Ian:

Operators, whether they be studios or traditional operators,, need to find their place in that ecosystem. And that ecosystem itself has changed quite dramatically with the introduction of the digital players, digital only players, are the digital providers. And I think that the reason that's changed is for a number of aspects. First and foremost, digital players are providing a level of personalization, which isn't necessarily given in a bricks and mortar environment.

Will:  

Hey, I'm Will Brereton, founder of Sh1ft Fitness and this is Group Fitness Real Talk, a show about how to survive and even thrive in group fitness in 2021, and beyond. While we may not be zooming around in flying cars just yet, I think we can all agree that the future is here. And technology is changing our lives at a faster rate than ever before. And in this podcast, you're about to hear some big bold predictions about what is coming just around the corner in the fitness industry. We're talking wearables, augmented reality heads up displays in real time class performance data fed directly into your 5g enabled contact lens for science fiction territory, which I love by the way. My guest today is Ian Mullane, an AI expert and the CEO of Keepme. Ian's recently pulled together a really interesting white paper entitled 'The Fitness Future: Rules of Engagement'. And this looks at how tech can improve gyms businesses, not just in the future. But now using AI, AR, 5g, personalization, and all the other types of technological advancements that are right on our doorstep. He is a former club operator and he brings a really interesting perspective to the discussion of what comes next in fitness. And in today's podcast, we're going to lay that out in relation to the group fitness professional, what to expect around the corner, and how to get ahead of it. If this talk of AI in the future has got you a little bit concerned, relax. While we are definitely going to talk about where we think things are ultimately headed. Ian provides some great,, simple actionable tips for how us normal fitness instructors can get ahead of these inevitable changes that are not coming to just power industry, but everyday life.

Will:  

Ian Mullane, welcome to the podcast. How are you? 

Ian  

I'm very well. Thanks. Thanks for having me. 

Will:  

And where are you calling in from today? 

Ian  

I am in the middle, I would say the middle of the night, the late evening, very northern part of the United Kingdom called Lancashire. So I am safely ensconced on my own little isolated farm for the time being very nice. 

Will:  

So for our for our American listeners, which there are quite a lot with tell us exactly where Lancashire is in relation to the United Kingdom. 

Ian  

I guess the probably the most famous city that's Lancashire is going to have is Liverpool. And so that is probably about 17 miles to the south of where I am currently on this side of things. So yeah, we're in the northwest of England, the Northwest. 

Will:  

Okay. And so what I'm really excited to talk to you about is that you have been making some waves in the fitness industry recently with a white paper that you have authored. Maybe you could just give a little update on kind of what you're doing right now and also where the genesis of that white paper came from. 

Ian  

Sure. Okay. Well, my background isn't mainstream fitness as such, though, I was an owner operator of a business called Vander.fit for just over 12 years in Singapore, which I sold in 2019. And it was during that ownership whilst I wasn't heavily involved in the day to day that my other experience which is predictive analytics and financial engineering and a whole base of math-orientated stuff, made me curious into what was the possibility of being able to predict retention issues before they actually occurred. And long story short, it's, it's over the last few years, it's developed into a business called Keepme.ai with customers in 10 countries in the world. COVID comes in March last year. You know, I'm a, I'm an avid reader. I'm an economist from an academic background, which means I'm always looking for consequences of things changing. I've got a strong customer base of a large variety of organizations, whether it be they're the likes of virgin active down to individual studios, and their business stopped overnight. The implications of that were obvious now. We ourselves double down on a whole host of different initiatives to use it, but I found myself contradicting a lot of what was being said in, in the media and the conversations around how the industry was going to fare, and I started to see the rapid acceleration of digitization, far beyond the pace we could ever imagine to see. And come to November, when the UK announced its lockdown number 2, I'm loosing track.

Will:  

Which is still going.

Ian  

I started jotting down what I intended to be a blog post, you know, I had started to grab some things, and it just went on. And it just went on and on and 12,000 words and 30 pages later, and a blog post becomes a white paper. And what I was trying to do, in the most simple form was to provoke conversation. A lot of it is my opinion. And a lot of it is my observations and my discussions with other people. But what is apparent and just cannot, under any circumstances be ignored is the fact that we're not returning to the way it was. And that the digital landscape is starting to dominate, if not revolutionize our business. Now, I personally think for the better. And I think that even for bricks and mortar and traditional operators is going to be better for them than it was. But that that is the reality. And what I wanted to do was to provoke conversation. I didn't know what type of responses, I certainly didn't anticipate the whatever it's been 1000 downloads from 30 countries and you know, the type of response we've got. But what it has actually done is start to get me engaged with a lot of very intelligent people,, a lot more intelligent than my good self, and also with people a lot more experience. And it's helping me to start to shape a better understanding of what the landscape is going to look like for our industry over the next two to five years. 

Will:  

Totally. And I'm really interested to have your perspective on this show, because we're obviously group fitness orientated. And we talk to instructors and people that are in this in the instructor space. But you you're going to bring a different perspective on this. Because obviously, as an operator and someone that works closely with operators you have we have an understanding of what it means for the group fitness studio and where you think that's going. But you're probably going to have a slightly different opinion on how instructors can best place themselves to take advantage of these challenges and changes that are coming. So on that note, why don't you kind of do you want to summarize sort of the biggest key takeaways of the white paper, we will link to it so that anyone that wants to download it and read it in full can read it. But maybe we could just kind of skim over some of the big headline points and then deep dive into how you think they're going to impact instructors in their day to day lives, both in their own careers and in their careers at gyms and outside of gyms. 

