The exhibit hall floor at IHRSA 2023 March 20-23 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego featured several new product releases and upgrades from the more than 300 exhibitors. Following is a recap of some of those announcements.
ABC Fitness
ABC Fitness unveiled a new corporate identity and a new logo at IHRSA that includes a new "branded house" approach for its brands ABC IGNITE, ABC GLOFOX, ABC EVO, and ABC TRAINERIZE that will allow the company to tailor solutions for various segments of the industry. Each platform is primarily focused on a specific fit tech segment or geography, but as part of the wider ABC portfolio, they benefit from the ability to integrate with the other ABC technology, the company said. In the coming months, ABC Fitness will share further news of its new brand and individual platform delivery.
Club Industry spoke with ABC Fitness CEO Bill Davis at IHRSA and will share more about that conversation in the coming weeks.
Echelon
Connected fitness company Echelon debuted three products at IHRSA 2023. The first, Echelon Worlds, is an interactive virtual reality gaming experience in which members can engage with other members on Echelon’s bike, rower and tread machines. The second was Echelon Studio, which allows club operators to host on-demand group fitness classes digitally on their group fitness area Smart TVs. The third release was Echelon Strength Trainer, which features a 23.8 inch HD touchscreen, 180 degree lateral arm adjustment, smart resistance handle grips, dual servo motor, and convenience and safety knobs.
Life Fitness
Life Fitness also debuted several products this year. For the budget-conscious club operator, Life Fitness released its Life Fitness Aspire+ SL Console cardio line, which is offered at a “more accessible price level,” according to the company. It includes a treadmill, upright and recumbent bikes, and elliptical.
The Life Fitness Integrity+ SE4 Console cardio line (which includes a treadmill, PowerMill, elliptical and upright and recumbent bikes) now features a new 24-inch edge-to-edge touch screen on which users can view more than 500 instructor-led complimentary workouts and customized training content capability via Life Fitness On Demand+.
For operators looking for new cycle options, Life Fitness introduced its Indoor Cycle IC7, which offers a training system that tailors intensity to personal training goals. It integrates with the Coach by Color training system, a connected technology to optimize training management.
On the functional training side, Life Fitness LFX is a functional training space that combines equipment, education and programming using Life Fitness and Hammer Strength equipment and education and programming curated by the Life Fitness Academy.
In the company’s Hammer Strength line, the company released Hammer Strength Performance, which offers an anaerobic performance training experience while providing tactical feedback in real time. The line includes the HD Tread, HD Air Bike and HD SPARC.
Matrix Fitness
Matrix Fitness introduced a connected strength-training system, the Intelligent Training Console, which offers progression-based programming developed in collaboration with the NSCA. The console has a 16-inch capacitive touchscreen on which members can set their physical transformation targets, receive step-by-step instructions and identify their benchmark weight that will help them reach their goals.
Myzone
At Myzone’s annual invitation-only breakfast, the wearable fitness brand shared several updates that Myzone CEO-Americas Mike Leveque called “the largest and most exciting product launches ever” for the company.
In April, the company is debuting its Blue Check, which allows club operators to identify their super users, who are people who like and comment on others’ workouts, hit their monthly Myzone Effort Point goals and more. Clubs that have 100 or more Blue Check members are designated as a Myzone Center of Excellence.
Myzone device users will now be able to “crop” their workouts, which means they can cut out the gray zones that show up in their workout summaries before and after a workout begins as they drive to and from a workout after having put on the Myzone device.
The MZ-Fitness Test 2.0 will now give a VO2 max score, a fitness age, and normative age/gender comparison.
The company launched its premium content feature set, which includes MZ-Club that allows clubs to broadcast their own live, pre-recorded and on-demand classes; MZ-Together that delivers live-stream classes from Myzone instructors in London and Chicago; and MZ-On Demand, which delivers a pre-recorded library of 1,300 videos.
The MZ-Maps option will now do more than map the user’s route — it will map the intensity level on the route. It will be included with all premium licensed modules.
SportsArt
SportsArt revealed its SportsArt G660 treadmill, which the company said was the first carbon-negative piece of fitness equipment on the market. The treadmill produces enough clean energy to offset more carbon than its independently certified footprint during its lifetime. Based on U.S. EPA equivalencies and the average amount of clean energy the G660 generates per day in a typical commercial gym, it will become carbon negative in five years. This means that the G660 will make a net positive impact for the remainder of its seven-year life cycle and beyond, according to SportsArt.
Technogym
Technogym featured several of its products at IHRSA 2023, including its Technogym Ecosystem Open Platform, which can be integrated with membership software, marketing and payment platforms, body analysis and assessment devices already used by a club as well as with consumer apps and wearable devices. The consumer point of access to the Ecosystem is the Technogym App, which allows users to connect to their personal training experience from anywhere and allows them access to on-demand training content.
With the growing popularity of strength workouts, Technogym showcased two new strength offerings. Its Biostrength line of strength training equipment uses patented technology and artificial intelligence that the company says delivers results about 30 percent better than classic training with tools or free weights by helping users train with the right load for their needs, with the right range of motion, correct posture, speed of execution, and by indicating the number of sets, repetitions and optimal recovery time. On the plate-loaded side, Technogym’s Pure line has been expanded with two new pieces of equipment: the belt squat and deadlift.
Technogym also featured a new modular functional strength system, Universe, which gives users a variety of exercise possibilities, resistance types (weights, cable, controlled inertia, magnetic, bodyweight, elastic and isoinertial) and digital training content.
The company also showcased its Skillrun Bootcamp, which is a guided bootcamp experience that alternates running, functional and strength sessions using the Skillrun, and the Technogym Bench strength and conditioning training options.
On the digital side, Technogym revised its Teambeats to provide an even better group training experience with a redesigned user interface. It also allows trainers more flexibility to design classes on one or multiple screens.
Vitruvian
Vitruvian, which in the past had offered home workout equipment, unveiled at IHRSA its commercial-grade product TrainerX. The TrainerX uses AI technology that adjusts the weight to individual users in real time (loading and deloading the optimal resistance). It also has commercial-minded modes and a user experience that allows for fast switching.