Fitness Technology Products and Their Impact on Fitness Training

As with everything related to technology, the fitness technology industry grows rapidly every year. It’s no wonder why because of the shift in regard to health, fitness, and wellness we have seen in the last decade. As it becomes increasingly more important to people, especially post-Covid, more fitness technology products will flood the market and make their mark on fitness enthusiasts and fitness professionals.

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global fit tech industry was valued at $10.8 billion USD and is expected to grow by over $4 billion in the following year. Fortune Business Insights estimates a CAGR of 4.6% for the next 7 years. So what does that mean?

It means it’s not going anywhere and for a good reason. These products make our lives easier in several ways, and they provide more opportunities for consumers to look inward and lay heavier focus on health and wellness. Everybody benefits from fitness technology, especially those who have a career in fitness training. This group can maximize the use of cutting-edge fitness tech products for more advanced and precise training with their clients.

What is fitness technology?

As with anything in the tech world, fitness tech is under constant innovation. This innovation leads to better data collection, tracking, and adaptation for people involved in fitness. Overall, fitness technology improves the methods by which people get fit… well duh. But how?

It automates tasks like rep counting, progress tracking, macro tracking, bodily assessments and even creates more convenient ways for people to get fit. Convenience and efficiency are key factors in innovation, and fit technology is booming in checking off those boxes.

In the application for fitness instructors and personal trainers, fit tech saves time. In turn, allowing them to make money. Fitness technology products contribute solutions for trainers and coaches to run their business more smoothly and ensure that their clients crush the goals they set for themselves.

How does fitness technology give personal trainers a competitive edge?

Successful personal training relies on accountability, efficiency, and data. Regarding accountability, personal trainers maintain consistent communication with each and every one of their clients. This alone can be an overwhelming task for just one person managing many. Therefore, tools like calendars, booking systems, and platforms for virtual communication are wildly important to trainers and their clients. Though, all of those tools can be virtually based and easily accessible. This makes accountability more manageable and more efficient.

Each type of technology automates and provides specific functions that take more time out of crunching numbers and manually tracking patterns. With more time to spare and organized data records and tracking, fitness trainers are more apt than ever to change lives.

Fitness Software

Fitness software has quite a broad application. It can cover a large number of different options for both the client end and the trainer end. Either party has plenty of options to choose from within the target niches in health and wellness and niches in data tracking and management. Each product developed in this industry has a specific niche that it targets, though some bundle the tools needed to pinpoint a specific area of health.

We will get into some examples of these niches later in the article. However, it’s important to note how helpful these different innovations can be for the individual consumer or for health and wellness professionals. For professionals, their careers become much more impactful with the aide of technology. Average consumers have more resources for tackling their personal health goals and tracking milestones along the way.

Client Facing

On the client end, you have personalized applications that grant people access to fitness, health, and wellness resources. These resources are workouts, live training, metric trackers, and the educational materials people need to continue progressing through their health journey. A popular member of this category is running apps that show where the user ran, how long, and the distance. Apps like these gamify the milestones runners hit and help them to keep track of how much they have accomplished.

Moreover, other apps allow clients to receive access to on-demand fitness programs, live virtual training classes, and pre-recorded workout videos. These apps allow people to get their sweat in anytime anywhere. Often, the inconvenience of working out prevents people from staying on track or getting started.

Some apps simply track health data based on inputs and estimates. For example, women can track their menstrual cycles using health apps and get a better idea of when to expect them and track their moods. Additionally, this helps them track their most fertile periods if they are trying to conceive.

Similarly, MyFitnessPal, an app that lets people track their daily food intake and macros, niches in nutrition tracking and education. It also integrates with many different apps to embellish people’s other fitness efforts.

Pulling the pieces together, fitness contributes to overall health, and in the realm of health technology, we are lucky to have as many options as we do. In turn, people live healthier and happier with a better understanding of how to impact their lives positively. Impact happens in ways like knowing when to exercise a little extra to keep menstrual cramps at bay!

Trainer Facing

For trainers, apps that have functions like cycle tracking are insanely valuable. When the trainer can dissect just about every aspect of health and wellness on a client using health data tracking apps, then they can customize their fitness and nutrition programs accordingly.

Data from these client-facing apps is invaluable because it can help trainers get results for their clients more efficiently and more effectively. Moreover, when there is less guesswork to do regarding the root of the issues that people face in health and wellness, then they can spend more time tackling the actual causes.

Even if there is no issue to target, this data can help to formulate fitness programs that will be maximal for the client at hand.

Moving forward, trainer-facing fitness software does just about everything under the sun that trainers need to manage. Essentially, it compiles all the information they need on each individual client. This type of fitness technology product works to bundle all of the tools and resources that personal trainers and fitness coaches use on a daily basis. Therefore, automation of these tasks reduces the time it takes to manage clients and allows for more consistent accountability for clients.

Apps like FitSW accomplish the bundling and automating of tasks.

Wearables

Wearables make for great biometric tracking fitness technology. Health apps available on ones are limited to estimates of calories burned and other active energy metrics whereas wearables can pick up on heart rates, blood pressure, and other variables that affect active energy measurements.

On the flip side, many people struggle with sleep and the lack thereof. Other wearables allow people to better understand their sleep patterns and how they can reverse them by actively working on certain areas of wellness. That is extremely valuable information to personal trainers!

Pictured below if the Go2Sleep sensor that tracks your sleep patterns as well as biometrics that can negatively affect your sleep.

A very interesting option in this sector of fitness technology products is biometric tracking clothing and other clothing with fitness-oriented functions.

Biometric tracking clothing have sensors in the lining that can track form, heart rate, posture, pressure on certain parts of the body, and so much more.

Moreover, smart clothing has unique functions to improve all types of wellness. An example of smart clothing is the Nadi X yoga pant that improves your posture through your yoga routines. These pants administer a slight buzz to let you know that your form is off and what area to correct.

In other news, these days, who doesn’t have an Apple Watch? We all know the capabilities of Apple Watches and the fitness fanatic’s love for the data tracking capabilities. However, not everyone can afford a watch and some people don’t need all of the capabilities the Apple Watch provides. Lucky for us the fitness watch industry has a lot of competitors in the watch segment.

Watches might be the most popular product in the industry while anything related to cardiovascular health takes the cake for highest revenue.

Data Tracking Fitness Equipment

Fitness equipment that tracks data just might be one of the handiest tools trainers can have in their mobile training bag. For coaches and trainers who prefer to work with clients outside of the gym setting, you will need to rack up some equipment to use. With data tracking equipment, clients can use the equipment throughout the workouts you assign them and keep track of the weights and reps they accomplish. This takes the tedius detail work out of the exercise.

The only downside to this fit tech is the possibility of it not accomplishing its data tracking job. This will always be the risk with computerized tech gear. Nonetheless, here are some examples of the different fitness equipment you can get to amp up your training sessions with clients:

• Jump ropes
• Kettlebells
• Dumbbells
• Scales

Much of this equipment saves massive amounts of space as well. To go further, this technology is perfect for mobile personal trainers who need to bring a piece of the gym with them anywhere they go.

In fact, you might be wondering where all of this data goes and how can you actually use it. Most smart fitness equipment comes set with apps that collect and display the data from using the equipment. Additionally, many apps integrate with each other to display information from all different types of workouts.

Likewise, FitSW collects and displays data it picks up from Apple Health and Google Fit. All the while, those apps can collect data from other apps associated with fitness technology.

Overall

The success of fit tech reflects the effectiveness of its application. Though, some options are without a doubt gimmicky. However, many can make fitness and wellness easier and more manageable for people. In a world with increasing health risks, we need personal fitness more than ever and personal trainers need all the tools they can get their hands on to change as many lives as possible.