Ian  

Okay, well, I think that the overarching point, which I've tried to make is that the fitness operators no longer own the wellness journey of consumers. We've been the temples of fitness for decades, and it's a strength, a very strong position to have in the psyche of the consumer. But our consumers are changing very rapidly. They're, what what what they define as wellness or fitness or whatever now is very, very different is more likely to take in aspects such as sleep, nutrition, hydration, and mindfulness and those type of aspects. So it's more holistic. And whilst that may have been a fringe, predominantly of the industry participants historically, that's not now and even the education and the content around those subjects is as mainstream as the you know, you've only got to pick up a men's health or any of the other commercial health fitness magazines. And you'll find that the fitness aspect, the actual physical exertion aspect, has somewhat reduced to encompass the wider aspects of it. So it's not unusual to have consumers now with a much better understanding. Now we add to that, that we are all now carrying around with us the physiological measurement devices in the shape of our wearables and our phones, that, you know, the vast majority of professional sports scientists wouldn't have had access to five years ago. And, you know, if we let's deep dive into in a bit into how that can actually use be utilized in a club, but what that means is, is that I as a consumer are more aware of my physical state at any particular time than I ever had before. But I'm also more aware that attending the gym three times a week isn't going to move the needle to the level that I need to do and I'm also going to become aware of how important rest is and how important recovery is, right? And how important variation is, and hydration is, and nutrition. And there's all of these different aspects which I think come into play. What that means is that operators, whether they be studios or traditional operators need to find their place in that ecosystem. And that ecosystem itself has changed quite dramatically with the introduction of the digital players, the digital only players or the digital providers. Yeah. And I think the reason that's changed is for a number of aspects. First and foremost, digital players are providing a level of personalization, which isn't necessarily given in a bricks and mortar environments. As an example, let's look at Fitness plus, probably, you know, one of the more premier offerings in that aspect at the moment, just this just the integration of the Apple Watch, is providing a level of personalization at stage one and Apple certainly are not stopping there. It's stage one, which is in excess, than the vast majority of my in-house bricks and mortar type exercise situations on that side of things. So I think that there's that element to it. I think the other aspect is that whereby in traditional operators, our defensive reaction to this our knee jerk reaction has either been to replicate, or our knee jerk reaction has been to suggest it's a it's a fad. It's a trend. I'm still finding it amusing that the marketers is the actual market NASDAQ's gone down quite heavily, very recently in that in the last week or so and that's a whole different ballgame, which I could get you on bond yields and all the rest. However, the only thing that anyone wants to focus on in the fitness community is ah peloton, those exercise bikes weren't gonna last long, not just an exercise bike, we've had them totally ignoring the 1.3 million subscribers, totally ignoring the 93% retention rate, totally ignoring the sheer quantity of time that is dedicated to those particular bikes on those ones. These drivers these changes mean that as a proposition, we need to a capitalize on what we're strong at in bricks and mortar traditional operators. But we need to modify that approach as well. We need to find a way to add personalization, we need to find a way to make our members and our customers feel as if there's a more personalized approach. Because why would I attend a spin class, even if it's the best person in Lancashire, London or wherever else it may be? When I have got the capacity to choose my music, my timing, my cadence, my output? I've got the ability to measure it right. And I've got the ability to get automatic feedback from and I hate to say this, but you know, we have to face some reality in some cases, from the best instructors on the planet, right? They're rock stars in many, many cases. And with that being the case, we have to look at how we are going to respond to that, because let me make it absolutely clear: bricks and mortar operators, studios, group ex organizations -- absolutely critical to the ongoing welfare and strength of countries and communities right cannot rely on a single thread of product. So it would be a travesty to see a huge deterioration in the in the capacity for these type of organizations.

Will:  

So on that, do you see the level of personalization and potentially complication that now exists in getting into a product as being a a barrier to certain sectors that need fitness? Because when when I hear you talking, I think that is super great for people who are already engaged in fitness and understand the measurements and understand the matrix and want to know about sleep. And then I think about sort of the area that I tend to encourage instructors to hit which is never done exercise before. They want a very simple entry level. Do you see these metrics as being the thing that's going to bridge that gulf and bring many more new people in? Or do you see that as being something that experience exercises continue to use and they're still being a kind of low key, let's go for a, let's do a walking group entry level that has not tracked that there's no personalized metrics that still exists is kind of a cohort to go after?

Ian  

Good question. I think it's probably there's probably two answers to that one. First and foremost, I think that the rise of digitization, for too many years now, every year we read these reports about the steady increase in penetration that we have in our communities where we seem to be able to miraculously grow the size of the fitness market every year, despite the fact that in mature countries and particularly a nice of New Zealand and Australia, in the United States and UK, we're in aging populations. So unless I'm walking down the street and missing all these 55 plus gyms, I'm not sure how our market is growing on an annual basis. Right? So that's the first aspect right? Therefore, those numbers to all intensive purposes are probably bloody useless. However, what I would say was, we have now got some of the smartest commercial marketing organizations in on the planet, whether it be Apple, whether it be peloton, whether it be Google, whether it be mirror, Tonal and Lululemon, all of these type of guys who are now targeting our sector, they are likely to open up cohorts that we just haven't had the capacity to get to you, they are likely to introduce fitness to a whole new generation of users and across the age spectrum, right. I mean, have you have you seen that the roster on the on the fitness plus app, right? 

Will:  

Ah, yes, Molly Fox, I love it. It's great to finally seeing some experienced like industry veterans fronting a big digital format. 

Ian  

Yeah, exactly right. And that, and that is going to introduce people, you know, and I'm well aware of currently, where the digital aspect has driven people 55, 60, 65 to start taking up whereby they previously did attend, for instance, you know, group x at their local community center, or the local fitness aspects or the gym, they were going once a week, where it was specific to their age group or even their gender, particularly as you get older, and now on demand is in the capacity to take that. So I think the first thing we've got to do is is we need to understand that the players we've talked about there did not enter our market to take a share of our 90 billion, 94 billion, whatever number they decided to make up this year as being our market number. They are there because they have got a full belief that they are going to take this market at 400, 500, 600. Let us remember that Apple's revenues of three times the apparent global market of fitness currently. 

Will:  

Wow, I like I have actually heard that before, but I haven't thought about it for a while. That's true, right? So there's like, it's a good point. There's just no way that a company that makes more than our entire industry is injuring our industry to capture that market. Right? They're only doing it if they think they can increase the penetration way wider from, from a move into health, right? Like fitness becoming one plank of a person's health and therefore life journey. 

Ian  

Yeah, and that's it. So you know that I think we've we've that and it is very, very clear. I think there's been quite a few articles written recently where Tim Cook made it abundantly clear health is one of the major columns that they are going to go after. In fact, I don't remember his exact quote.

Will:  

I think he said that's the lasting impact that Apple will have on the world is on health.

Ian  

Correct, you're bet better than I am. There's your legal training bringing your recollection back better than mine. Right. But you know, that's that's the reality. Right? So they're, they're going and then they're not going after fitness. Fitness is as used to just utilize, that's a plank of wellness. And they're going after a much larger part, which is, I think what we're going to see is is that Google is going to work at the, at the health level down, the hospital aspect down. But yeah, Amazon is going to come at it from the retail delivery aspect of it, particularly around medicines and pharmacists. Yep. Apple is going to...

Will:  

Oh really, so you see Amazon coming in with a play for like on demand supplements and on demand pharmeceuticals.

Ian  

Yeah.

Will:  

That would be very American of them.

Ian  

It would be, it would be. But you can see, you see, where they were where Apple where Apple strength is, is obviously having built a platform, a platform of, you know, over a billion customers 1.3 billion devices, right. And that's where they go. Amazon, it's about distribution. Yeah, they've got that capacity on there. And it's now it's, it is, it's very much about that. Right? So they'll use that for distribution. So first and foremost, I think what we're saying there is is the markets not going to stay the same, it's going to grow. So therefore there's an opportunity, right? And what I believe will happen is that this new cohort, will engage with the digital and that will probably build up the confidence that you are suggesting you know where you're going after the first time is right. I think that when a digital product is strong, when it engages and when it integrates maybe the wearables, there's a stronger probability that they're going to supplement that by actually going for in person. Yeah, I think you take an operator's perspective. I see the individuals will build that confidence I use another example but I'm you know I'm doing rudimentary functional training, strength and conditioning, whatever, I know...The confidence going to, to go into CrossFit. Yeah, no, no, no, that's, you know, I may look at the YouTube videos twice. And you know, I'm not going there until I'm a lot, you know, in a different thing. Or, you know, I can see that I should be doing, you know, deadlifts and the rest of it, but I don't have the capacity for that equipment. I am going to end up driven eventually to seek expertise, and to see in person. If I use group X as an example, I individually, I personally have always struggled to go to group x. And that's a confidence and that's a confidence thing, right? I am a peloton. customer. And I could go to any spin class in the world now. And I would walk in there with the confidence that was necessary, right? That came from peloton, right? That came from her and it was through no more than I knew I could sit on the bike and use those pedals were, but I had no idea what what for, I had no idea what a class shape would be and how I'd do. I had no idea whether I'd be able to keep up and those type of aspects. Yeah, that awareness now has given me and would give me the confidence to participate. 

Will:  

Right, That that level of comfort that you have built in the safety of your own home with no one judging you and, and no kind of no knowledge gap that you're walking into. And also no confidence gap means that you've been able to get to a level of expertise that makes you feel comfortable going into a live class. 

Ian  

Absolutely. And that, that is starting to, or you're getting all my secrets here. Yoga is another one. Okay? So I am well aware of the benefits yoga, I've heard it preached to me from my life for long enough. Yoga is very clearly something which when you get past 50, which believe it or not, I am now, that when you're when you get past 50, that that element is very, very important. I would never have gone to a yoga class, I am more than comfortable to go to a yoga class anywhere else in the world. Now, again, I was introduced to it in digital. And you know, the funny thing is, is despite the fact that I have digital biases, when it comes to yoga, I actually do want to have the personal relationship with my with my teacher, and therefore I will definitely supplement both right, I will, you know, progress from there. And that aspect and the last step. You mentioned about the wearables and the digital aspect of it. I think that I think currently there are it's, it's it's not a fringe, it's not the quantified self groups that go around and, you know, measure everything about their aspect of it. The tools which are coming out now, and whether it be a whoop or garmins, or whatever else, right, they are taking what are complex physiological measurements, and then making them very understandable for everyone. So you know, as a basic example, I have whoop, and I've had whoop for a number of years. And when I wake up in the morning, whoop gives me a traffic light system on to what degree I should be pushing. Now, I'm not on yet done that, and it uses HRV, and a few other variables. But the bottom line is, I know whether, regardless of how I feel in here, which seems to vary an awful lot more than what my body's actually capable of doing, is that, you know, it's, I guess here is probably looking at the weather whereby here is actually a real measurement is if, if I do that, then I've got the capacity and the confidence to push myself far in excess of what I would normally do. So my point is from I see some changes in the group X environment. And I see that it is likely to be driven by some of the the fitness plus aspects of it, whereby we will start to see a necessity for group X to integrate this type of data. Now do you and I seriously believe that we are going to see less people wearing wearables over the next two to three years or more wearing wearables. 

