As a gym software vendor in the active lifestyle industry, Motionsoft comes across hundreds of start ups and well-established companies with innovative products and services designed to help enhance members’ fitness club and gym experience.
Our executive team has compiled a Top 10 list of technologies in the fitness industry you may want to consider leveraging at your facility in 2015.
At Motionsoft’s 2014 Technology Summit we were honored to have Apple’s Jay Blahnik give us an overview of the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch is designed to keep you more efficient, organized, and productive, and it’s also made to keep you moving. The watch can track your movement and seamlessly integrates with many common apps found on your iPhone. It is safe to say that the apple watch is going to revolutionize wearable technology.
Founded by Virginia Tech grads, VirtualU integrates 3D human modeling technology into the fitness space so that people can accurately track how their body changes as they work out and lose weight. Virtual U’s V- scanner is the first scanner under $10K that has millimeter precision capable of producing highly realistic 3D scans in under 10 seconds. Big data meets quantified-self meets 3D.
- Apple Health App and Apple Healthkit
The real opportunity for gyms and fitness centers is HealthKit allowing apps that provide health and fitness services to share their data with the new Apple Health app and with each other. Equinox was the first company to integrate Apple’s Health App into to their own application and is giving members a more in-depth look at their overall fitness with functionality that tracks your moves, curated content based on workout behavior, class recommendations based on your mood (emotional browsing) and, the ability to book a spin class bike among others.
What’s a Top 10 fitness list in 2015 worth without a true fitness wearable? While the aforementioned Apple Watch is technically a wearable, the Atlas band purports to also be able to track reps and sets on free weight equipment.
The boutique experience has evolved from the yoga and studio markets and has taken the fitness industry by storm. Franchisor Orange Theory is killing it with unprecedented growth in North America and beyond. Motionsoft customer David Hardy from the World Health Clubs is one of the brains behind this impressive brand.
Who would have thought that we would all be playing on the playground again in 2015! Life Fitness has combined the joys of group PT and the playground all in one sleek piece of modular equipment. Very cool!
Dubbed as a “smart shirt”, Hexoskin is the first biometric shirt for sports training and sleep tracking. The shirt tracks your health and gives you reports you can use to adjust your sleep and exercise habits. It’s like our data warehouse, for your body!
The Gear VR Innovator Edition is a very promising entry ticket for people looking for an affordable taste of virtual reality. All of a sudden a walk on the treadmill becomes a calm and relaxing stroll along the beach. Ahh, the power of virtual reality.
This tech-savvy scale won’t just tell you your weight, it will track weight changes, monitor your BMI and calculate body fat percentage. And the best part–all this data is uploaded via your Wi-Fi network and available to view online or in their free iPhone app.
All of the aforementioned products are techy and cool, but this one is both—and a life saver. The iTbra works as an early detection warning system for breast cancer. Although it not currently out on the market, the creators of the product, Cyrcadia Health, have tested the technology and it demonstrated an 87% correlation to a verified, clinical diagnosis of breast cancer. Check out the ABC 7’s news story on this life-saving innovation.
Bonus: Tour de Giro 
The Tour de Giro takes indoor cycling to the next level. Tour de Giro is part mobile app and virtual training platform that creates simulated multi-player bike racing. Just imagine how much more exciting and entertaining a spinning class could be where you can ride against real people in real time and see whose winning and, working hard. You’ll need a trainer, a speed sensor, and an ANT+ power meter stick. Unfortunately, getting geared up to play this game isn’t cheap.
Let us know what cool products and services you are familiar with in the comments section below!
