June 2026: The Technology Connection
HFB’s June issue looks at how technology is transforming the industry from AI in the member journey to payment systems to data privacy standards. Read more now.
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Taking a Data-Driven, Personalized Approach to Wellness
In recent years, the health and wellness industry has undergone a remarkable transformation. Once focused solely on fitness and appearance, it now embraces a broader, more holistic view of personal well-being. People increasingly recognize the benefits of physical activity not just for the body, but for long-term health, mental clarity, and disease prevention. This growing…
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How to Find Your Voice—and Your Audience—in a Highly Saturated Online Space
For years, Shama Hyder, founder and CEO of Zen Media, has been a leader in helping business operators with their social media, B2B marketing, and the incorporation of artificial intelligence into operations. She is also a keynote speaker in high demand, having spoken in more than 24 countries for brands like NASA, Yale, and Disney….
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How AI Is Transforming Fitness Apps
Apps have long been heralded as tools that help drive personalized communication and put the club experience directly in members’ hands. Now, AI integration into apps offers the opportunity to take those personalized experiences to the next level. If one-to-one interaction has been where the industry has wanted to go in terms of spurring retention,…
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Life Fitness: The Rise of Next-Level Technology Ecosystems
Technology ecosystems have evolved greatly–especially in the health and fitness industry–during the past 20 years. Yet, they can be traced back to the early 20th century when Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone and fax machine, created a primitive digital ecosystem. Today’s ecosystems still operate on that same early premise: Connecting devices and people…
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Technogym: The Evolution of an AI-based, End-to-End Open Platform
Technogym traces its roots as a wellness leader back to the early 1980s when it was founded by 22-year-old Nerio Alessandri in his family’s garage. Alessandri’s development of a unique Hack Squat machine in 1983 paved the way for a series of constant innovations, including the launch of Technogym’s Wellness System—among the industry’s true software…
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Why All Gyms Need to Follow the Peloton Music Copyright Case
Update: The Peloton lawsuit was settled out of court in late February 2020 for an undisclosed amount of money. Peloton and the National Music Publishers Association have entered into a collaborative agreement to “further optimize” Peloton’s music licensing process. The other terms of the settlement agreement are not open to the public. In March 2019,…
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New Device Connects Orangetheory Workouts with Apple Watch
When Orangetheory Fitness learned that its members’ most common request was to use their Apple Watch in class, the company listened. Today, the billion-dollar fitness brand announced OTbeat Link—a new device that enables members to use their Apple Watch to track heart rate data during workouts. “Apple Watch is designed to help people live a…
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How Digital Exercise Display Can Rev Your Gym’s Training Experience
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Aktiv Solutions. When developing customer-facing solutions for today’s health club audience, few issues are as challenging as satisfying the demands for the extensive range of workout trends in the marketplace. With boutique studios pushing the envelope on innovative training modalities, clubs need to find cost-effective…
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Fitness Apps Are Revolutionizing the Industry
Ten years ago, Apple assembled enough apps—500 titles—to create the first app ecosystem, and opened the Apple Store with 500 titles. Today, it has more than 2 million. Google Play, its Android counterpart, boasts even more: about 2.2 million. While music tops the list of the most-used apps at 79%, according to comScore’s 2016 US…
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Data-based Fitness Assessments Help Gym Members Get Results
The constantly increasing demand and reliance on data has affected every industry, including our own. Today, when you walk through a health club and study what you see, it seems that the generation of reports, stats, and metrics is a secondary business—subordinate only to the provision of health and fitness services. This profound paradigm shift…
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How Gyms Are Using Member Data to Increase Retention
This article appeared in the print edition of Club Business International in April 2018. Technology has dramatically changed the way that health clubs conduct business. It streamlines operations, optimizes members’ workouts, and has had an impact on virtually every aspect, and every area, of a club. And rapidly emerging technologies—think virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence…