Will:  

And you know what I actually when I when I asked that question, and then was listening to your answer, I realized that I was wrong. And I can talk about my own personal experience. I bought my dad a another Fitbit at Christmas, because it was a simple basic tech that he can understand. My dad is 65, he's a type two diabetic, he is not mobile enough. And I basically said right, you're going to do 10,000 steps per day. And I'm going to call you and check in on you and make sure you're actually doing it. And like and I guess that when I think of whoop and you know, the the sleep recording and you know, measure and all the other things that you can measure with more sophisticated things. I think that maybe sometimes we forget that a simple pedometer is still an element of wearable technology that is really, really able to integrate and it's something that he's now doing. He challenges himself to 10,000 steps every day, I think he's getting up to 11 or 12,000 since Christmas, which is fantastic, great for his health grant for his mobility. And I can see him leveraging that into getting back into a fitness experience that would have been unattainable when he was sedentary and you know, doing 3,000 steps a day. 

Ian  

I mean, what's getting measured, gets managed, what gets managed, gets measured, whichever way you look around it, you know that, I find that and again, I do it now, I'm probably at the different end of it, because I am interested in this. But what I am always very eager to do is to introduce people to just the basic understanding of, of stuff that will get them engaged, because I think they had the steps -- Apple did not spend all of that money to develop a watch, which is a highly accurate step one, we could paid Oxon for whatever. However, the steps was the gateway to metrics. Before they put ecgs, and blood oxidization, and all of the rest of that stuff on there.

Will:  

Right, which would have scared people off in a second, but closing your rings, that's nice and simple. That's it.

Ian  

That's it and you stand, you know that there's a reason why I'm standing in front of you now, rather than sitting down. Those type of things they work. And then you know, I want to get to my numbers by the end of the day, and I'm working on those lines. However, what Apple is also doing, as is Google as his Samsung, the rest of them is they are putting the devices on your hands. And they are measuring certain aspects, ones like the heart rate, sleep, etc, which we're getting into, but they're recording these massive data sets, right then going into your Apple Health and your Apple fit, so that when they do introduce something new, like a metric, like whoop's recovery score, you can integrate it into the day to day really to just, you've got it. And it's there and that and that is the you know, that aspect. Now, Apple, Apple has saved many, many people through, you know, on their heart attack style things, right. Yeah. And it is not because the ECG capability in the watch, it's been able to measure the height, it's because it's got this massive data set, which has been able to teach, and then learn that when Ian is generating certain data, look at the probability is in there or make it on the highlights, right. Well, you know, the other one is that I look at the wearables and costs, costs, you know, 500 us or whatever for, for an Apple Watch. Six is certainly up at the higher end of aspect. I watched the Consumer Electronics Show, which you never thought you'd have the day where operators and fitness professionals would be looking to the Vegas CES. 

Will:  

Yeah. But she's doing like, like, the butler robots and stuff.

Ian  

Nowadays, it's just not that way. And CES this year, out in China they've got this one called the, the honor the honor band six, I think it is. And the honor band six is an O LEDs wearable, it's you know, beautiful display, does your steps, your heart rate, your sleep, your blood oxidization, all of those type of things. $34 

Will:  

Wow, really?

Ian  

and you can you can match the quality of the components. 

Will:  

The price of a resistance band, a good quality resistance band.

Ian  

Right. How long? How long before we've seen another? How long before that is part of the joining package? It's $34. Right? Yeah, give them a give them a month free or give them the band's right, and bring the band in to their things. So if if I can change the pace a little bit here, and then just take it into where I think some of this stuff in group fitness will be really relevant. 

Will:  

Yeah, for sure. Cuz I guess that and really keen to hear your views on this, because I will speak for our listeners and say that they are often intimidated by technology. And they've they've a lot of them have gotten over that step. Because obviously the big intimidation was around going digital, a lot of people that have taught in gyms, some of them that have never taught for themselves, gyms were closed, they were having to teach on their own account for one thing, so having to deal with all the sales and marketing stuff that they never really dealt with. And then secondly, digitizing the experience. So getting across zoom or whatever platform they were using cameras, microphones, and they've kind of covered that. And I think that everyone's now getting to a point where they're breathing a minor sigh of relief that no more changes coming. And so when we talk about wearables and integrating that kind of health data into the provision that they're giving their clients, I can see a lot of people going oh, please, no, not another thing. So So and I've heard you speak on this before. And so I know he has some really great tips. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how a Group Fitness Instructor who's maybe working in a gym where a wearable is already endorsed might be in My Zone or some of the users might have an Apple Watch, but also the instructors who teach for themselves and are wanting to get ahead of this change that's coming and start to incorporate data more into what they're providing to their classes. But they don't have the ability to mandate a particular item or to necessarily put it in a membership package, because they can't charge that much. Like what are the what are the strategies that you would employ for bringing data into your delivery as a fitness instructor? 

Ian  

Well, I think that the first thing I do would be to use the same approach that you had with your your father was to, to keep it simple, right? So you, there are some clubs who no doubt, will do wearable instruction days and a whole host of other things. But I think what you want to first of all this signal to your customers signal to your audience, that you are aware that they have probably put an investment into this. You are aware that they may well be tracking metrics, and they may have an interest in this aspect of it. 

Will:  

And any one way smartphone can track steps, right? Like at the very end, like you don't even need a wearable, you can just have a phone. 

Ian  

Yes, exactly. Exactly. Right. So they can do that as well. And anyone with a cell phone can even use it for even more sophisticated stuff as well. But I think if I was a group instructor at the moment, what I would be doing would be, would be making it clear that I had an understanding or an appreciation for this stuff. It's not it's not you know, if we're into fitness, if we're in if we're into this aspect of it, we're not going to find it pedestrian, there's plenty of articles to understand, you know, to what degree of thing and just becoming aware of the the basic differences. In fact, it's probably a blog post that I need to write, which is, you know, what is the difference between an Apple Watch, a Whoop, a Fitbit, excetera? 

Will:  

You know what, I feel like that would be a fantastic piece of content, you can send it to me, I'll send it out to all my instructors immediately.

Ian  

Yeah, exactly. I think, it's been there, it's on the list. And I do keep thinking about it. Because, because I do get asked it. But you know, if I was if I was front of a class, you know, and I'm starting, like, I'm gonna look to see what's on the wrists. Yeah, and I'm gonna make an estimate, depending on where your demographics are that 60 to 70% of them are not wearing traditional watches, they will be wearing of some aspect of it on that, and in many cases are watched plus a Fitbit maybe on your that, yeah, therefore understanding what they're capable of doing on that side, I think it's the first one. So that when you are representing whether it is whether you are doing it via digital, whether you're doing it via a newsletter, any communications, you're signaling that you've got an awareness of it, right. So you yourself on that side, I think that's the first one, I think what we're going to see is that as the adoption gets larger, we're going to have a necessity to probably grade our classes relative to some of these metrics in a simple traffic light. And let me let me explain why I think that is going to be sooner rather than later. And that that dominantly is because that level of customization is already at peloton, it's yet ready at Fitness plus, okay? They are integrating those metrics. And they're already at a stage where you know, I've got 200 workouts, 10 minutes to 30 minutes with different aspects. Imagine being a group x instructor and having an understanding of every single person that was in that room, knowing to what level you could take it to know where you'd be pushing it too far, knowing where there you are getting people that were at their thresholds, right, and how long they could take it right. That type of information is completely available to the 21 current fitness plus instructors at Apple, they know exactly to what level right and that data is being pulled back in consistently to reshape the next classes. Look it, they've got two full time DJs in there right now. All right. So you know, I haven't thought about this. But I was I was reading an article on how they go about creating Apple fitness plus, and I wasn't thinking about their feedback loop. But I guess you're right, because like in the Group Fitness sphere, and I've been involved in Beachbody live, Les Mills, obviously Sh1ft, my own brand, content creation. And we trial and we often trial with heart rate monitors, and we but it's with a select few. But I guess they can create a class and if that class is too easy, they see that everyone's in the green zone or if that goal, conversely, if that class was too hard, and only 2% of the people taking the class managed to redline then they will probably or you know, maybe bad examples but right they can actually see your example what how has my class actually been effective for on the measurements that I know create change in my clients? 

Ian  

And even better? What influence has the choice of music had? Now I'm going to do that class three times, right? I can map physiologically to the responses of the people in my class to that right now? So that there's that aspect? Even more so, what impact is the instructor having? Right? When his encouragement right, final 10 seconds of a HIIT right? When those verbal skills, what impact are they having? Right? You when you can see, right? When you can see what actual, the output, the cadence, the heart rate, all these things have gone up on the basis what you said. Later on, you can Oh, and again, this I know, I don't want to be scaring group x instructors, but...

Will:  

You're definitely scaring people right now. But it's okay.

Ian  

overlay over the top of the actual class, this so that when Will said x, everyone's cadence went up 5%. Right? But compared it to the last time when we were using the different track, which had a five beats per minute difference in it. And that's it. Now, the reason why we need to be aware that goes on, is because people are going to look for that same thing. So at the moment, I look at my group x schedule, which is in a non digital format. And, you know, you're gonna get an Xs, body pump, or whatever else, it's going to be right, you have no idea who's going to be in that class, you have no idea what you're capable output is going to be. And I know from people who do do group X, where some of them will go, and especially when we're out traveling, there are a few my colleagues who love to just go to a studio. And then literally, it doesn't matter who the instructors who else is in the room, because it is so out of sync with what their capabilities are that they just have to go off and do their own thing in there in the studio just to get themselves to that level. Yeah. So you know, and I think so, that was

Will:  

Those people in class...Jane in the corner doing high kicks when we're doing the knees.

