To Gym or Not to Gym

    

As we slowly limp back to a sense of normalcy, businesses are busy preparing for opening their doors and welcome back customers. Most gyms/fitness centers have most likely worked on what they feel will be critical steps to maintain a safe and hygienic environment for their customers. But, are people ready to go back to the gym?

If you visit the site www.quora.com, you will find a lot of queries on gyms, fitness centers; some even questioning in essence - "Do we need gyms now that we have learned to live without them?"

Yep, we lived without gyms during the lockdown. Visit #tiktok and you will find videos of people lifting LPG cylinders, bricks, even other people to try and keep fit. A lot of exercises are molded using the local available materials, but in essence ape the machine or exercise they would have typically done in a gym. 

On #facebook and other social media, you will see ads for fitness based apps, the growth of these apps have been exponential.

So, will people stay away when gyms re-open? not likely. Some will be back in the gyms immediately without hesitation, some will hesitate and may choose to wait until they are convinced on hygiene and safety and some will cancel/not renew their memberships. 

So what is going to happen? some likely scenarios:

1. Gyms are likely to find the going tough in the interim

2. Likely to see some closures - single owner gyms may down shutters while big chains re-orient their branches and franchises to maximize geographic user base

3. More service apps which will help you to locate classes at a gym near you. Perhaps, the days of membership sales are slowly coming to an end.

4. Likely bigger gym chains have their own apps to promote home workouts, could see some sort of consolidation here

5. When pushed on the back foot, usually you find innovation and technology leading the revival. So it could well likely be a combination of VR, AR, XR or some new application or combination of applications and technologies which will contribute to the business. Imagine the below:

• Walk into the reception and a camera senses your body temperature (already available), a GPS location enabled register requests you to log- in via smart phone/app, assigns you a locker with a numeric lock and you are good to go
• You walk into a gym and want to know how to use a machine. Point your phone and get AR instructions that you can download and follow.  
• You are at the gym and having a personal training session and your trainer is virtual - like a hologram. 
• Running on a treadmill is boring? Not to worry - run the NY marathon or any course of any duration and distance in the world with the help of virtual reality. Use real time google maps street view for your virtual run. The treadmill surface could adapt to the contours of the course too. Some of this is already available, it just needs to scale up
• Multi use individual pods - inspired by the steam boxes used in Ayurveda and some 30/40 years back around the world - will we see pods that are multi use with settings for different temperature and humidity controls; add in sound/music therapy, light and  vibrations for energy balancing? 
• Too much traffic and going to skip the gym but still want to workout - order a workout to your inbox. 
• Borrowing an idea from resorts - some big gyms will start (if not already started) healthy cooking demonstrations with renowned chef
• Short, intense workouts - you will see more and more customers are focused and want a time bound workout - in and out, sort of like a Mcdonald's drive thru. P.S: already here
• Multi use facility - a gym that combines a traditional gym with studios, pool, virtual golf/tennis/cricket/soccer...open up the utility of the space and increase the user base. (again, likely here by now, but as it is capital intensive, may be limited to few places)

In conclusion, for every business to survive and thrive, the process is not easy. With the right ideas and innovation, business will grow and in some cases, grow exponentially.

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