Is it now safe to go to the gym or attend any public fitness session? No, it’s not. But many people are concerned about it. All across the country, the gyms, fitness sessions, clubs have been shut down in order to save people from increasing pandemic COVID19. Additionally, as the experts said, the spread of the virus made visits to the gym and all kinds of social interaction riskier. For many people, this is just missing a regular routine or workout, but for people who are addicted to the gym to enhance their personalities, it becomes difficult for them to get the equipment at home. Moreover, trying to exercise at home isn’t the same.
So as you see, whether it’s getting into the gym, yoga or fitness session, or just a simple jog, we all want to do a little better, especially when we are getting proper guidance. But fortunately, social distancing does not change the fact that we should necessarily cut off from our general activities. It actually indicates that we can do whatever we want to, even by isolating ourselves and being aloof.
So it’s helping. For the people who are feeling isolated and left out and thinking about how to continue with their regular sessions, it’s time for them to consider taking the exercise regimens to social media.
Since many gym instructors have become professional influencers online, and people at home during such circumstances can take advantage. The number of professional videos available on social networking sites is fabulous, and most of the content is free. And there is one more advantage that if you tune in to somebody who you like, they may offer remote live sessions and structured routine.
Let’s see what Fitness Industries should do and are doing to help keep customers safe during the coronavirus pandemic. We are going to discuss the issues first.
The Issues Fitness industry is Facing due to Covid19
- The spread of the latest virus has made even the most ardent gym rates stress out about picking up the barbells. At times people don’t have a clue what’s in those nondescript spray bottles at the gyms that they are supposed to use to wipe down your machine, mat, and equipment.
- The fitness industries are financially affected. In the U.S, some cities and states, gyms, and fitness studios have been forced to close as the temporary shutdown of social spaces goes into effect. Keeping in mind the current scenario, the UK Government encouraged citizens to curb social interactions. In contrast, the boutique fitness brands began to email their consumers to let them know they will be closing their doors until further notice.
- Meanwhile, the maintenance of the gym equipment has become hardened due to abrupt halt in the payments. And due to this lack of management, the types of equipment that are being used in the gym regularly obsolete soon.
- The Covid19 has created a scenario of competition among various virtual training institutes. Those who have just joined this industry would be facing more challenges as compared to the established ones.
- The people who are not accustomed to virtual training are in a negative approach that virtual trainers do not share an accurate representation of their entire routine online.
- People are used to an elite gym environment, due to the availability of all the fitness equipment under one roof. This is a drawback for virtual training industries because it confines their sessions towards training.
- The regular monitoring of health becomes difficult virtually, which is much more comfortable in the real world.
Why do We Need Virtual Training Apps?
The rapid growth of mobile virtual apps has now redefined the way people are interacting with brick and mortar fitness facilities. The virtual coaches nowadays augment the traditional offering of a personal fitness trainer. The virtual training apps have provided users with a new form of social support.
1. Increased Convenience
Without the limitation of location and time of the traditional fitness centers, the trainees have the freedom to engage with their peers whenever they want. As within their preferred time and places, they can give their best.
The professional world has realized that not every trainee can come up in person, especially when there is an outbreak of the latest virus. The virtual training apps have allowed the trainees to do training on their own terms on as many different devices anywhere the internet is available.
2. Schedule Flexibility
The easy accessibility of virtual training platforms has allowed the trainers to take a break at certain times, making it less fatigued, resulting in a revival of their mental and physical strength. This type of flexibility is not possible with a physical presence in the training room.
3. Knowledge Retention
The online instructions and guidelines provide a more effective training experience because of the ability to have short and interactive sessions. These short sessions help trainees find what they need quickly. And help up to make it more manageable and memorable.
4. Feedback
In a virtual training session, trainers have an added advantage of being able to track the performance of their trainees, and trainees can get quick feedback on how well they comprehended the meeting.
5. Participation and Engagements
It might be possible that there would be increased opportunities for participation and engagement in real training industries. But this can not be necessarily true. However, this is an excellent opportunity for those who may not be as comfortable with interacting in person.
Moreover, it allows trainers to determine the quality and adjust accordingly to ensure the most effective experience.
6. It is Affordable
- You don’t have to fly out to reach a trainer or coach
Since virtual training can be provided without an in-person trainer, so your overall cost will not include training travel. Additionally, they do not need to go out and put their lives in danger, as they can take in-house training sessions.
