Is That the Answer?

I saw an Instagram ad yesterday about a tech-savvy weighted bar that syncs with your phone and TV to provide a guided workout. Pelotons, the bike with virtual spin classes are making their way into everyone’s home and you can find endless follow along yoga videos on YouTube.

The convenience of this in home health-tech is the draw. It’s the, I don’t have time to workout, but if I had a way to workout at home without having to think, that will do the trick! Don’t get me wrong, you will build serious fitness suffering on those Peloton bikes. The issue is how do you progress? How do you get better?

The bike’s answer is do more. More rides, more speed, more watts, longer duration. That’s the only way to progress, there isn’t any skill involved. In our world, the strength and conditioning gym, we can always progress by improving the quality of movement. We can add tempo, range of motion, speed and load amongst many other variables. We can adapt on the fly, call an audible and most importantly, focus on quality.

The in home tech doesn’t know what quality movement is. It wants you to progress by doing more. Which, will work until you eventually can’t do more and the Peloton collects cobwebs becomes a clothes hanger. These new at home workout modalities are great tools to supplement your training.

You still need full range of motion, mobility work, functional exercise, community, accountability and someone in your corner cheering for your success. Until the at home fitness tech can do that, I’d hang on to my gym membership.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach