Social-media app offers live fitness classes, interactive workout community

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This article was published 14/12/2015 (3819 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We’ve all heard of Buns of Steel and many of us have felt a tad embarrassed and intimidated by P90x commercials in the past.

Digital fitness classes have been around since VCRs were cool. But being able to interact and work out live with thousands of other people in the comfort of your own home? Well, let’s just say VCRs aren’t cool anymore.

Being able to work out in your living room while watching your fitness trainer or instructor streaming live through Periscope — a live-streaming app for Apple and Android devices — is one of the latest trends in the industry.

And it’s easy to see why, according to those taking advantage of the platform.

“We saw the fact that it had two-way interaction,” says AJ Joshi, a U.K.-based entrepreneur who started Valens, a health and wellness company with a focus on live-streaming fitness classes, back in May. “We wanted to bring together like-minded people who were doing the same thing.”

Joshi says his motivation for starting the company came out of his own struggle to become fit in his 20s. He had to completely change his lifestyle and the knowledge he gained from doing so is something he wanted to share.

Enter Valens.

Joshi said in the first week it went live, the company gained 20,000 followers. Eight months later, that number has ballooned to 200,000 worldwide.

“Fitness DVDs and videos have been around for a long time, but they are designed for one person in mind,” he says. “The thing that separates what our team does is people can interact. Users can ask questions. Our team can answer them. We are building a rapport. It’s an online community, as opposed to just a broadcast.”

Joshi’s team includes 29-year-old Pilates instructor Julie Hay. Originally from Pilot Mound, Hay moved to Falcon Lake and found there were no real fitness or dance offerings in the area.

“I’d been teaching dance for years, but I got into fitness in university. It opened more doors,” she says. “When I moved to Falcon Lake, it really jump-started this career.”

Valens reached out to Hay through social-media site Instagram, asking if she’d be willing to do classes on Periscope. After a successful audition, Hay was on board.

“Social media is 100 per cent the way of the future; it’s how people are interacting now,” she says. “Right now, we are the largest-platform fitness channel on Periscope… We want to fill the day with fitness.”

Hay runs a Pilates live stream once a day and also does a monthly challenge, a separate stream that builds off the previous day and works toward a monthly goal. Other members of the team do live cooking shows.

Hay’s iPhone sits on a tripod and captures what she is doing. She places an iPad on the mat so she can see what viewers are saying and interact with them.

“I have it set up where I will keep an eye on the comments,” she says. “I try to talk before and after the class and not as much during the class.”

Periscope allows videos to stay up for 24 hours before they disappear into cyberspace for good. Joshi says he’s looking at starting a YouTube channel where the videos could be uploaded and viewed any time.

Joshi says he’s not making any money off the Periscope classes. Hay isn’t getting paid, either.

What’s their motivation, then?

“We’ve come together because we want to help people, and I know it sounds cliché,” Joshi says.

“If you put an idea or a thought into the universe, by law of physics, it has to come back to you,” Hay adds. “A lot of people define their success by their money. For me, if someone is finally able to reach their toes in class, that is success. It comes back full-circle.”

For some of Canada’s biggest gyms, live streaming using platforms such as Periscope is just a complement to their in-house work.

Kim Lavender, the national director of team training at Good Life Fitness, says live streaming can be used as a marketing tool — one that helps people see what goes on within the gym’s walls. During a recent social-media campaign, Good Life employed such services.

“What we wanted to do is to give people at home a view of what it is like for a live class,” Lavender says. “We used it for motivational and informational purposes. What it does for people, especially if they had fears, is it enables them to see people at our gyms doing the programs we provide.”

Lavender says accessibility is huge.

“The No. 1 reason why people don’t work out is that they can’t find the time,” she says.

But Good Life isn’t going full-bore on the live streaming idea yet.

“Technology has really given new life to the fitness industry,” she says. “But getting members inside our walls is paramount.”

For Hay, Joshi and Valens, what Periscope allows for people intimidated by gyms is priceless.

“Being able to do it at home, especially if you’re having a bad day and are really struggling with your body, it’s just you and the screen,” Hay says.

Joshi says one man, whom he wants to keep anonymous, has been using their channel. He’s unable to leave his house due to his obesity and wouldn’t even if he could.

“He’s an extreme case, but there’s a lot of people out there with fears of going to a gym. Intimidation is something that has to be overcome in this industry. We’re trying to break that away with the anonymity of Periscope.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca