Taking Fitness Training to New Heights
FITNESS training has now moved into a new dimension, and is getting more personalised than ever. Exploring this new concept, fitness company Fitness First has taken the initiative to weave some elements of information and communications technology (ICT) into its fitness training programmes to make them more organised, efficient, and personal.
While fitness training all this while has been about going to the gyms or fitness centres and doing exercises, Fitness First has a vision that it should be more than that, where users should be able to engage with their trainers before they come to the centre, and choose or seek advice on what type of exercises they should take to meet their objectives.
* Better fitness tracking
According to Fitness First Asia’s national operations manager Dave Nuku, the FitSync program is intended to assist people in planning their fitness programmes, tracking their progress, and measuring the results online via personal computers, mobile phones, or personal digital assistants (PDAs).
“Using the Internet, your information can be assessed remotely, allowing you to stay connected with your personal trainer and workout partners all the time, and continue with your fitness programme just about anywhere,” he says at one of Fitness First’s centres in Damansara recently.
“People often forget which exercises they did the last time they worked out with a fitness instructor, or they often forget to take their exercise programme with them when travelling, and some often do not achieve the desired results,” Nuku says, explaining that FitSync can help them overcome those problems as it allows them to view their previous exercise videos online.
“The Web-based system will also give users the flexibility of downloading their exercise programmes from anywhere in the world,” he adds.
For those who have not been able to achieve their desired fitness results, Nuku says they can now set their workout targets and personal goals using their FitSync account to track their progress. “This is because the best way to achieve results is to set goals and then measure and monitor your progress,” he says.
Fitness First has spent some RM250,000 to equip all its 10 centres in Malaysia with FitSync-related facilitics such as the Web site, wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) access, and the software licences, says Nuku.
“We plan to have all 10 centres to be running on FitSyns by September,” he says.
* How the system works
Fitness First’s fitness manager J. Siva Shanker says with the FitSync program, members can constantly be in contact with their fitness trainers via the Web site, and the trainers will design a customised fitness programme aimed at helping them achieve their fitness goals. “Different people have different fitness requirements, and the fitness trainers will guide them in choosing which one is the best for certain purposes. The members can also view hundreds of different exercise in Fitness First’s database,” he says.
“Our trainers will sit down with the members and discuss the fitness target they want to achieve and store it in their Pocket PCs. The members will also have the same training schedule in their Pocket PCs, handphones or computers. Then the trainers will take the members through the scheduled exercise,” Siva says.
“The trainers will record the members’ exercise data and upload it to their personal online FitSync account,” he says, adding that this way the members can track their record and see if there’s improvement. The data is also accompanied with a graph to show the progress of the exercise and the impact one has after going through it. “This way, the users can have a better idea of what’s going on,” he says.
Traditionally, Siva says, the only way to track the members’ fitness progress is to record the data on pieces of paper. “As a result, the data will pile up, making it more difficult to access. Furthermore, the members will also tend to lose the paper report,” he reasons, saying the online way is more organised and easier to access.
FitSync replaces workout cards and notebooks used by individuals and professionals in fitness, personal training, rehabilitation, and coaching, with a PDA and Internet-linked applications. Members can view their account at www.fitnessfirst.com.my.
Fitness First’s members can use the FitSync system to view their exercise results and videos, or tap into exercise resources. Siva says they can also send messages to their fitness instructors or select a different instructor. “They can also create their own exercise and workouts,” he says.
Siva adds that another aim of this online concept is to create a community of fitness members whereby members can exchange views on related exercise matters with any of the members. “This way members can communicate better as it is sometimes difficult to communicate during the fitness session,” he says.
“If a person finds a particular exercise good for building certain parts of the body, they can post it on the FitSync account and others can see and learn more,” Siva says.
* Equipment needed
Nuku says all Fitness First’s trainers are equipped with one Pocket PC to allow them to record the results and data of their trainees on the spot and upload them to the FitSync account. “The Fitness First’s premises are blanketed with Wi-Fi coverage. So the trainers can upload all the results and information immediately,” he says.
“They can also have up-to-date info about their trainees’ fitness requirements through the meetings and messages sent to them,” he adds.
The trainers use Pocket PCs because it can transfer data faster than other PDAs, says Nuku.
On the user side, Nuku says there shouldn’t be any problem as most, if not all their members have either handphones, PDAs, or computers to access and view their data.
Thus far, two Fitness First’s branches, Menara Axis in Petaling Jaya and the one in Manara John Hancock in Damansara, have been equipped with FitSync and Wi-Fi service. “We plan to equip two centres each month with the facilities,” says Nuku.