Obe launches personalized training plans

Obe users can take a quiz on fitness goals, free time, and class type preferences, and they have the option to sync data from Apple HealthKit to the Obe app. Based on this information, Obe will recommend individual progressive training programs that increase the challenge over time.

“It’s very prescriptive on a daily basis, telling you exactly what to do to get the most out of the time you’re using to exercise and also to avoid ‘rolling the paper’ looking for the right class, ” said co-founder and co-CEO Ashley Mills. “But it is also flexible and adaptive based on [a user’s] Her unique physiology and what happened in life.

Countless fitness programs that use technology to offer personalized options—from live training to test-based recommended plans—have popped up in recent years. It makes sense that Obe would choose to compete in the field, offering its own personalized taste.

When the pandemic hit just two years after its launch, Obé was one of the few fitness brands that had established and operated streaming and online content, which led to a “hype fever”. new eyeballs,” said co-founder and co-CEO Mark. mullet.

Today, Mills says the Obe community is as strong as ever, in terms of subscribers and viewership. But now, more than three years since the start of the pandemic and after the COVID-19 public health emergency ended, what people are looking for in a virtual fitness platform has evolved.

“A lot of people are trying digital exercise for the first time, and that discovery phase is really amazing,” says Mills. “Now, what we’re seeing after the pandemic and this shift three years later is our audience, as well as the audience we’re trying to market, they’re really looking for a show. The process is more regulated and personalized. for them.”

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Obe conducted a survey of current users, as well as target market users, and found that people’s lives have become less flexible than they used to be when working-And-working from home era. They still want to exercise (and specifically get stronger), but they have less mental energy for it. So figuring out what classes to do from the endless scrollable content library is a big hurdle.

But just as great as opening an app and getting your workout in for the day, Obe is also aware that someone’s energy, recovery state, or just other things they’re going through in life. live, which can make an individually scheduled class not always appropriate. fit. So Obe will be serving several options for classes, alternating between strength, cardio, and recovery days. It will also allow you to log the exercise you do outside of the Obe universe in the platform and save it to your user history so you can see the big picture of your physical activity.

“I think we can all agree that everything that happens gets in the way of an exercise plan,” says Mills. “Let’s say you have a HIIT class that you were supposed to do that day, but you went for a jog or a walk with a friend instead; That should be considered your cardio. So we make sure we can keep track of all that to deliver [a user] a really comprehensive understanding of what her fitness life is and what she needs to do for optimal health.

Obe says it will also integrate data from the wearable into your program, but it’s still unclear exactly how that will work. One example Obe gives is cycle syncing and recommending a certain intensity of classes based on the user’s position in the menstrual cycle. Synchronizing the menstrual cycle is very popular right now, although experts say the science is far from perfect. However, being aware of how different energy levels can be can help someone tap into their body’s needs.

Mills says another way Obe will use wearable data as a signal that it’s time to increase the difficulty level and put users in intermediate stages of progress, such as Mills. (The plans are designed in one-month tranches and can be viewed every two weeks by users.)

Obe has launched several progressive strength training programs and will be using those as part of the series’ content, as well as repurposing other content. But it will also shoot new videos with progressive intent.

So do class recommendations on new and existing content really count as personalization?

“Out of the gate, it will never be as personalized as the end goal and vision for it,” says Mills. “When you’re building a technology product like this, they’re a lot of iterative, and you add features as you work through those recommendations even better.”

Users can still use the app as they usually do if they don’t want to take advantage of the new test-based programs. At its core, Mullett says the goal of the platform hasn’t changed—just distribution.

“One of our early theories about business was how you could help people be fit and healthy but not bored and fearless. [exercise]?” Mullet said. “We will still give you the same assortment, the same library of accelerated classes, and everything in between. We’re just trying to make it much easier. But we will never lose the fun factor. We will never lose sight of our mission around efficiency. We will never lose sight of our mission around the community, but we will continue to grow.”