- More participants can attend which usually means a lower price-per-person
Since most of the training sessions are charged per-participant, and more participants means the lower price tag. The virtual training is more accessible, and it doesn’t need everyone flying out to a single location. More employees are typical to participate means a lower participation rate.
- It doesn’t require travel or classroom costs
Many traditional in-person training programs require travel costs that also include classroom rentals and food costs, but virtual training does not.
- Less time away from productive work
Virtual training can be broken up into smaller chunks and can be delivered over 2-6 weeks. These smaller chunks are often relatively flexible and are basically meant to fit around trainees’ work schedules.
How to Develop a Virtual Training App?
In order to develop a virtual training app that could attract a broad base of users, you need to have a team of virtual training app developers. And it is fundamental to make sure that the app developers are experienced within the field of training app development. And make sure that your developers are visionary to understand and welcome your ideas and visions and are able to incorporate their expertise to turn them into reality.
Here are the essential members who are involved in the development of virtual training app development
- Project manager
- Android and iOS developers
- Backend App developers and Front-end developers
- Graphic Designers
- UI/UX designers
- QA testers
Additionally, the number of project designers or developers may vary according to the project requirement.
The tech-stack required for developing virtual training app
- Twilio, Push.io for Push Notifications
- Nexmo, Twilio is used for SMS, voice and phone verification
- Braintree, PayPal, Stripe E-Wallets for Payments
- For Database- Mongo DB, HBase, Cassandra, Postgress, Mail chip integration
- Cloud Environment- AWS, Google, Azure
- For real-time Analytics- Hadoop, Spark, Apache Flink, BigData, Cisco, IBM.
How will a Training App help the Fitness Industry?
Nowadays, fitness is the fastest growing sector in the industry. Moreover, fitness has always been on the top of consumers’ minds. The fitness apps are the game-changer for the fitness industry within the past ten years alone. Since we can witness the increasing online presence of people, it makes sense that the fitness industry has joined them there.
In fact, According to Statista
- Overall Revenue in the Fitness segment has amounted to US$17,937m in 2020.
- Revenue is expected to present an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2024) of 4.0%, resulting in a market volume of US$20,973m by 2024.
- The market’s largest segment is Wearables, with a market volume of US$15,376m in 2020.
- As compared globally, most revenue in the Fitness segment is generated in China (US$5,344m in 2020).
This implies that many brick and mortar fitness studios have jumped on the bandwagon when it comes to training apps. These applications are all in one, which means they include class schedules, gym hours, mobile check-in, and even booking capabilities, you name it.
The apps are not only meant to explore the gym chains or expensive fitness studios to explore but also there are many reasons which can force people to invest in the training applications for a gym or fitness studio of any size.
1. Build Social Media Influence
A mobile app with the right APIs, including check-in to social media, and automatic photo sharing to social media profiles, boost the gym’s and fitness studio’s online visibility and overall social media presence. People have wised up and no now longer believe the results shown on TV.’ They feel more encouraged to sign up for your facility if their peers are posting about it and sharing real results on the different social media platforms. The training app establishes an in-app community as well by allowing users to interact with one another in a self-contained environment within the app itself where there is social distancing and they can not go out from their comfort zones.
2. Membership Platforms
A training app simply adds value to a user’s membership by making it convenient to see training schedules, and upcoming programs. Not only this but you can go one step further and provide value-driven content via the app, such as workout videos, fitness inspiration, and tips, diet plans, and whatnot.
3. Drive Attendance and Sales
A training app can also send out reminders to go workout. One of the main reasons people can quit gyms in this situation is because they get out of the habit of going. Habits are easy to make but difficult to break. An app can keep them in practice by reminding and gently urging them to work out on regular basis. Here the push notifications and SMS can also be an excellent up-sell and marketing tool if you offer classes, events, or merchandise you can promote to users via the training app.
4. Personalized Gym and User Experience
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to an individual’s fitness needs and desired experience. But the one thing that users and gym-goers are after is a personalized experience. Building a customized training app can allow you to do just that without any hassles. The training apps are the best rescue in accordance with the situation we are facing right now. You can even develop your app to tie into wearable tech like the Fitbit to track vitals and workout stats which can help you increase the overall user experience.
Ready to Build a Virtual training App With Matellio?
Nowadays, building a fitness app is in demand due to the ongoing circumstances of COVID19. We are getting a golden opportunity to have a piece of cake. Since people can not go out in such adverse conditions, fitness apps can play a vital role. But yes, one has to be clear before starting with the app and add features.
However, developing a fitness app is not a piece of cake. But it can become more comfortable with the help of a dedicated and certified fitness app development company.
