Home Fitness Gets Smart

The incredible rise of Peloton’s “smart” stationary bicycles has ushered in competitors in the $14 billion home fitness equipment market. You can now find smart rowing machines, weight lifting systems, boxing gloves, and even jump ropes to stock your burgeoning home gym. Peloton, meanwhile, recently announced it was expanding into yoga, in addition to rolling out new treadmills.

Alpha, a user insights platform, recently reported that 54% of Americans who work out at least once a month are interested in buying an at-home fitness system, but the main things keeping them from going for it?  (1) No room (34%), (2) High Cost (24%) and the need to get motivated in a live class environment.

Peloton’s method of bringing the live class vibe into your living room with their linked-in display technology is definitely paying off, so you can expect to see more companies follow suit.  Home fitness equipment companies are paying attention to the other issues, promising that prices will drop as the technology advances and, if more people buy.  And now companies are trying to solve the size issue as well.  A startup called Mirror reclaims living spaces with a $1,495 full-length connected device that comes alive with an LCD panel, stereo speakers, camera, and mic offering a range of one-on-one fitness classes. It’s essentially a virtual personal trainer the size of a yoga mat that turns back into a mirror when you’re done.

So, does this mean you’re going to dump your gym membership and go it at home?  “Right now, this tech is very early in the adoption cycle, and it may never make sense for everyone,” explains Alpha cofounder Nis Frome, “but for early adopters, the enthusiasm is pretty next-level, so the tech looks promising.”

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