Not everyone likes to go down to the gym. It’s easy to be put off by the experience, especially when you’re starting out. Everyone looks ultra-fit or, worse, a gym can look claustrophobic, especially if it’s located in a basement with no natural light.
Luckily our smartphones now enable us to take our work on the road. With the same intention, you can now take your workout on the road without needing access to the gym. Simply use your phone to download a workout and you’re ready to go.
We’ve experienced and seen a lot of on-demand video apps for fitness and these will show you how to conduct an exercise and so on. But what we don’t see too much of is an audio experience for fitness. Aaptiv is an app which aims to provide this. based in New York, Aaptiv offers a huge selection of audio-based workouts led by experts, which also monitors how you perform throughout the workout. Aaptiv aims to tap into technology in order to make these experiences further personalised, so expect to see Apple Watch, and other wearables are integrated further down the line.
Aaptiv covers almost any activity you can think of from yoga to cycling and to boxing and beyond. Simply choose your fitness goal (options include losing weight, gaining strength or reducing stress) and choose the workout and you’re ready to go.
As of this month, Aaptiv has received over $20 million in funding and is now available in over 20 countries and with over 200,000 paying members Aaptiv is showing no signs of slowing and is aiming to take over Europe and eventually the world. The expansion will start with its English speaking versions at first and will eventually expand to localised language versions. The use of audio over video allows for a better experience as many of the exercises we perform don’t allow us to be staring at an instructor the entire time, the key is the voice and the delivery. Which Aaptiv, for now, has cornered pretty well in the market.
Aaptiv also separates itself from others by providing a series of classes, instead of one off’s so when you get set up on the app you answer a selection of questions, that way the app can gauge your fitness and health goals, preferences and current fitness levels. From there the app then provides you with a wholly customised experience for working out.
Test out Aaptiv on iOS or Android. Aaptiv costs $14.99 a month or $99 a year.