Ian  

Exactly. But I think in many ways, what that is an indicator is that there are people looking for something else that we're not providing we're providing to the majority, in many cases in group, one of the challenges we have is, is that we have to actually measure ourselves to the lowest common denominator with anything to make sure that the average nurse right, on that particular aspect of it. So the feedback loop is incredibly important. Now, I don't think you know, logically, group x instructors are not suddenly going to be able to get themselves available to this data do I think they will? Yeah, very much. So right in, I will make a prediction, I seem to want to commit suicide in these predictions on a regular basis. I will say that within 18 months, there will be commercial tools available that will be delivered software as a service so that you know if I'm a Group X instructor and I want to bring these tools in that it will be a case of people will when they schedule themselves on the class, they will give the permission on their right. And their data will sink within the class it will be captured. Right. And I later on we'll have these feedback loops, which allows me then to start getting involved in the personal community. So you're forseeing, like platform providers, for example, like, like we're talking on zoom right now. So you're seeing like a potential for a zoom for fitness that integrates with three different wearables that allows the data from those wearables to be tracked for the class. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, we're already seeing where we're already seeing providers that are concentrating on being a consolidator for wearables, you have to produce a pipe, which can then be set to on demand fitness aspect, right? So yeah, I see that as being one now. I even see it going one stage further and humor me here. But this is something which I think is relevant, going to bring VR and AR into studio fitness. AR has got a part to play in this and I'll explain why, so. I visualize, and again, I'll make the call, what are we on. I make the call that by the end of 2022, that a group x instructor will be wearing oakleys or something along those lines, which will be a screen and what they will see in front of them is obviously their class when they've got the full visibility on there. But they will also have an overlay on there which will be giving them information that's going to allow them to personalize so they're going to be able to see what the average is, what the average bands are, they'll look at me and they'll be able to see where what zone I'm in. They'll also see I've got a little birthday cake over my head, so that you can give a shout out there and then it's happy birthday. The data can be supplemented, it's my fifth class this week, congratulation to Ian and on so...

Will:  

Which is what peloton already do right? And so I've taught in Studios in London where I have performance so like we're just bringing together data that already exists. So when the person checks in, there might be a birthday note and so on. This is sort of going back five years as well. So this is well before the advent of anything else on your check-in sheet that you would have a star saying this person is new, another star saying this person's birthday. So then you're welcome, you could shout it out. And then on my screen, I can flick between controlling the lights and controlling the music to seeing what everyone's output was because all the bikes were connected. So this is all stuff that exists already and many instructors use predominantly in boutiques, but in some gyms as well. And you're just saying that it's just going to become integrated with wearables, it's going to be Bluetooth across to a device that the instructor has. Was that heads up display? 

Ian  

Yeah, it's not going to be like the Google Glass things. Right. You know, they're there, he would see in the industry predictions would be the apple glass is going to be out probably before the end. But by the end of this year, early next year. And that's going to be Warby Parker, normal type of glasses, where you can either choose to have straight glass, but interchangeable sunglasses, whatever else it may be. Yeah, what's important is and again, it's it's it's more on the tech side, but it's but it's the reason why it can get delivered, and can be delivered in a format, which is instantaneous, and can be highly personalized. So you won't walk up to you at the end of the session to congratulate you, I can actually see a lot of the stuff coming through how long you've been with us as a member, how many workouts you've had, how many classes you've done with me, what's your average output being whether that average output is increasing or decreasing over that period? Right? Any other data that's coming in.

Will:  

All I can say is I hope they come up with some great sweat wicking technology for these frames. Because as someone who goes running in sunglasses, I struggle. 

Ian  

And I'm with you. And that's why that's why I am not a supporter of VR. I don't see how VR works. I own a number of VR headsets.

Will:  

And by VR, you mean like the full Oculus headsets. 

Ian  

Yeah, exactly. And you know, people talk about how, phenomenal experiences. But I don't see VR working and that there are already VR products out there. But quite frankly, the minute you get animated in the VR headset, it's it's dripping down. Yeah, it's not like you've got the the ability to wipe it off, or whatever. But we've got 5g is being rolled out around the world at the moment. And what 5g is doing is it's it's going to take away the need for wearables to have the ability to do the computation. Right? And the reason behind that is is 5g is 100 times the speed of 4g, it's it's latency at the time of processing is faster than the human eye. So I'm wearing these glasses, and it's got a 5g sim within them, a tiny little thing on that aspect of it. That means that what I can be doing is going away into the cloud and being processed and sent back to me. So it's absolutely speed. So you can see that if I know that if I look at it from an operator's perspective there, let's look at it from a consumers perspective. I walk in, and I have a pair of my apple glasses on right, which is a thing. And it can tell me just by looking at the group x rooms, which one is likely to be the best suited to my current state, not my desire, my current state right now.

Will:  

Not what your brain thanks for what your body is actually needing. 

Ian  

Well, there's also that as well, to give myself the benefit of the doubt that I have walked in. Unless this club has a sauna and steam room, my options are relatively limited for the lazy method, right? So it's going to be on that aspect. And where where we are going to be at is let's say for instance, there's a class two or three classes going on. And I go into one, having the capacity to know that I should possibly be stopping or moving to recovery earlier, right, is something that is only going to increase because the more and more data that's captured on us individuals allows for more and more personalization. 

Will:  

So this is the Blade Runner scenario where the advertisement served to you is selected for you rather than put up on the Billboard. Actually, you know what I watched Brave New World, it was a sky series. Did you watch it, where they all had a little ocular implant and it would basically give them a full readout on who the person was, where they should be. This is very, very, very old days Huxley future we're talking about. 

Ian  

Well, we are we are going down that route. But you know that already coming out of Google Labs, they have the the contact contact lens processing capacity within there and a whole host of other things. So, you know that the full expectation is that the militarys will go there first but all of this sounds, well not futuristic, because I think you know, the industry and an instructor's, group x professionals have had to adapt themselves over the last 12 months to so much technological change. My call to action here is even if you don't get get an interest in it, don't get caught out. You know, it's it's it's commercial fitness, it's commercial metrics. It's not going to get you're not gonna have to sit there listening to reading white papers from PhDs in physical sciences, right? This is this is going to be, keep your eye on the developments coming out of the big commercial players. When Apple announces the watch seven, which is going on in September, the vast majority of the stuff they're going to do there is going to be wellness, fitness and health. That's what they're going to do. 

