A gym near you might be Sporting some new IoT Machines

Major Fitness equipment producer Life Fitness is beginning to create a whole new connected experience at the gym. Life Fitness started this whole transformation in 2012 with the creation of it’s LF Connect software that allows you to track what you did on certain machines by entering an ID code when you start to use them. However, now they are taking that same fitness tracking software and making it possible for your fitness machines to relay that same information directly to your smart device or fitness tracker. As of right now LF Connect is compatible with Google Fit, the Apple watch, and Fitbits.

Fitness tracker Users get even more data:

This new update is great for users, now you no longer need to create a life fitness account and wait to get home to check it, because all that information will be relayed directly to the fitness tracker you’re using while at the gym. However they plan on taking this new smart device connectivity software and adding a few features, such as alerts to your device letting you know when you walk by a piece of equipment or a machine that could help you reach a certain fitness goal. This new feature could help people become more knowledgeable about their fitness routines by giving a new incite into how each machine works for them by comparing the information the machine sends to you and the data your smart device is already collecting for you.

These machines can help the Gym management as well:

From the gym owner side, these new machines are going to help out big time. Now with the new connectedness of these machines having one break or be out of Service will be far less likely to happen. These new connected machines will send alerts to the gym staff informing them when a certain machine shall need maintenance and on what part. This will hopefully allow the gym staff to plan out that maintenance so the machine is never off the floor while people are trying to use it.  It therefore also helps the gym goer again because their gym experience is not interrupted by the lack of gym equipment.

We have a few thoughts of our own on Life Fitness and what they're doing:

Here at Bluefin Technology Partners we always get excited to see companies implement IoT into their products for the purpose of creating a more connected and enjoyable user experience for the consumer. Our Founder Jay Cahill even had this to say about what Life Fitness is trying to do.

“Through this integration of IoT, it now allows them to see what their customers are doing with their machines and from that information they can then offer their customers helpful information about how to better their workout. That new relationship between  producer and consumer without the middle man or retailer is a business model I’d like to see more of.” -Jay Cahill

If you want to read more about what direction Life Fitness is taking with their Life Connected systems then you should go check out Sporttechie Article on it, it has a lot of insight from someone directly involved with the development of the life fitness equipment.