The Evolution of Live Fitness Classes in FitSW

Since we added live fitness classes to the FitSW software, it has come a long ways. It started off as a “bare bones” software that could stream videos with a live chat. Now, live fitness classes in FitSW are full of features that help instructors spend less time managing the class and more time on leading the class.

Fitness interval timers and visual/audio cues

While technology is great and has come a long ways, sometimes it feels like it gets in our way. Especially when you consider a bunch of sweaty people amped up on pre-workout, blasting music, and shouting words of encouragement.

The biggest thing we have set out to do while developing live fitness classes in FitSW, is to ensure that despite any distractions, classes can stay on track.

This is exactly why we incorporated the fitness interval timer with audio and visual cues.

Here’s how the interval timer works

There are three main pieces to the interval timer:

• Active time: define the amount of time people should be doing the exercise.
• Rest time: define how much time people should rest for inbetween sets.
• Intervals: How many times the entire cycle happens.

Everytime there is a shift between active time and rest time, the there is a beep and a flash on the screen.

When it shifts into rest time, the navigation bar will turn red and there will be some flashes of red, along with the beep, to let people know it’s time to rest.

Once the rest time is over, it will beep again and the nav bar will turn green. Indicating it’s time to get after it!

Manage Class Participants

If there’s one thing we have all had to get accustomed to, its the nuances of digital life and digital communication. Especially with COVID forcing everyone to work remote.

Along with the interval timer, we gave trainers a slew of admin features that can help them better manage their class.

With every class participant, the trainer can mute their audio, video, and boot them from the class. All accessible from the settings widget on the left side of the interface.

Technology options

Most laptops don’t come with very good webcams and microphones as standard features. While they definitely suit most people’s needs, some still opt-in to getting their own webcam and mic for better sound and visual quality.

When live classes were initially launched, you were stuck with your computers technology options. Now, you can choose your mic and camera if you have any additional equipment that you’d like to use.

Client visibility settings

For a variety of reasons, some clients may want to only be visible to the trainer during the entire duration of the class or for parts of the class.

As such, every client now has their own “visibility” settings. They are pretty simple, there is only one option and that is to either make yourself visible to everyone or just the trainer. Creating a more inclusive experience for all preferences, comfort levels, and needs.

The feed cycler

A lot of live fitness class instructors like to make the live class experience as personal as possible. In live classes with 30 people in it, that may be a little difficult. Especially if all feeds are scrunched on to the same screen.

To combat this, we created the feed cycler feature. You define how many feeds you see at a time and how often they switch.

For example, let’s say you have 20 class participants total and 20 video feeds. And just for this example, let’s say you set the feed count to 3 and the cycle time to 10 seconds.

This means, the feed cycler will shuffle through all class participants, 3 feeds at a time, 5 seconds at a time. Once it gets through all 20 feeds, it will simply restart.

Personal audio/video settings

Pretty early on, we gave trainers participant management settings. Meaning, trainers could mute class participants and turn their video off but class participants couldn’t actually do it for themselves.

No everyone has the ability to manage their own audio/video settings.

Mobile friendly live fitness classes in FitSW apps

This one sort of hits on two major things we have implemented for the live fitness classes feature.

Mobile optimized live fitness classes

When we initially launched live fitness classes in FitSW, it’s safe to say the interface definitely was not optimized for attending fitness classes on mobile devices.

However, not too long ago, we re-structured the interface a little bit and compacted all features of live classes into simple to use widgets on the left side of the screen.

This made it much easier to adjust the interface for smaller screens and made it easier to toggle and manage your settings.

Live fitness classes in FitSW mobile apps

Pretty much the minute we released the mobile improvements to the live fitness class interface, we added live fitness classes as a feature to our mobile apps.

Now, as the trainer you can create and share live fitness classes in our mobile apps (both iOS and Android). As a client, you can see all classes your trainer is currently offering and join them right from your phone.

Recap: live fitness classes in FitSW have come a long ways

Since launching live fitness classes, we have really made a lot of improvements and adjustments to not only fitness classes as a feature but the overall usability as well. If you have any feedback at all, feel free to email support@fitsw.com or reach out to us through our social media profiles.