Although gyms are slowly beginning to welcome guests in scattered areas across the country, the virtual home workout session is a new mainstay in personal fitness.
Nine out of 10 Americans who exercise regularly say they will continue workouts at home even after they feel comfortable returning to a gym in the future, according to a new survey from Beachbody, a Santa Monica-based health and fitness company. . The Future of Fitness survey was conducted by Wakefield Research July 24-29 of 1,000 American adults who said they exercise regularly.
There is something very rewarding about discovering the convenience of simply getting out of bed, enjoying a pre-workout drink, and immediately hitting ‘Play’ on a workout of your choice.” Says Carl Daikeler, CEO of Beachbody Co. “Since the start of the pandemic, tens of millions of people have experienced effective virtual workouts in their own living rooms, and our nutrition and fitness programs have been used more widely as sitting at home has become an essential aspect of staying healthy. “
“The new normal has begun, and many have found a number of positives to exercising from home. And for some, things are working better than before, ”says Brent Leffel, co-managing partner of Equity38, a private investment firm in the health and wellness space, and CEO of TRX Training, a suspension weight training program. . “They say it takes two months for a new behavior to become automatic. We’ve already been through that. There has also been a lot of research published suggesting that many consumers will not return to gyms when they reopen. “
Work(out) from home
The emergence of COVID-19 quickly accelerated the trend of exercising from home, which had been slowly developing for years, Leffel says. Americans have been forced to figure out how to exercise differently when gyms closed and virtual and remote work began. Virtual fitness accelerated a decade in a matter of weeks, he continues, and consumers scrambled to secure fitness equipment and accessories for home use as gyms and boutique studios scrambled to offer streaming content to members.
“This pandemic has caused a lot of uncertainty around the world. Not knowing when the pandemic will be left behind and when daily activities will be deemed safe again weighs heavily on the minds of many, ”says Dannah Bollig, founder of Method DE, an online exercise program.
The new home gym
Despite the economic downturn, consumers have been splurging on large and expensive fitness equipment for home while continuing to work and workout from home. Hydrow, a home-based rowing startup that sells $ 2,220 machines, saw sales increase 400% in April compared to January, and as Fortune’s Lucinda Shen reported in June, the company recently raised $ 25 million in funding. venture capital.
Peloton, which already had a cult following for its on-demand and live-streamed classes for its proprietary exercise bike and treadmill long before the pandemic, has seen its member base and participation rates skyrocket in recent months. . In April, the company broke its previous record for the most participants in a live class when it introduced its “Live From Home” content series: More than 23,000 people joined the first class, taught by the lead instructor and vice president of fitness schedule Robin Arzón. And Peloton’s full access subscribers, who pay $ 39 a month for membership, average 18 workouts per month, up from 13 at this time last year.
