To stay ahead of the pack, it helps to know what’s coming around the corner. As F45 Training continues to set the pace for fitness franchising, we’re always on the lookout for exciting developments and learnings—both in terms of fitness as well as the business side of franchising.
A recent study by LatentView Analytics analyzed findings on fitness products/usage, search terms, and social media conversations over the last decade. Here are some of the things that stood out to us:
Training at home is seasonal.
Even with ever-improving equipment and a wealth of training apps and virtual coaches on the market, training at home isn’t an area of fitness that’s growing exponentially. Rather, it appears to spike around winter, as people set their New Year’s resolutions. The category hasn’t grown significantly, apart from one or two standout equipment manufacturers. For the moment, hands-on instruction and face-to-face coaching are still superior and preferred when compared to apps and AI trainers.
It’s good news for F45 Training, because while we will continue to improve our digital offerings, the studio floor is still very much our focus and central to our customer experience.
Community is the top motivator.
Being part of a community and participating in social experiences are by far the biggest motivators in terms of people joining and attending a gym or fitness class. At F45, we believe that it’s a case of a bit of both of the above options. By creating a strong sense of community in each and every franchise, members are more likely to show up to train, push themselves, and also to remain loyal over the long term. It’s a model that offers the best of both worlds when it comes to both fitness and the business of franchising.
Fitness tech continues to boom.
While the growth of both fitness-oriented software and hardware doesn’t seem to be encouraging more people to train at home, the number of wearable devices, apps and digital training offerings continues to rise.
A key strength of F45 is making it easy for members to actually work out, get sweaty and have a bunch of fun, but we realize that tech is also a big part of our product. The use of technology on and off on the studio floor not only helps members track their progress and reach their goals, but also helps our franchisees deliver a consistent, high-quality experience and keeps members connected to us beyond the time they spend working out.
Our in-studio screens, wireless LionHeart monitors, F45 Challenge app and dedicated product for coaches all feed into keeping us at the cutting-edge and give members the extra dimension that they’re looking for in their health and training. According to the study, fitness tech can be loosely grouped into three categories: improving performance, experiencing training in new ways and creating marketplaces.
Improving performance.
Some modern sports products use sensors and sophisticated algorithms to track movement and performance, and then give feedback to improve both. It’s exciting technology, and in the future, it should help bring quality coaching to more people. That being said, it’s still something that will work best paired with a hands-on, real world approach to training when it comes to social connection and community.
New experiences.
Further innovation is changing the workout experience itself. And real-time, on-demand fitness classes can be brought to any location with products that make live training classes available to people who can’t get to the gym. It’s interesting that Forte, one of the companies mentioned in the study, has found that consumers prefer live classes over recorded content since they provide more of a sense of community and authenticity.
It’s because of this that real-world fitness will remain king in terms of experience, and why offerings like F45’s team training continue to grow alongside improving technology.
Marketplaces
More connectivity is also making it easier for digital fitness marketplaces to match supplies with users. It’s an exciting territory for fitness franchises because it will make communicating throughout the business easier, as well as give consumers better access to valuable training knowledge.
Let’s go, team!
After examining these innovations and trends, it certainly looks like F45 Training is poised to offer existing and future franchisees an investment that will continue to grow and evolve to match an industry that seems to be changing every day. We look forward to seeing you at the cutting-edge!
This could be a life changing opportunity.
