The lack of time and the establishment of a new way of working, studying, and, ultimately, living, has imposed changes in the lifestyle of citizens. The post-pandemic era has largely led to the expansion of teleworking and tele-education scenarios, which have become new forms of daily life for many people, and have generated new needs in their free time. Part of this transformation has been transferred to sports practice, with a greater need, paradoxically, for virtuality in the execution of physical sport. However, one thing is not at odds with the other, and it is possible to take online yoga classes or follow a spinning session from home. Moreover, it is a practice that gains followers every day.
The DIR gym chain has, for example, a virtual trainer service, the Personal Training Digital, which continues to grow. Its co-director of Fitness, Jordi Forns, explains that, indeed, "there is an increase in the volume of people who want a virtual trainer to be able to train freely at home or outdoors."
Available on mobile
With 36 clubs in Catalonia ---19 located in Barcelona---, DiR gyms are a benchmark in sports practice in terms of innovation in this field. In this area, Personal Training Digital is the new functionality of the MyDiR application, which clients regularly use on their mobile or tablet to find out about available services, trainers, and access schedules and the reservation system for guided classes, in addition to being the way to book personal training and physiotherapy sessions.
This new service has been created to respond to those people who want personalized training specifically programmed for them and by professionals. These are mainly people who do not want or require the in-person support of a trainer, but at the same time do want to be able to train both at home and in the gym or outdoors with quality programming and monitoring of their progress.
The objectives initially offered by this virtual trainer are muscle training, weight loss, self-care, running or triathlon, and crossDiR, with personalized training programs, carried out by a real certified trainer, not by artificial intelligence guided by algorithms.
To access this service, the client must access their MyDiR app. The application can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. Access is with the provided username and password.
It is no longer a minority option
"Indeed, today, and especially as a result of the pandemic, options that were previously minority have increased significantly, and clients now demand and accept them as an intrinsic element in their daily training routines," explains Forns.
According to him, this new demand for virtual training includes both streaming sessions at the club itself and at home, so the user always has a virtual option to start practicing when needed. In the case of DIR gyms, these sessions are accessible through their session platform diracasa.com
In addition, Forns also highlights the rise of outdoor sessions inside and outside their clubs with activities such as RunwithUs or other activities also offered on the same platform, as well as personalized training programs.
An increasingly sophisticated service
Although this type of virtual training programs and planning services are not new and have existed in the sports market for years in very varied formats, one of the novelties is that increasingly sophisticated products are offered to satisfy customer demand.
In this vein, Forns details that in their case they have developed a product with multiple options "to make it as easy as possible for the client to train wherever and whenever they want, with the tools and materials or spaces they have available."
According to him, this sophistication of the service and personalization of training is possible because, from the outset, instead of creating programs with algorithms, they are made by a "qualified Personal Trainer with experience in the sector who, through an initial questionnaire and follow-up questionnaires and calls, adapts the planning to what the client needs."
The Personal Trainer performs this task with all the tools and capacity the company has, offering training options at the club, with the available material, but also with functional training materials and bodyweight exercises in case the training is carried out outside the sports center.
Likewise, this design is complemented, if desired, with virtual sessions and streaming accessible from Diracasa, "depending on the objectives and possibilities" of each athlete.
For example, if the client has a spinning bike at home, SpinDiR sessions can be programmed for them, or if they like it and it is suitable for their goal, pilates or yoga sessions are offered, for example. "This level of adaptation and versatility can hardly be offered by another operator," he remarks.
The advantage of distance
Although virtuality is not without some drawbacks, such as the need for an Internet connection and a device or the absence of physical contact between people, the telematic world also has numerous advantages, such as this "personalization and adaptation in spaces and materials."
However, for Forns, the main advantage of virtual training is that everything can be managed remotely at the same time. It starts with an initial questionnaire to determine all the client's requirements and current situation, and all follow-up and delivery of programs, corrections, and exercise videos, among other processes, are online.
In this way, "there is no need for the athlete to attend an appointment physically, nor at a specific time", since they can do it whenever and wherever they want, and receive the training program within a maximum of 48 hours.
Additionally, regarding this program, the client can track their evolution, both in training sessions and in their body composition. "All data and comments made weekly are visualized by the trainer, who adapts the program on a weekly basis," he explains.
A door to healthy habits
Be that as it may, this new and expanding window allows even more people to be incorporated into the world of healthy habits and physical activity. For Forns, "it's not about superimposing virtual service over in-person service," but rather that a large part of fitness, thanks to motivating and corrective elements, "helps many people adhere to physical activity as a life habit," which also involves the intervention of a person.
Thus, all technological elements at their disposal, whether for diagnosing, communicating, prescribing, or monitoring, "are of great help in achieving the mission of bringing physical activity to everyone and improving their quality of life."
With 44 years of history, DiR gyms have become the reference gyms in Catalonia, with 36 clubs, 36 paddle tennis courts, 13 swimming pools and thermoludic spaces, more than 24,000 guided activities per month, and more than 90,000 clients.