Will:  

Well the watch is a health tool, right? Like ultimately it was getting getting something onto your wrist. And that was this was always their play. It was never about answering messages on your wrist. 

Ian  

Yeah, no. And then they've got no never was. It never was there. Yeah, again, just give you an that. Yeah, that blood glucose in a major indicator of overall health and not just with your father's predicament, something that my father shares too. Right. But keeping blood glucose in I think now for the weirdos amongst us who have continuous glucose monitors plugged into their arm I yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, now I'm not a diabetic I have it because for me, it's it's a it's a large part of of how I manage my side of things. The next watch, or the one after that, they have already managed to get where there's no insertion, so you can imagine, from now on, right, and this is this is for a very large proportion of the world who do have type two diabetes, having the capacity to understand not only your steps, but the effect, it's having live on your blood glucose levels. Imagine your father, right being indicated that his blood glucose is going down, down, down, down, down, you're doing phenomenally well, it will motivate him even further. Now. And it's not when you're only dealing with a number, right? You say to your dad, keep it between four and six dad, everything's great, and it is fine. Right? So increase your activity. So for practitioners, let's not pretend that this isn't happening yet, let's not pretend that we it's not our role to understand that it is, let's be keeping our eyes on the commercial developments of platforms so that the zooms for fitness are going to start to integrate in this, understand how you can play a part in it understand on how you need to understand that you don't need to start building up physiological degrees or anything else along those lines. Just make sure that you are aware and start by taking a look at the people are attending and understanding what devices they've got. Right?

Will:  

Do an audit, right? If you're under a fitness instructor, there's no reason that straight off to hearing this podcast you couldn't you have a Facebook group where all your members are. Just go, hey guys, I'm interested in your approach to wearables and and wearable tech. Like, what of these do you have and start with phone phone, Garmin, Fitbit Apple Watch and just take stock right now? 

Ian  

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. What do you use it for? What do you use it for? And yeah, how could I help you use it? No. Right. Would you be interested in, yeah? And you know, they're one of the brands, which I think we've seen doing very well. I mean, for for a long time, but increasingly, so the last 12 years has been my zone, where they, you know that that is a commercial platform, it's got a consumer element to it as well, for those aspects of it, that we've seen a wide adoption of that, where we, I within my community, my exercise community will share data, whether it be in Strava, or wherever is relative to my performance will be humblebrag or whatever else you want to reality, right? And I can assure you that there is a larger amount of the population now that are making their choices, that if they if they cannot capture the data to be able to show their community. So one of the big challenges when you're utilizing the Garmin and whoop as well was their capacity to be able to demonstrate indoor cycling and and with peloton's rise, this was a huge challenge. And one of the reasons for those challenges, because if I wasn't everyone like you, okay, you've been exercising? Yes, I have, I've been on my peloton, right? Yeah. And those aspects. So if we are a provider of one of you know, people's physical fitness, and we don't have the capacity to allow them to signal to their own external communities, what they can do within their own digital, yeah, that's likely to have an impact. And I as an instructor, yeah, it's not that bricks and mortar will fall away. It's that they will move and gravitate towards bricks and mortar where people I don't use the word hybrid or yeah, or any of those ones, but where they are moving towards people where they can keep both their on and offline experiences consistent and constant and measure, as well. 

Will:  

Yeah, and I'm sure that instructors listening to this will will have certain people in their class who have posted their myzone graph or have or have, you know, shown their results from their watching, it might be something that is just, you know, unique to them. But as this adoption becomes more widespread, there'll be something that more people can share. And it actually, we talked to individual instructors, a lot of them sort of going out on their own and looking to how they can build their own their own practices, their own communities. And this is a great way to build community, right, because you get people interacting and caring, and it's not coming from you, they're interacting with each other and comparing their own schools. And this could be a boon for just, you know, having a competition with who can do the most steps this week outside of class sort of thing. Like, you can use these as all threads to just build more community with your users. 

Ian  

Feeling great one week does wonders for your recovery score. And even you know, having community targets for the points, or having, as I said, before, identifying your classes by outputs as well. Right. Yeah, I mean, we'll have all heard of classes, which have named, you know, their weekend insanity, and all of this type of stuff, where it's, it's, it's obviously at the high intensity aspect of it. But giving with people being more aware of what they're capable of what their body is signifying to them, giving people the option to be able to participate in your class with a required output is likely to be better. So, you know, it's, I'm not just relying on the descriptive, and relying on maybe a traffic light, then correlates that says that if I'm Amber today on my whoop, or my Apple Watch, or whatever, then the amber classes, which I'm holding today are at 8:30 10:30, and at 12:30. And I've got one insanity going on at 4:30. And I've got a recovery class, that that that type of programming, that type of signaling is going to be there. And you know, we're already seeing it from your -- you know Les Mills, and these guys, they are massively upping their technical aspects of the of the game right into even to survive. And I think there's a huge opportunity for the smaller practitioner to just bring some of this in place. 

Will:  

Dip your toe in the water so you're not, you're not left high and dry.

Ian  

Yeah, well, also retention, right, when I measure when I have that way, when that when that community could becomes about my instructor understanding in the state, I'm in on what my outcomes are. And we're moving towards it. That changes that the relationship from a trainer to a coach in many ways. 

