Luxury tech innovator, Immersive Gym, has launched an augmented fitness environment which “intelligently uses technology” to transform static workouts into real-time journeys, without wearables.
Using overhead projectors or LED screens, 220 degrees of captured content is streamed onto three studio walls, while spatial audio and reactive lighting provide an immersive AR experience.
The set-up is suitable for cycling, running and rowing or any connected piece of training equipment, as well as wellness activities such as yoga, mindfulness and binaural beats frequency sessions – this involves listening to two different frequency levels in the left and right ear which can either energise the brain or place it in a meditative state.
Immersive Gym plans, designs and delivers tech-augmented fitness spaces and gyms, including advising on what gym equipment, software and cameras should be used.
A basic fit-out has a starting price of £25k, while the cost of a large bespoke installation starts at £100k.Clients are provided with a gallery of real-life and AR trails and can also use Zwift, or pre-recorded classes from suppliers such as Les Mills. Immersive Gym recommends the use of online racing content to instil a competitive element to individual workouts.
The system operates via a proprietary touchscreen menu which categorises content into Studio; mat-work and classes, Gym; run, cycle and row and Entertainment; racing and flight simulations and media.
Customers can have remote PT sessions using a video dial-in feature, with camera feedback enabling trainers and users to monitor and guide performance during sessions, even when they can’t physically meet up.
“Immersive Gym allows you to be immersed in any environment you choose while being in your own space,” said founder, Charles Pearce. “We’re using the latest technology to combine the opportunity for physical and mental wellbeing in an environment that’s second to none.”
Pearce was inspired to create the concept after he prepared for a charity bike ride and felt constricted by training on a static bike with only a computer screen that did not provide an engaging field of view for the content provided.
He also identified a gap in the market because he felt gyms had become too functional and hadn’t evolved in the same way that fitness hardware had.
“I noticed that the gym and studio space just hadn’t evolved from the mirrored walls, wooden floors and loose kit,” said Pearce. “The spaces simply had not utilised the available technological developments to enable gyms to provide an inspirational, motivating and rewarding place to train.
“Ninety per cent of people we’ve spoken to have said, by choice, that they’d like to be outside when exercising,” he explains. “The starting point was the aim of creating something that’s as close to the real thing as possible and also brings in the sense of connectedness with others.”
Immersive Gym can create bespoke films for customers for an additional fee, filmed at their choice of location, ranging from mountain bike paths to tropical beaches.
Pearce has aspirations for Immersive Gym to enter the corporate market to diversify the corporate wellness offering and change the expectation that workplace wellness can just be satisfied with the provision of a gym membership.
The company is in talks regarding potential collaborations with prime residences, yachts, hotels and corporates to provide a versatile concept suitable for workplace wellness.
Immersive Gym has set a limit to install 50 studios in the next 12 months, with 80 per cent of these in hotels and private residences and 20 per cent in corporate wellness locations, to ensure high-quality standards can be met.
