I’m happy to announce that, after some time developing, I’m launching the Interactive Universal Club Application Simulator. I wrote a 5-part series on this concept last spring called The Virtualized Club, which you can find via the link. In a nutshell, there is no reason that a Club’s bespoke application cannot track your workouts at the gym, as well as everywhere else.
Club apps, for the most part, do not offer workout tracking. All data from outside workouts is not captured at all. Most clubs do not know what other physical workout activities your members are doing outside the club. Do they run, cycle or swim? Do they workout at a work gym, also (which is basically a competitor to you)?
By covering all their bases, you become relevant to your members in every workout occasion. This also makes you relevant in these uncertain times, offering branded value to customers during times they are not able to come to the gym due to pandemic case surges.
Unlike the last simulator, help is distributed throughout this simulator, both with small blocks of help as well as contextual, added pop-up notes that are transient. If you want to get right to the Simulation, here’s the link: https://runningthoughts.tech/interactive/universal-club-application/universal.html
The Simulator
If you’ve played with the Interactive Connected Gym Simulator, you’ll see this one is very different in appearance. The first one was entirely within the confines of the club. With this simulation, I wanted you demonstrate you can move around in the world, workout in different places, and demonstrate how your application can adapt to those locations to provide relevant suggestions. So I started with a map of the world, focused on the US.
There are four locations in the simulator. Your Home City, for purposes of the simulation, is San Jose, California. The app understands where Home and your Home Region are. So, by default, the simulator starts here. The other options are Atlanta, which I’ve defined here as a Business Trip, a special case, and two vacation location- Glacier National Park and Key West.
You start the simulation, well, anywhere. However, I’d suggest starting at Home, which is probably the most likely place you’ll start a workout other than your club. During the pandemic, it may be the only place you start a workout for the near future. So, I suggest hovering over the Home icon, with the little red roof.
This is where it springs to life. Upon about 1/2s of hovering, a “picture” of your home pops up. An important thing to note here, is, every time you launch this learning application in a new location, it will follow a different user flow than all subsequent launches. That’s because it’s important to learn some context about this location and present you with the most relevant options. The double-image above has a slider you can use to see both launch screens- a “Where are you?” and a follow-up “What equipment do you have?”. This is done once, but you can always revisit if you buy more equipment.
So, once done, and on all subsequent launches of the app from home, you will see this:
Running and riding are always options, but if you don’t do them, they’ll drop down the list as options with the workouts you like doing coming at the top. Also, these workout are realistic- just like the other simulator, they generate workout data based on my own heart rate from real exercises I have done. These are all “captured” and you can view a summary at the end, just like the other simulator. Watches are supported, but not required. I do recommend some kind of HR Monitor, though.
What is really cool is, it support streaming media when that is part of it. Got a favorite HIIT video you like to workout to? I have a few HIIT videos when I jump on our Elliptical for a quick workout. Click on that, and the iPad on to the left of the phone will spring to life with video content- check it out. Same with the TV. Want to do Yoga? Well, see it on the simulator’s TV to the left of the phone. I have worked hard to include all the components of this concept into this simulation.
The simulator also has Work in it. This allows for you to run, cycle or do other exercises as work. My previous employer also had basketball and in good weather, volleyball. They also had a small-format gym, which was free. This is important- by providing coached content and capture at their work gym, it let’s you be relevant there. Work gyms, like it or not, are your competitor. Free is easy, and if folks get busy, they may drop their primary membership. With the economy the way it is in 2020, it’s even more likely in 2021 when work locations open back up.
City parks and regional parks are here, too, and offer outdoor workouts, such as running, cycling, trails, and mountain biking. All the options above are places I worked out at in addition to my default, home club. I love to run in parks, and work provided time-crunched options.
The Connected Gym
The last option in the San Jose panel is special- it’s your Home Club, the default gym you workout in. When you hover on the club icon, you get the following popup:
This application includes the ability to work in a Connected Gym (also see those articles in the Connected Gym Collection). When you go to your home club (or any equipped branch), the club app will work and interact with the club via beacons and other sensors. If you click on the Connected Gym floormap image, it will launch the Interactive Connected Gym Simulation inside the Universal Club Application simulator. You can “workout” in that gym, move around, capture workouts, and do everything that simulation allows you to do, and then close it and go back to playing with this simulation.
The Business Trip
Next, let’s go on a business trip- in 2021, that is, when hopefully that is possible again! Since you’ve identified home and your home region, and (hopefully) spend most of your time in that area, the Universal Club Application understands when you are traveling. For this simulation, I’ve picked Atlanta for your business trip.
Hovering on the City of Atlanta will shut down the San Jose level and pop up the Atlanta level. Now you see different options. For simplicity, I am showing a Four Points Sheraton Hotel (where you are staying), and two clubs.
Hotel detection will be automatic, asking for confirmation. There are online directories of hotel gyms and Sheraton in particular is workout-friendly. Increasingly, upscale hotels are offering better fitness options and even Personal Trainers in some cases. When I traveled to Seoul, my Le Meridien had a great club as well as reservable personal trainers.
You’ll see offered here streaming workouts to your TV, with orderable-to-the-room gym kits containing a mat and a few items (Sheraton has offered these at some hotels, which is why I picked them for the simulator). The TV in your hotel room will actually show the video in this simulation. If you choose to go to the hotel’s gym, you can take your tablet, which is shown here and video workouts for cardio equipment will stream on this simulation.
Besides the hotel, you can run outdoors- that’s what I do when I travel. And there are two gyms, as mentioned. One is a branch of your own gym, and will bring up the Interactive Connected Gym Simulation, and the other one is an IHRSA partner gym, which offers the potential of integrating with IHRSA’s Passport Program.
I know it is not normal that you would go to a partner gym if your own club chain has a national footprint, but I wanted to represent both possibilities in the simulation.
Vacations
Finally I offer the concept of vacation. These would be places remote, such as national parks and scenic areas, and if you are in a city like New York City, on first launch, you’d be asked if this is a business trip or a holiday.
I picked two, quite different places for the simulation. Once is Glacier National Park in Montana, and the other is Key West, in Florida.
These two levels operate differently than Home Region and Business Travel.
In this view, there’s no need to hover on the items. The app knows you are somewhere cool, and offers a few things you can do- run, and cycle (if you brought your own equipment). It also offers listings of local rental outfits and excursions.
These are real business and the websites and contact info on the phone are all real (click on them if you like). These offer opportunities for incremental revenue from referrals. I picked a few- mountain biking, rafting, kayaking and skiing, though the season is opposite from those for the other outdoor sports.
In Key West, it’s similar. The options there are running, cycling, kayaking, canoeing, stand up paddleboarding and snorkeling. Similarly, it links to real businesses.
In these holiday scenarios, you may have poor or no cell phone coverage. So it’s important to note that, while it’s a limitation, many lodges do offer WiFi internet access, so for more remote areas, there may still be options.
And if you go completely off the grid, such as remote camping, no worries. While business directories won’t be there, you can still do your workouts, such as trail running, mountain biking, hiking and rock climbing, for example.
Have Fun!
Please play around with this simulation and see how a Club Application can be transformed into an application that becomes a part of any fit member’s life. Why let 3rd party tracking apps get the data when they aren’t at your club? Take part in a full, 360 conversation about your members’ fitness activities and goals. Become a lifestyle brand for them, at any price point. It doesn’t matter if your premium, boutique, or budget.