If springtime brings cleaning, renovating or breaking ground for new fitness or wellness spaces, and you’re looking for the latest innovations, this is the place to start. This “fitness 15” list of products stood out from among the industry crowd of new or evolving products, setting trends and helping fitness facilities attract more visitors and keep them coming back for more. Here are 15 innovative fitness facilities products that inspire us.
#1 Aqua Bags
For a trendy twist on traditional boxing bags, these Aqua Bags are prized by boxers of all levels. They are durable, have more “bounce” than traditional boxing bags, and are great for injury rehab and power training.
#2 Functional Solutions Training
Digital coaches, customized content, and an easy, programmable training option for unstaffed (or understaffed) locations, Functional Solutions offers a training content library that is on-demand and branded specifically for you and the needs of your facility’s users.
#3 Life Fitness ARC trainer
The new ARC trainer from industry-leader Life Fitness is hard to beat. Technology-meets-traditional training with this series of equipment options, all of which offer a low-impact total body workout. There’s something for every type of athlete with this line, customizable to make each workout unique, trackable, progressive and effective. This piece is so new it’s not even on the website – but you can be among the first to have it in your facility!
#4 SKLZ accessories
Outdoors or indoors, get your functional fitness on with one of these colorful and durable accessories from SKLZ. Functional fitness enthusiasts who want to work on agility and acceleration can find a wealth of tools here, though the Quick Ladder might be all that you need. For facilities, these pieces are multi-functional, store easily, and last a long time for individual or group training.
#5 Halo Fitness Cloud
Beyond the equipment, new software platforms are emerging to build a better experience for visitors while making it easier to manage the facility overall. Exercisers have Halo-delivered workouts, ways to track goals and communicate with their trainer, while facility operators can manage equipment maintenance and promote training services to keep visitors engaged.
#6 TRX Maps
It’s amazing what technology can show you. When you can look at elements of exercise training – like mobility, symmetry, muscle activation and posture – in 30 seconds, and get app-delivered prescriptive exercises to improve, that’s just plain cool. TRX Maps is not just for the digital natives, it’s easy to use and helpful for every age of athlete.
#7 UFC combat and fitness equipment
Starting with UFC fight gloves, which might come in handy for the Aqua Bags, UFC has entered into a partnership to make UFC-branded gym/fitness and weight/strength training equipment and accessories widely available starting in 2018. When the strength of the UFC brand is applied to weight and strength training products, they’re destined to be in-demand as well as on-demand (all puns intended).
#8 Innovative storage options
Nobody likes to exercise in a mess, tripping over dumbbells and sidestepping weight plates. Storage options that “hide in plain sight”, like the ones from Life Fitness, are creatively making training spaces not only functional but also cleanly organized and accessible. Who knew that storage could almost be classified as art?
#9 Rally flooring
Industrial carpet no more! Versatile performance flooring like Ecore’s Rally flooring can reduce force impact by a whopping 35% (that’s nearly three times the force reduction of traditional rolled rubber)! Everyone is going to Functional Fitness training, and that means more time on the floor. If that floor is an Ecore Rally floor, count us in!
#10 TROY blackwing bar
With power lifting making a comeback in the strength training arena, and Olympic lifting having never left, there’s no better bar brand out there than TROY. They make great plates too, but the true TROY stamp is evident in its bars. The TROY Blackwing bar is 100% manufactured in the USA, virtually maintenance free, and meets the superior TROY standards that put this in a class by itself.
#11 Ropeflex
Want a way to train climbing ropes without the “embarrassing gym class” situation if you can make it to the top? Ropeflex has rope trainers that can attach to existing bays or racks and help get that upper body burn going. Pull, climb or whip, Ropeflex rope training adds a new dimension to existing workouts.
#12 Tire Flip
For winter warriors who love toppling fitness tires, this piece is for you. You can dial in a specific weight and still get your fitness tire flips in, regardless of the weather or the terrain. Taking tire flips indoors, this piece has “gritty training” written all over it, without the need to get your hands dirty.
#13 Massage chairs
Recovery is a bigger and bigger part of fitness and wellness routines, and we love the massage chairs from Furniture for Life to help with muscle and joint relaxation. In common areas and lounges, there’s always a line to use one of these.
#14 Total Gym Incline Rower
The Total Gym body-weight-driven designs combine functional fitness with the precision of cutting-edge equipment. With as many as 12 resistance levels to work with, these sleek and deceptively-simple equipment pieces combine the best of both worlds.
#15 Jacobs Ladder Stepmill
With a smaller footprint, slightly shorter height and lower cost than its predecessor, the new Jacobs Ladder Stepmill is an innovation worth watching. Stair climbing is still a popular exercise option, and this product makes it far less cumbersome to climb hundreds of floors from one spot.
The 15 innovative fitness facilities products listed here are selling (and selling out) fast. There might be wait times associated with getting your hands on some of these, but it’s definitely worth it. These are the products that fitness consumers are asking for, using, and seeking out at local facilities. To find out more on any of these, contact your Advanced Exercise fitness design consultant.
About Advanced Exercise
Founded in 1986, Advanced Exercise is a leading fitness equipment and facility design resource, representing more than 30 equipment brands to bring clients the best new or used equipment solutions to maximize the use of available space and meet the needs of a diverse community of fitness amenity end users. For more information on fitness equipment and facility design services, visit www.advancedexercise.com or call 800-520-1112 to connect with one of Advanced Exercise’s experts.
