9-March-2020 By Jeffrey Cooper

The Connected Gym: Exploring the Benefits

The concept of a fully Connected Gym was set up in incremental stages from the easiest to the more complex.

Tier 1 explained just setting up automated check-in, which also gives you check out. It can integrate with your existing system. In addition, if there is a wearable component, the act of checking in and out can start and stop basic workout recording. With just this basic setup, you can stop here and start gathering more data.

Tier 2 expanded on part one, and will allow you to see where members are using equipment. Depending on beacon density, you can break a larger area into smaller regions. If there’s a wearable component, the watch can segment the workout into categories like Weightlifting, Cardio, Group Fitness/LesMills BodyPump, for example. This is another good stopping point. At this level you will learn member’s interests and if they vary their workouts.

Tier 3 went deep. This level adds motion analysis and is an additional level of complexity. At this level you are getting deeper intelligence. Member’s will be more accurately measured and you’ll have an idea if the member needs help with their form or has hit a plateau. It will allow smarter targeting of Personal Training upsell.

Business Intelligence

Data Collection (analytics) is ubiquitous in the world of mobile applications that you use every day. Analytical data provides the mobile developer aggregated (de-personalized) feedback about how the app is used and how it is performing. Crash information, critically, is also shared. If parts of the app are underutilized, it may be that the feature is unnecessary, unpopular, or not obvious to use. It also enables A/B testing, where a developer rolls out two versions of the same app to see which designs and user flows are more popular and optimum.

Your Connected Gym will similarly generate additional data, analytics, most of which are new. Tier 1 will generate a small amount of incremental data. Tier 2 will give you quite a bit more with workouts included. And Tier 3 will generate reams of data.

Structured Data

Let’s start with your basic CRM system, which you likely have in place. CRM databases are structured into tables and blocks. The left figure above represents that. When you have implemented a Connected Gym as far as Tier 1, you pretty much will use the same structure, with a few more fields for the additional data. If you are pulling in 24/7 activity data from the users’s wearable device, including steps, inactivity, resting heart rate, etc… that will likely be stored here.

Semi-structured Data

When you implement Tier 2, you will get a lot more data, and it will vary in size. There are a few ways to save it: You can save it at the summary level, such as “Cardio, 20min, Weightlifting 40min” along with time in each HR zone, or; You can choose to store biometric data, in this case, basically heart rate, which will be significantly higher in size. The sizes of the blocks will vary with the length of the workout and the variety, especially in the second case.

If you implement Tier 3, you will also get accelerometer data. You likely will not store the raw data. The data will have been interpreted on the fly for type of motion, form, reps, etc… which gives you a lot more information on the content of workouts. Consequently, the sizes of these records will grow accordingly.

Unstructured Data

Unstructured data would be additional data outside the realm of wearables. If you have cameras, for example, security or movement recognition systems, you are generating data that cannot be structured. This data can be analyzed, but not with traditional methods. Any data that can random in size would be unstructured.

No matter what level you implement to, you will have more data to analyze.

ROI Opportunities

Tier 1 Opportunities

A Tier 1 implementation gives you a checkout time, which will give you Duration of Stay. This is an early indicator of abandonment and attrition. New members who don’t stay very long lack knowledge of how to use the equipment effectively. New members frequently feel some intimidation if they are not fit and see a gym full of healthier people working out hard.

Both of those applied to me. I wanted to lose weight and get healthier, but did not really know what I was doing. It was intimidating. It took personal training to make me feel comfortable.

By identifying this early, you can even offer a session with a trainer as an orientation of sorts. It can be a free hour of their time not assigned to a client, or you can pay them for the session. Consider that it is expensive to replace that customer- 5-30x more expensive than retaining them, according to IHRSA statistics. It’s a small cost to keep them and make them feel that you care about them. It could even lead to an upsell of Personal Training as a result!

Using other IHRSA statistics, here are 4 big reasons why members drop out. Not using or underutilizing account for 30%. If the club is too crowded, you can also identify that by looking at duration combined with attendance data. Simply contacting them to enquire the reasons can give you the information you need to bring them back in and help them become a happy- and healthier, member.

Tier 2 Opportunities

When you have Tier 2 in place, you have more granular information about member activities in the gym. By leveraging indoor positioning, you know what general types of exercises your members are doing on each visit.

There are two ways to use this data. One is in aggregate (de-personalized), which will give you usage patterns throughout the day. You probably already know this to some degree by simply seeing what areas are busiest when, but this actually measures it and allows you to see the data as it evolves over time. It will also allow you to, for instance, optimize placements of equipment and measure if this improves utilization. If you have multiple locations, you can test out new layouts in one location before rolling it out, akin to A/B testing in the mobile app world.

You can see an example in the heatmap above. These high-impact visual data representations give you at-a-glance very useful information.

You also will have data at the individual member level. Note that you need a solid data privacy model to protect your member’s and allow them to opt out of personally-identifiable, detailed tracking. With individual data, you will see just that person’s heatmap.

From this example, you can see that the member primarily uses treadmills, and has only occasionally tried out other machines, and pretty much avoiding the weight room.

This is all well and good if they continue to be an active member in your club. But if you look at other information and see they are attending less frequently, and are not staying as long per visit, then it may very well be they are getting bored with the routine. This is a retention opportunity. Like before, you can offer some spare Personal Trainer time or pay for a session yourself, to teach them that a diverse workout is both better for the body as well as the mind, and reducing boredom from the same routine. Gamify the gym by offering point systems for mixing up the workouts and using difference pieces of equipment. The points they earn can be redeemed for snacks such as protein bars of shakes, and so forth.

Tier 3 Opportunities

If you’ve gone all in and have a Tier 3 system in place, then you will be getting a lot of data. At this level, you can deliver detailed workout reports to your members, even showing muscled groups benefiting from today’s workout.

While rep counting is possible, it needs to be robustly tested by the developer to ensure it works with 99%-plus accuracy. If it misses some reps due to sloppy form, it will be perceived as a less positive experience by the member. It is better to count reps behind the scenes, and report sets to the user while using reps and form measurement to calculate a workout efficiency score.

Another feature will allow measurement of deviation from ideal form when performing different exercises. If you detect a member’s form is bad- they arch their back, jerk the weights, drop them too quickly, you can alert them there is an issue with their form. Let them know they are not getting as much as they could from the workouts. Let them know they are at higher risk of injury. You can offer them Personal Training based on measured data.

Included in Tier 3 is the option to have sensors on the equipment itself, such as ShapeLog, or camera-based recognition systems such as FitTrack. In these cases, the sensors will transmit to the smart watch or phone.

Conclusion

You can start with Tier 1 and advance as you feel comfortable, layering in more benefits and data to start mining for insight and opportunities.

While part of this system exists now, commercially, a fully-integrated system is not yet complete. These articles are intended to explain the concept of what it is doable today. They are intended to be educational and underscore that we can move this needle forward, now. It is possible to close the data gap with members. When this gap is closed, gyms will have greatly enhanced their competitiveness and their ability to offer new services.

Commercially, Pear Sports has the integrated wearable with trainer integration, on both iOS and Android devices with Tizen-based (Samsung) watches. Additional integrations such as ShapeLog can be integrated on demand for a customer.

Myzone, which we discussed at the start of the Tier 2 article, gets you partway there in the club. If you have or are considering a Myzone system, it is fully usable within a broader system that also involves wearables and other data gathering options. As much as I promote and love smart watches, chest-strap heart rate monitors are more accurate. It’s important to note that I also use a Myzone chest strap, due to its high quality and buffering capability.

The Goal

There is a big gap between the personal tech world embraced in Silicon Valley and the physical spaces of clubs and the traditional fitness industry. I want to see more conversations between both sides to bring them closer together and to have a more seamless world where fitness and health data is collected holistically and used for the benefit of the Member, while also offering valuable revenue opportunities for the clubs to pay for such as system to be completed. Remember, that which you measure, you can manage.

Remember that happier members remain members much longer. Long term members spend more on in club services, such as spas. Long term members are more likely to sign up their family members. And being in tune with your member’s goals and progress will allow you, at the right time, to offer services to help them get past a plateau and take things to the next level.

This article concludes the introduction to the Connected Gym. Future articles will cover different aspects of such a system.