Fitness and AR — reach your physical peak with AR

The fitness-trend is not getting any weaker — quite the opposite. Nowadays, more and more people aim to bring their bodies into top form, improving their health simultaneously. So for many, hitting the gym or working out from home is something that has become part of their daily life. Experts are currently estimating the global fitness market to be at around 87,2 million dollars.

We are in a time in which people are becoming progressively more mindful of their own bodies and health. The nutrition market for one has been changing for some time now — changing towards a more sustainable and more conscious nutritional intake. Fitness apps are becoming increasingly popular. Social media platforms full of influencers sharing their lifestyles are just the cherry on top.

Fitness is accessible to most, be it at home on a yoga mat, or in a fitness studio, some of which can be quite inexpensive and still well equipped.
But the thought of working out and registering at a gym is not enough — but unfortunately, more often than not, it’s the motivation that’s missing. There are many ways to stay or get fit, but many are struggling to stay or get motivated to give it a go.

And that’s the cue for Augmented Reality.

When it comes to fitness and achieving training goals, people are always keen to try just about anything, and one concept that caused quite the stir was AR. More precisely, Augmented Reality in fitness. For many, the amount of information needed to get started can be intimidating and daunting. How do the machines work in the gym? How do I do this exercise correctly? There is a lot to know, and AR is here to make that a lot less overwhelming. Some of these solutions work with smartphones, other require wearables.

Regardless of their fitness level, more and more people are seeing good results with the help of equipment that makes training less complicated and more engaging.

Anytime, anywhere

A significant advantage of Augmented Reality for fitness is the ability to create interactive training almost anywhere you want. This is a big plus for people who don’t want to go to the gym or prefer training at home.

You don’t necessarily have to go to the gym anymore, because many of the applications can be used outdoors or at home, with a virtual training appearing directly right in your living room.

For example, a holographic trainer. This can be projected into a gym or a training room with the help of an AR application. When a device is scanned, a virtual trainer appears and shows corresponding exercises. You can then walk around this trainer and really see how the exercises can be performed correctly, as well as how the muscles are at work. Especially for beginners, it’s a fantastic opportunity to familiarize themself with the equipment and exercise sequences.

Augmented Reality Fitness Apps

AR should increase the commitment to physical activity, and especially AR fitness apps or games are gaining a lot of attention. Through these apps, users can be offered a storyline, a game, to encourage them to engage in sports.

For example, gamification can be used to collect points — fitness freaks and sports enthusiasts alike can compete with each other and push each other to new heights. Furthermore, exercises can be designed to be interactive, integrating more smaller tasks into the routine.

A popular fitness Augmented Reality App is Zombies, Run! It’s hardly a typical AR application, however, as the developers themselves call it an Augmented Audio Application. Nevertheless, the app gets you moving — and boy it does it well! In the game, you are a survivor of a worldwide pandemic (who knew a game from 2012 would be so up-to-date?), helping to collect supplies, rescue survivors, and defend your home. Now you get out of your house in real life and start your running route with headphones. The AR feature allows you to collect a variety of necessary virtual items, expanding your stock, while reaching your running goals.

But where do the zombies come into play? Well, the zombie attacks are coming up on a regular basis, communicated via audio transmission. Now it’s time to pick up the pace unless you want to be eaten by a zombie! A bit of training, and you should be fit enough to escape the horde of zombies consistently.

Another fitness app is “AR Runner”. As the name suggests, this is an application designed to improve your running experience. In the real environment, AR is used to set control points that the user has to pass through while being timed. There are rankings allowing users to compete against each other. With four different modes and 60 challenges, the variety is enough to satisfy everyone’s needs.

Data tracking per AR

Now fitness apps are not all that there is to it. There are many Augmented Reality devices and wearables that also contain portable technology recording certain body data. This data can be examined to identify a person’s strengths and weaknesses, to then identify and develop an ideal and unique solutions for them. Your heart race, your calorie consumption, etc. can be recorded and analyzed, so that a) overexertion of the body can be prevented, and b) efficiency can be increased as you know exactly when to increase or decrease the intensity of your training. Therefore AR can provide real-time information about what is happening in the body during training and help improve your performance.

Solutions that require wearables have been popularized in the last few years, as carrying a cell phone during training can be uncomfortable, or even unsafe (for the phone, mostly). Freeing your hands can lead to much more productive workouts. Now, it’s worth saying that all the fun is getting more and more pricey, as wearables are far from cheap, or common enough to be in every household, unlike smartphones.

The use of Augmented Reality is a step in the right direction to support and motivate us in our daily workouts, and also, very importantly, increasing the fun. The technology is bound to encourage people to get up out of the couch and become more active through play. Apps such as Zombies, Run!, which have already found great success, only give a small idea of the potential that AR can bring in fitness. A captivating storyline, cool gadgets, and nice effects can bring a lot of fun to working out, which will certainly push many in the long run (pun slightly intended.) Regardless, you need ambition and discipline, because, without those, even the latest tech can not carry you through it all — AR is a useful tool, so long you work with it.