Will:  

Yeah, we're a concierge of of a concierge of health and fitness experience, rather than just a person that delivers one class, you know, your health around, you're helping them on their journey that may include digital, that may include a walk, it may include a run, it may include sleep factors..

Ian  

I use the example in the paper. But you know, when we're working with a trainer, a trainer becomes a coach when I turn up, and you know, and normally the idea is, is I'm there for 45 minutes, and I need to make sure I don't get bored. And the output needs to be high. Right. But I turned on so many different conditions...after business traveling, I've got jet lag...

Will:  

Results are based on the other 23 hours, 15 in the day.

Ian  

Correct. Yeah! And then imagine if they turn up and the first and they say is, well, you know, "Show me your phone. Okay, listen, we're going to concentrate recovery and form today, we're not going to go and push it, you've got another class on Friday. What we'll do is, is I'll move that to Thursday, we'll push it on a PV as long as you can get some more sleep, but today..." So that moves that relationship to a coaching relationship. People don't leave coaches as fast as they leave trainers. And that's and you could argue it's semantics, but the relationship, you know, is is that person is now has got a personal connection to my outcome, rather than just this unsaid rule that they need to make sure I don't get bored so that I come back the next time and keep handing over the money. 

Will:  

Yeah, for sure. Well, like I can't believe we've already been talking for an hour, but I find this stuff so interesting. So I'm not going to keep you any longer. And you've also made a couple of bold predictions that I'm going to hold you to. But I'm gonna finish up with asking one more question. And that will be if there was and I'm going to put you on the spot here. If there was one surprising development that people might not think is coming, that's going to happen by the end of 2021. What would be the number one thing that you would pick? Or just the number one thing that's coming around the corner in this space that we've been talking about?

Ian  

You know, I don't think we're going to see anything unexpected. I'm just going to see, I think that what we're going to see is the continued acceleration whereby a lot of people are starting to think or want to believe that things are going to go back to the way they were.

Will:  

That nostalgia for pre COVID times. 

Ian  

Well I well exact well because the environment so I think that we are going to see so there will be a number of them that will be thinking that the digital providers will go, etc. We're going to see massive consolidation among digital platforms. And providers. And I'm going to make 

Will:  

Stacking between product and platform and content and by vertical integration. 

Ian  

Yes. And I think that if I am a group x instructor, currently, I'm going to have a large quantity of choice on different platforms to suit my requirements, which is going to blend both the technical and the metrics and financial management, right. This was an area which existed, I won't call it a fringe it wasn't at all. But there, the we have seen in the democratizing of this whole process, where the instructors are becoming the powerhouses around the products, right? Not the brands, it's not who you work for anymore. It's who you are and what products you do. Yeah. And I believe that what we're going to see is that individuals that are strong and capable and are building up, followings are going to have the tools evolve with them, for them to be able to take advantage of it, because it's a large marketplace, and people are going to want to be able to play.

Will:  

Exactly. And I like that that's such a great place to finish, right? Like you may feel a little bit intimidated by the amount of sort of data that's about to come and be thrown at you if you're working in the fitness space. But just think back to a year ago and think of when you started doing digital, and you had to do zoom and take payment on paypal. And now you've got you know, companies like Moxy and onpodio, there are platforms that do everything for you. So these platforms are coming. And if you're an instructor, you can just be sure that you will be able to sync up with them when the time comes. You just need to be across where it's going. 

Ian  

Yeah, exactly. That's correct. Absolutely correct. 

Will:  

Perfect. Well, thank you so much for your time Ian. I am I'm very keen to see how the next couple of years plays out and whether or not I am wearing a pair of oakleys with a full heads up display. I can't wait as an avid sci fi fanatic. But maybe we'll get you back on in a year's time and see whether these have come true. 

Ian  

Well, thank you very much for having me today. And I hope I get to come back and be proven right or close to it

Will:  

Thanks, Ian.

Will:  

So as I said, the future is here, and big changes are coming no matter where or how you teach. But if there's one thing to take away from Ian's observations is that while there are a lot of developments that you might find intimidating, just around the corner, you don't need to stress about this happening overnight. Let the apple fitness pluses and Amazons and pelotons of the world take the lead with the latest technological developments. But just like we've been explaining in many episodes of this podcast when it comes to digital fitness, don't let this be something that scares you. You don't need to compete with these guys in order to service your own community. And remember that good old adage: a rising tide floats all boats. And as these new technologies that allow people to track their health permeate into the wider social consciousness, trust that it's going to bring more and more people into fitness and expand the number of people who understand and appreciate that fitness is one of the keys to a longer and better life. Your opportunity right now probably doesn't sit with existing exercisers who want massively high level metrics. But I agree with Ian when he says that becoming more familiar with the wearable and fitness tracking technologies that your classes are already using is the perfect first step to being comfortable with the changes that are certainly coming. Ask your users what they're currently using themselves, engage with their experiences and get yourself comfortable with elements of biometric feedback, so that you can become that ideal coach. And when these changes finally hit big time, you can trust the very soon after they will be a fit tech entrepreneur who will create a solution that you can utilize for your classes and that we will get her or him on the podcast to break it down for you. Thank you for listening. If you're enjoying the show, don't forget to subscribe for all the latest episodes wherever you get your podcasts. And while you're there, please drop us a review. You can also get in touch with me at will@sh1ftfitness.com. I'm Will Brereton and you've been listening to Group Fitness Real Talk.