These Fitness Products Made Waves at IHRSA 2024
ATN breaks down some of the best innovations from leading fitness brands across strength training, cardio and fit tech at IHRSA 2024
Leading fitness equipment and technology brands brought their best to IHRSA 2024, the annual convention and trade show put on by IHRSA, now known as the Health & Fitness Association.
Athletech News breaks down some of the key products that made waves on the show room floor from brands including Aktiv Solutions, EGYM, Freemotion Fitness, Life Fitness, Matrix, Precor and Technogym.
Energizing their respective spaces and showing what’s next in fitness evolution, these seven brands showcased their top-tier releases across strength training, cardio and fit tech, all designed to engage consumers while assisting club operators.
Aktiv Innovates on Traditional Strength Training
The rise of strength training is likely the fitness biggest trend of 2024, with consumers of all ages and fitness levels finding time to weight train, taking to the benefits of increased muscle mass, joint protection, fat loss and lowered resting heart rate.
Aktiv Solutions, a commercial gym design and supply company, used IHRSA 2024 to unveil its latest innovation: the Gym Rax Smith 3D Trainer (3SD). The next-gen smith machine features a free bar path, mimicking barbells while offering the benefits of the traditional smith machine, including the lack of need for supervision.
Aktiv created the S3D to onboard those new to strength training while also catering to expert lifters.
“The S3D presents an opportunity for operators to appeal to their broader constituencies without alienating more advanced lifters,” explained Bryan Green, founder and CEO of Aktiv Solutions, adding that users “can get that last rep without fear that they’ll injure themselves without a spotter.”
The S3D touts a patent-pending movement carriage that synchronizes its safety catches and serves as a built-in spotter — perfect for newer users, Gen Z and active-aging populations.
The safety feature makes S3D a particularly beneficial addition to unsupervised fitness facilities like hotels or university gyms.
Precor Embraces the Glute Trend
Precor is also heavily invested in strength, partnering with Glutebuilder to breathe new life into glute training, which has become highly popular on social media platforms like TikTok. Besides looking good, training the glutes has numerous benefits including hip stabilization and pain prevention in the back and neck.
The partnership will see an all-new line of six patent-pending glute training products that combine the motion design of Glutebuilder’s founder and CEO, Arturo García López, with Precor’s engineering and manufacturing expertise.
“We recognize the surging popularity of glute training worldwide, and the innovations within the new Precor Glutebuilder Line offer novel ways to engage and attract new fitness enthusiasts,” said Precor’s CEO Dustin Grosz. “We are delighted to partner with this esteemed brand and leverage Arturo’s groundbreaking developments.”
Those who missed IHRSA 2024 will be able to preview the Precor Glutebuilder Line at FIBO in April in Cologne, Germany.
Technogym Launches AI-Powered Health & Longevity Tracking
It was impossible to ignore Technogym at IHRSA 2024, with its massive presence on the tradeshow floor and outfitted in its signature black and yellow branding.
Already a force to be reckoned with, Technogym took its ecosystem a step further with the debut of Technogym Check Up. Harnessing AI to assess physical and cognitive conditions, Technogym Check Up has the power to prescribe the ideal fitness program that adapts over time based on the individual user.
Nerio Alessandri, Technogym founder and CEO, says the latest innovation represents the access point to the entire Technogym ecosystem, offering a “fully personalized program for every single individual that evolves over time thanks to AI.”
Leaning into longevity, Technogym’s latest offering goes beyond cognitive function, body composition, strength performance, balance and mobility. It uses the data to calculate a “Wellness Age,” a nod to the brand’s ‘Technogym as Medicine’ philosophy.
The new tool puts longevity-seeking consumers in the driver’s seat of their health. At the same time, Technogym’s ecosystem and data-forward approach can also unlock invaluable data for fitness operators.
EGYM Empowers Users To Move Beyond the Scale
EGYM, a leading fitness tech provider, put its new BioAge feature front and center at IHRSA 2024, a measurable approach to fitness that calculates a user’s wellness across four pillars: strength, cardio, flexibility and metabolism.
