AI-powered gyms bring new strength to wellness sector
More by well-tech firm FITIN offers a digital model to boost employees' health.
Daniel Harel and Sarit Harel, co-founders of FITIN(photo credit: LIAM FORBERG)ByLIAM FORBERGJerusalem Report logo small (credit: JPOST STAFF)In recent times, a new word has entered our general lexicon: “wellness.” Big-name companies have given great importance to that term, paying closer attention to their employees’ needs. After all, when employees sit at their desk and work tirelessly for the entire day, a structural system needs to be put in place to prioritize their mental and physical health. There is a direct link between a healthy lifestyle – a supportive work environment, stress-reducing habits, and well-administered crisis management – and effective work performance.
After COVID-19 hit, many employees started to re-evaluate their career choices, placing importance on their values and stress levels, causing a boom in the visibility employers have for their employees’ experience. In a Comprehensive Research Report by Market Research Future, the corporate wellness market was valued at $57.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $109.4 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.37%.
With a growing demand for a more hybrid industry, companies that have typically provided simple solutions such as a gym membership or a break room are pressured to up the ante, realizing that the current services are not cutting it. They are aware of the need for individualized solutions that prioritize each worker’s psyche and mental makeup, thus optimizing a balanced hybrid of productivity and wellness. A one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t really fit anyone.
Among the sea of solutions being offered stands one unique technology that claims it answers all these new developing requirements to cater to companies’ wellness needs. Its name is More, co-founded by Oren Agiv, More’s CEO who previously served as VP business development at Holmes Place; and FITIN, a leading well-tech company founded by entrepreneurs Sarit and Daniel Harel.
I attended the recording of a training session with instructor Lee Aroch in the spacious, meticulously designed studio and personal gym that serves 1,000 employees of WOPA, a shared work space in the Ra’anana industrial area. There is a huge advantage in turning a workspace gym in a more digital direction, as it greatly reduces the cost of trainers. In addition, not having to have an instructor on site widens the range of availability, time and diversity. The possibilities are endless. The space is brightly lit and the atmosphere is vibrant, yet gritty – perfect for the intense workout that is taking place in front of me. Doing planks and squats, encouraging the participant to keep it up, Aroch exudes an energy that is almost addictive – boisterous and supportive – making the participant feel like he/she is in her presence and exercising with her.
Instructor Lee Aroch recording a workout session. (credit: LIAM FORBERG)
“Our basic philosophy is to make people get in shape and stay in shape.”Sarit Harel
“Our basic philosophy is to make people get in shape and stay in shape,” says Sarit Harel. That might sound simple, but it entails a massive ecosystem of AI components to cover large ground effectively.
“It starts from a big data system that ‘learns’ the trainee,” she tells The Jerusalem Report. “It often can fit itself to things the trainees need that they didn’t even know about. Whether it comes to the trainees’ physical stats, the level of experience, how in shape they are or what type of training they enjoy doing, through matching these kinds of criteria, we aim to make those who don’t enjoy workouts that much fall in love with them and integrate it into their lifestyle.”
Indeed, the first thing you encounter when you sign up to the platform is a questionnaire that asks about your daily routine and schedule, training preferences (there are 12 categories, which include Yoga, Pilates, Kickboxing and Aerobics), fields of interest, available equipment and more. From then on, you can proceed with your individual health journey, which offers you workouts depending on the AI’s customizability, based on your personal, emotional, physical and habitual data the AI collects, as well as goals, such as stress relief or weight loss, although you can also choose by yourself.
The participant retention of More is a whopping 95%. To truly understand what it is that keeps people engaged with training, one needs to look into the deeper layers of one’s psychology that connect to workouts. To understand why people are not able to stick with a workout regime, one must explore their hidden motivation behind exercising. One’s family, one’s doctor, one’s self-image, or one’s competitiveness with one’s peers could all be valid reasons. The last one, for example, is addressed using a social network in the program that involves the trainee’s friends, taking in data such as exercise difficulty, stats and success rate and “gamifying” them. This also contributes to a healthy and upbeat environment among co-workers in a company.
However, More by FITIN isn’t interested in employees becoming fitness freaks. In fact, in its lifestyle section, one can find hundreds of hours of lectures, podcasts, and tips on topics such as mindfulness, time management, nutrition, cooking, family medicine, prophylaxis, and psychology, answering questions about motivation and dealing with stress, with content by the likes of Jordan Peterson and other experts. This wide gamut of subject matter can appeal in some way to anyone, especially more so with the personalization that comes with the AI technology. More’s employees’ wellness program seeks to find a balance between “comfort, business productivity, social relationships with co-workers, and finding pride and identity in the organization,” says Harel.
This cannot be achieved in a monolithic way. There needs to be the individually constructed experience that can only be done using AI in order to truly reach and rebuild each employee and, in turn, the entire company.
More promises a lot of things. This automatization of something we previously knew as a tactile social and physical activity will turn plenty of heads. Showcasing dozens of leading trainers from Israel and abroad, the company already has thousands of users but is aiming for every possible client. “We encourage companies, no matter the size, sector, or structure, to look into us. We believe in flexibility. Everyone has something they can take from us,” Harel asserts.
“We allow for an elastic solution, and every organization that comes to us finds the most suitable one, depending on its organizational DNA, budget, and level of hybridity,” says Agiv.
That is the brilliance of its technology. Providing services that usually must be coordinated much more in depth are now just a few clicks away. More by FITIN is advocating for companies to start taking proper accountability for their employees’ individual needs. Taking corporate action in this direction has never been this widely accessible, simple and cost effective.
This technology won’t make gyms obsolete – at least, not in the near future. There are many ways to get in shape. However, More by FITIN has the potential to bridge the psychological and social gap that deters people from achieving the healthy lifestyle they are seeking. It is all a matter of accountability and taking an assertive first step, by the company and the individual, to engender a meaningful and supportive change in their lives.
For more information, visit https://www.morein.life/ ■
