Digital Fitness Has Progressed Decades in Only a Matter of Months, and Our Workouts Are Better for It
It’s nine o’clock on Monday morning, and my heart racing at 180 beats per minute. Keoni Hudoba is telling me to engage my core, and not to collapse out of my plank (despite the fact that my abs are on fire). A month ago, the exact same scene would have been taking place at a Barry’s studio on 23rd street in Manhattan. Now, due to the fact that COVID-19 forced gyms to close their doors, it’s taking place in my living room. In just a matter of weeks, digital fitness has seemingly progressed decades into the future, and everyone from individual trainers, all the way up to tech giants are sweating how to get in on the game.
Online workouts are hardly a new phenomenon. We called digital fitness as a rising trend way back in 2018, and that was four years after Peloton launched its revolutionary at-home bike. Early adopters like AKT, Lekfit, Aaptiv, and Tone it Up have been streaming workouts since before oat milk became a thing (that’s 2017, ICYWW). In the years since, brands like Obé, Mirror, and Nike (among many others) have also staked their claim in digital fitness, so much so that in 2017, pros estimated that the global digital-fitness market would climb 33 percent to reach $27.4 billion by 2022.
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