Should I cancel my personal trainer contract?
QHas the fitness industry been disrupted? Should I buy the latest gadget, download the latest app and cancel my personal trainer contract?
AApps are about as likely to replace quality personal training as cryptocurrency is to completely replace the global monetary system in our lifetime. Now that I have neatly split my readership in two, let’s go.
A comedy video explaining the theory of why cryptocurrency represents the future was loaded onto YouTube three years ago, around the time it surged in value from $3,000 to $20,000 before imploding back to $3,000.
Our expat billionaire recently bought $1,5bn in bitcoin, its value surged 76% this month, then he tweeted that it was a bit expensive, and so it quickly receded 13%. It’s therefore not surprising the video has gone viral again — well, as viral as something like that can go among self-proclaimed thought leaders on LinkedIn.
If you haven’t seen it, look up a YouTube video named Bitcoin Explained (BC Explained ep 1)” by a channel called Camarella. Be prepared for a slapstick Aussie take on Monty Python, but with the sort of language one would associate with a dingy old-boys’ bar in downtown Perth.
The theme is that cryptocurrency (or gold, as the period parody explains) is fundamentally freeing us from the shackles of the oppressive banking system and delivering a whole new democratic (if you run a giant crypto mining operation in Eastern Europe) world of exchanging value.
This may well be true —
except the “dinosaurs” who have the ear of the regulators won’t go down without a fight. Think dark web and money laundering — if only the state capturers knew about crypto
— or did they? AmaBhungane, there’s your lead.
Most of the hype comes from inside. A bit like a company proclaiming to sell the next best thing, but until everyone starts buying that thing, it’s not yet the next best thing.
We all know crypto is here to stay and is likely to enjoy substantially more institutional investor support. Regulators will do their best, and blockchain and smart contracts will no doubt make doing state business in SA less profitable for family and friends. Accepting that crypto will change our world doesn’t mean we have to believe we are at the epoch of banking the unbanked and creating an equal society. It will take more than a smart contract to undo the damage we have caused.
Remember all those who bought bitcoin three years ago for fear of missing out? Who benefits when the hype reaches fever pitch? With exercise, who stands to benefit more? The tech companies, or those trying to enjoy the benefits of exercise?
Apple recently released Apple Fitness+. It’s far cheaper than hiring a human but you need an expensive Apple watch. Unlike crypto there’s no promise of democratisation here.
Forbes wrote that “Apple Fitness+ is just the start of the next wave to disrupt the fitness industry”. They’re right, but don’t confuse disrupt with replace. The author notes that the app monitors your workouts and performance but its flaw, he says, is that it cannot monitor your form.
The technopreneurs have already thought of that, though. The article says that Yoganotch can monitor and correct your form. All it requires is wearing “dime-size precise wearable sensors that analyse the body’s position in 3D in real-time” and you’ll get cues to correct your body placement.
In other words, destroying the essence of yoga. But beyond that, which sensor measures the wince on your face which could signal a pending injury?
Exercise has been disrupted and the humans, both trainers and trainees, will — and should — embrace technology in all its forms, from remote streaming, to gadgets, to artificial intelligence and machine learning. If trainers don’t, they can kiss their careers goodbye. But for real results, no matter how they engage with them, exercisers need coaches with human instinct.
Some 25 years ago, we were gifted the awkward virtual reality sex scene between Sandra Bullock and Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man. If you are over 18, that should be your second YouTube search today. For real results, sometimes you’ve just got do it the old-fashioned way.