Technology pumps up your training options
Tech-savvy alternatives can help you exercise at home if you can’t hit the gym
It used to be that working out at home meant donning leg warmers and popping a Jane Fonda or Richard Simmons tape into the VCR. These days, though, technology has made the at-home exercise options seem endless.
There are big-box gyms that bring personal trainers to you through apps. For instance, Gold’s Gym launched Gold’s AMP in October as a “digital personal trainer” that coaches users through workouts, including walking, running, biking and rowing, for $9.99 per month (all figures in U.S. dollars).
Other options have no association with a physical location. These include free YouTube or Instagram videos, and subscription services with brand names such as Beachbody, a program that gets more than five million monthly unique visits to its digital platforms. A recent search for “workout videos” on YouTube yielded 62 million results.
“If you can just go to a YouTube channel and do a 15-minute class free, that absolutely opens you up to a lot more things that you might be willing to try,” said Todd Miller of George Washington University.
This trend hasn’t exactly made gyms obsolete, though. In the U.S., for instance, the number of con- sumers who used a health club in 2016 broke records, at 66 million, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association.
The driver behind the popularity of brick-and-mortar gyms? Motivation. “That’s the problem with home exercise. Unless you’re intrinsically motivated — that is, you’re doing it for personal reasons — things get in the way,” said Walt Thompson, president of the American College of Sports Medicine. “The gym, on the other hand, provides you the social support.”
Whatever the venue or cost, the biggest indicator that someone will stick with a workout program is enjoyment, Miller added. Here are three at-home options for every budget:
BRING A CYCLING STUDIO TO YOU
FLY Anywhere users pay $39 a month to stream live classes — four to six are offered five days a week — or choose from a library of about 100 archived ones through Apple TV, an iOS device or a $400 optional built-in display on the $1,699 bike. (Classes will also be available on Roku and Chromecast and for Android devices this year.)
Based on high-intensity interval training, the classes are available in 20-, 30- and 45-minute lengths, and three formats: Method, an interval-heavy ride with hills and sprints; Power, which has longer races and steeper hills; and Beats, a rhythm-based ride.
The bike is Bluetooth-enabled. Flywheel’s Torqboard performance-tracking technology lets riders see how they’re doing compared with virtual classmates. Home riders can also use Pacer, a feature studio-goers don’t get, which lets them set goals such as sprinting faster than they did during their last ride.
APP SUBSCRIPTION
Beachbody has long banked on people’s desire to work out at home, offering video workout series such as P90X. In March 2015, Beachbody on Demand came online, offering unlimited access to more than 700 exercise programs, which can be streamed to a computer, TV or mobile device, for $99 a year — compared with the $60 on average that gymgoers pay per month. Since then, it’s grown by 188 per cent and gets about five million page views each month.
“An important aspect of an inhome workout is you’ve got some sort of peer accountability, that you feel connected to some community, even if it’s virtual,” said Carl Daikeler, Beachbody’s CEO. That’s why the program includes coaches who run challenge groups through Google Hangouts or Zoom calls, to push accountability.
USE YOUR WEIGHT TO WORK OUT
Functional training — movement your body is designed to do using your weight — is one of the easiest in-home workouts because it doesn’t require much, if any, equipment, and online how-to videos are plentiful, said Derrick Inglut, a U.S.-based personal trainer.
“Try to do two pushing exercises, two pulling, two legs and two abs over the week,” Inglut said.
Push exercises include pushups on the floor or against a wall and triceps extensions, while examples of pull moves include pull-ups and biceps curls. Avoid boredom by changing moves periodically, Inglut said, but realize that building strength takes time. “I try not to repeat things more than once a month unless it’s a standard exercise like a pushup, a sit-up, a crunch or anything cardio,” he said.