VirtualGym TV

VirtualGym TV

Industry	Fitness
Founded	January 2008
Founder	Richard Davis & Carl Rigby
Headquarters	Rochester, Kent
Area served	Worldwide

VirtualGym TV was a live broadcasting and on-demand online gym, which provided access to hundreds of exercise classes.

The company was created to help address the global obesity crisis, which faces the UK, and the wider general population. Almost 1 in 4 adults in England are currently obese, and if this pattern were to continue in this current manner 9 in 10 adults would be overweight or obese by 2050. One of the key reasons for this is that more than 85% of the adult population, either can't, won't or don't visit a gym or health club in order to participate in regular exercise. The typical barrier reasons to participation are personal reasons such as privacy, self-consciousness, intimidation, cost, flexibility and geography. The "delivery solution" from VirtualGym TV was designed to permit on-demand access to exercise to eliminate these participation barriers.

The company reached out to an audience of in excess of 130,000 retail and corporate users.

History

The idea was founded when the then Managing Director, Richard Davis, was having a conversation with a high level instructor colleague, where at the time, the only real options were to either create a Fitness DVD and distribute it in the normal way, or to broadcast on the television. Coming from a background in Employee Benefits, Davis developed what is primarily a corporate benefit for large scale, fragmented workforces, but was accessible by the wider genera public as well.

The company continued to grow and by the summer of 2008 it formed a strategic alliance with the major sportswear manufacturer, Asics. More recently, they had achieved approval from the Department of Health and are a delivery partner of the Change4Life and MoreActive4Life social obesity campaigns (NHS) before they closed down. They also worked in partnership with their alcohol limits campaign, and the business awareness campaign with the FIA (Fitness Industry Association).

Features

The core of the product was powered by the 'Virtual Personal Trainer' (VPT) software which was a bespoke facility. The software captured a broad range of physiological and psychological data, which was analysed by the VPT software and appropriate exercise recommendations were prescribed specifically tailored for the individual. The VPT would specifically recommend which sessions the customer should participate in, the frequency with which they should participate and the intensity level that was right for them. The user would then participate in regular exercise from their ever-changing library of exercise content across all exercise areas. This ranged from Aerobics through to Pilates, Stability Ball and very specific pre & post natal content.

It was rumoured that the launch of 'Virtual Personal Trainer 2' (VPT2) software, early in 2010, would see the introduction of new features to increase the accuracy of customers own fitness program, the capturing of live physiological data during exercise, as well as a number of downloadable software applications for mobile handset devices.

Classes

Each week approximately 40 new classes were uploaded to the site. The bank of classes and tuition classes were delivered through the internet to both retail and corporate clients, via their website. Typical classes included Aerobics, Step Aerobics, Boxercise, Kick Boxing, Yoga, Pilates, T'ai chi, Body Conditioning, Circuit Training, Body Sculpting, Medicine Ball, Dance, Stationary (Spin) Bicycle, Treadmill, Interval Training, and various Martial Arts training sessions, (including meditation / relaxation).

Classes were scheduled in a similar fashion to a traditional gym, with shorter energising sessions in the morning and longer sessions in the afternoon and evening, which last between 45 and 60. Sessions were broadcast across a range of ability standards, so that customers could choose the appropriate complexity and fitness demand that was relevant for them. Customers could also learn a new fitness skill from scratch, with “starter” teaching sessions for those who had never participated in that exercise type before.

Instructors

Instructors were accredited with the Register of Exercise Professions (REPS), the governing body for the health and fitness industry, and the National Register of Personal Trainers. They were qualified to a minimum level by the relevant professional organisation. Instructors include Pierre Pozzuto, personal trainer of Gordon Ramsay, Christian Slater and Keira Knightley. Other well known instructors included Dan Little, Jackie Diss and Chris Roberts.