and introduce technology to improve the health and wellness of present and future generations.