It may be time to toss the scale since BioAge takes things beyond simple bodyweight measurements. Giving users a solution-based path, BioAge focuses on four different areas of need, tracking progress and providing users with valuable visual feedback along the way.
The result? A comprehensive approach to health and fitness that keeps users engaged and motivated — especially when they quickly start seeing results.
“Unfortunately in our industry, usually it’s all about what a member sees on the scale,” Dana Milkie, EGYM general manager for North America, told ATN. “It can be a little demotivating, particularly in the first three or four weeks when you’re starting to exercise trying to change your body and you don’t see anything on the scale. From a BioAge perspective, you begin to see changes very quickly as whatever biological age you started at begins to go down.”
BioAge is visible on EGYM’s Fitness Hub, trainer app and branded member app, making it accessible anywhere for individuals who work out at various facility types. The innovation also serves as a powerful tool for operators and fitness trainers, allowing them to share tangible results with clients, deepening motivation with proof.
Matrix Brings Luxury to Cardio
Matrix Fitness, a commercial fitness leader under Johnson Health Tech, has elevated cardio with a luxurious look and feel with the launch of its Onyx Collection, a line of five ultra-premium cardio machines, including a treadmill, Ascent Trainer, ClimbMill, upright cycle and recumbent cycle.
“Every touch point and every element of the Onyx Collection was designed to be exceptional, immersive, and unlike anything else in our portfolio,” said Andrew Kolman, vice president of global product development. “At Matrix, meaningful innovation is at the heart of everything we do. Our partners can expect to see this guiding principle artfully expressed in every design detail.”
With its impressive 32″ touchscreen console and interactive touch controls, users can sprint, interval train, complete fitness tests or run on rolling hills.
Kolman explained that feedback from industry partners fueled the creation of Onyx’s luxe design, with its oversized screen allowing operators to brand the experience and advertise their own messaging.
The Onyx Collection is headed to FIBO next month in Germany, which will take place from April 11 to 14.
Life Fitness Gives Operators the Keys
Life Fitness used IHRSA to remind the fitness industry that cardio is still king and that the key to a successful product is deepening user engagement while offering new revenue channels for club operators.
Symbio, an ultra-premium cardio line features a Runner (treadmill), Incline Elliptical, SwitchCycle and Recumbent Cycle — all of which enable club operators to easily upload on-demand workouts featuring their in-house instructors.
Gym goers want an engaging cardio experience, which Symbio can deliver, as operators can add new member onboarding videos or promote additional services.
“(It) gives you the ability as a trainer, instructor, facility owner, operator — to completely customize the experience,” said Life Fitness global training and education manager Leigh Wierichs. “The content doesn’t have to be a class — although it could be an actual on-demand class or something nutrition-related. It could be something explaining the different capabilities of the treadmill; it could be something talking about how to prepare for a 5K. It can be anything that you think would resonate.”
Content abilities aside, Life Fitness’ new Runner offers a standout feature, adaptive flex deck technology so that users can select their preferred level of firmness – either 40% softer or firmer.
For Freemotion, Content Is King
Freemotion Fitness, along with parent company iFIT, put a spotlight on its new 22 Series cardio line at IHRSA 2024, boasting iFIT’s robust content library of nearly 17,000 coach-led workouts, including Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps and ultrarunner Tommy Rivers Puzey.
The 22 Series cardio line offers a six-piece collection that spans an incline trainer, a Reflex treadmill with an impact-reducing deck, an elliptical and three bikes, all with 22-inch HD touchscreens that display content and automatically adjust speed, incline, resistance and fan speed based on the on-screen workout.
With an emphasis on delivering top-notch video content that is immersive and exciting, iFIT films its footage on all seven continents, including adventurous locations such as Mount Everest. It’s a creative decision that Adam Guier, vice president of North America sales at Freemotion, says has a tremendous impact on member engagement.
“We hear members say, “I went on a vacation to such and such place because I had exercised in that same location from virtually,'” Guier said. “We also hear members who say, “I went on vacation, came back, and did the same run on the console that I had done on vacation.”
Beyond the gym, members can use the iFIT app at home or on vacation, using equipment from NordicTrack or ProForm, other iFIT brands.
