Home Workout Boom – here to stay?

One of the top trends to have emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic is the trend of home workouts/virtual workouts. It has been 4+ months since the pandemic has hit us. And, home workout has emerged into a serious phenomenon during this period – so much so that its almost a boom as per most fitness industry experts.

So, how big is the boom?

If we were to go by the search trends on Google, it is massive. Check out the spike in the interest of key word ‘home workout’ starting late March.

A bit of a number crunching with monthly traffic data along with the trends suggest that from a mere 10,000 monthly searches prior to the pandemic, the keyword hit a peak at 100K+ searches in April and the monthly search volume still hovers around 50K+ searches – 5x more than pre COVID levels. Punch in few more related key words and the graph is pretty much similar.

Some more numbers and facts:

• Cure Fit moved to virtual fitness model via its App (a great App indeed) and claims to have 50,000+ paid customers and training video views running into several millions.
• Garmin reported nearly 40% increase in recorded indoor activities within its user base in India
• Work out video channels have witnessed 2-4x increase in subscribers as well as video view times.
• Fitness apps and platforms like Healthifyme, GoQii etc witnessed 100%-300% increase in downloads
• eCommerce portals saw 2-3x surge in order volumes of fitness goods and accessories

The numbers suggest drastic shift in trends. Fueled by the pandemic, the home work out phenomenon is indeed turning into a big boom.

Has the boom got legs?

The idea of home workout in the times of a pandemic is a winner. But, can the boom sustain beyond the pandemic?

Home workout has got some native advantages (not an exhaustive list):

• You don’t have to travel to the gym
• Its flexible – you sync in whenever you want
• Its safe
• Its responsive – you can see what you are doing and get instant feedback, you can view the video and analyse later, a lot more data gets captured digitally which can be churned to find areas of improvement and growth
• No geographical boundaries for the trainers
• Trainers can re-run the content and earn repeat income

And, here are a few cons:

• You miss meeting your work-out buddies – that craving for social connect which a digital connect can never plug
• Competitiveness derived out of watching others do more – its a self sustaining beneficial loop

Clearly, home workout is here to stay. To what extent, only time will tell.

But, just like work from home is going to change the way people operate professionally, exercise from home is going to the change the way people work-out.

Death of the good old Gyms?

This part of the fitness ecosystem is in shambles. Gyms have been shut since the lock down and about 50% of them are unlikely to re-open ever. Large global gym chains/studios are filing for bankruptcy. The lucky ones with the wherewithal to sustain the down time cost aren’t likely to re-open soon. Even when they open up, they would be forced to operate differently (read inefficiently with several overheads). And finally, will they be able to sustain under the new operating model?

It is safe to say that gyms will have to fundamentally change the way they operate – that is if they manage to survive the protracted period of doom. And, even after doing this, it is not certain that they would be able to survive.

Hybrid Model

Experts aren’t completely writing off the gyms though. In the post pandemic period, most experts are predicting a hybrid model for fitness – a model which combines the best of both worlds.

A model which seamlessly integrates the physical experience of gym workout and digitally powered home workout. To me, this sound just about alright. Some may say, that is too much of crystal ball grazing!

For now, we all can agree on a few things:

• Home workouts powered by apps, videos and live streams are here to stay
• Gyms will have to seriously redesign their operating model (and thereafter also hope for a bit a luck)