Digital technology has woven its way into the fabric of our everyday lives. There are apps to help us do our banking, book our flights, and order our groceries. Our phones have become powerful computers and our reliance on digital continues to grow.
The fitness industry is no exception. Hundreds of fitness apps help coach us through our workouts, track our diets, and tell us how many calories we need to burn. Proof of this bears out in the annual American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) survey of the top 20 fitness trends for 2020. At the top of the list—compiled by surveying more than 4,000 fitness professionals—is wearable technology.
Wearable technology has actually appeared in the top spot of the survey for four of the last five years. This fact continues to illustrate how important it is for fitness facilities to be current with technology. Exercisers have come to rely on digital connection to their workouts.
Premium fitness equipment offers seamless syncing with popular wearables. All an exerciser has to do is hold their Samsung Galaxy Watch, for example, next to a compatible Life Fitness console screen to exchange data. Fitness data from cardio equipment is shared and the same results the exerciser sees on the screen will appear on the watch. Life Fitness recently added this level of connection to its Discover SE3 HD consoles and syncs seamlessly with both the Samsung Galaxy Watch and Apple Watch.
There’s a reason why wearables have emerged as a top trend, exercisers feel that they benefit from them. In a survey by GlobalWebIndex, 56% of respondents in the United States and England said they enjoy looking at the data on their device, while 51% said it helped them feel like they were in better control of their health.
Another insight provided by the survey was how exactly people are putting their wearables to use. Most, 66%, use it as a step counter and 53% claim to use it as a calorie counter. Those were the top uses, and both are related to fitness.
Fitness companies like Life Fitness have innovated to make sure exercisers are getting the most out of their workouts.
It seems pretty clear through these stats and recent trends that digital technology will be a huge part of the future of fitness. The best course of action for health clubs and fitness facilities is to embrace it.