The fusion of technology and the fitness industry continues at warp
speed. This brings both excitement and concern, with users around the
world waiting for the release of the new iPhone 6, new iOS 8 and the
closely guarded Apple iWatch.
Rumors suggest the devices will be both fashionable and practical.
Wall Street has also been watching the buzz around the new Apple
products, as this is the most significant event for Apple under the
leadership of Tim Cook (and not Steve Jobs). With the introduction of
HealthKit,
it is also Apple’s attempt to make the iPhone not only the center of
the user’s digital world, but also of his or her physical world as
well.
The HealthKit framework within iOS 8 will offer more health and
fitness functionality by linking devices with a user’s health
information, using the iPhone as the central hub. Now users will be able
to capture and monitor health and fitness information such as pulse,
steps, blood pressure and sleep habits. These health measures offer a
clear and current overview of a person’s overall well-being. While it is
true that individual apps have been doing this for years, the new
HealthKit will allow these health and
fitness apps
to sync data about the user’s health and fitness across a variety of
wearables and apps, organizing them all into one dashboard
application—the iPhone.
Within the fitness industry, excitement started a year ago when Apple hired fitness-industry expert and ACE Pro
Jay Blahnik
as one of the first of many hires specific to health and fitness. After
years spent consulting with Gatorade, Nautilus, Schwinn and Nike,
Blahnik was all in with Apple. In December 2013, Apple met with the Food
and Drug Administration, the U.S. governing arm of the federal
government for all things medical, to discuss mobile medical
applications, likely to ensure that HealthKit would not cross a
regulatory line.
This is exciting news for our industry, so how can
personal trainers and
health coaches
benefit from such technology? Here are three things I will be watching
for in the weeks and months that follow the announcement:
Being Connected. Our world continues to become even
more connected. It is through being connected that trainers and health
coaches can engage with their clients, keeping them on the path to
wellness. Through the new iPhone platform, clients will be able to share
with you integrated insights into their daily lives (activity, sleep,
steps, food, pulse rate, etc.) that wasn’t previously possible. No
longer will you need to guess what your clients did outside of training
or if they took your advice—it will all be there with a click of a
button. How’s that for accountability? New business models for training
and coaching will be developed to take advantage of this technology and
the job of a trainer or coach will no longer be limited to inside the
four physical walls of a gym, opening up new markets not only down the
street but around the world.
Deeper Collaboration. We’ve seen that it takes a
team to make a real difference in the lives of our clients. From trainer
to physician, coach to nutritionist, the power of collaboration, being
in sync and in real time, is one highlight of the new HealthKit. It will
take time for each team member to understand his or her place in the
overall HealthKit matrix, but what is exciting is the possibility of
overall health for our collective clients. More teamwork between
practitioners allows trainers and coaches to stay within their scope of
practice and seek partnerships with others in the healthcare industry.
Proceed with Caution. Apple is late to the game with
regards to fitness tracking, but many expect it to succeed where others
have not. While Jawbone and FitBit do a good job of tracking activity,
many consumers still see wearables as “unstylish” and the buzz of the
wearable soon wears off with a sharp decline in use after just six
months. A device has yet to emerge with enough authority to encourage
mass adoption (not good if you are relying on this data). Apple could
change that perception with their historic strengths in design and new
hires in fashion, which means more people will be more inclined to wear a
device and thus more health data will be collected.
As we share more personal and confidential information across the
cloud, there will be more debate surrounding security and privacy with
this type of information. Apple has taken steps to ensure our privacy,
with requirements that apps using HealthKit not store information on the
cloud and not share information without user consent. Of course, there
will always be a risk when sharing data through the cloud, but does the
benefit of sharing outweigh the concern over privacy? Or vice versa?
Remember, Apple is not the only kid on the block using smartphones
for health. In the US, there are nearly 170 million cellphone users, 70
percent of whom use smartphones. Within the smartphone category, the
iPhone is by far the most popular, with 42 percent of users, followed by
Samsung at 28 percent, 7 percent for LG, 6 percent Motorola and 5
percent for HTC. However, when looking at the operating systems of these
smartphones, Android takes the lead with 52 percent, Apple at 42
percent, and Microsoft, BlackBerry and others making up the remaining 8
percent (ComScore, 2014).
The takeaway? If you only work with Apple, you will be missing out on
58 percent of the population that uses a smartphone other than an
iPhone.
I am a believer in effective uses of technology and am excited about
the Apple announcement, as well as the upcoming announcements from
Microsoft and Google within the health and fitness space. New
technologies and innovations like the iPhone, the Apple
iWatch
and HealthKit are not a magic bullet, but they can be a very powerful
tool that, when properly implemented into trainers’ and coaches’
businesses, can lead to new clients, new revenue streams and new
partnerships. These technologies will never replace a qualified and
certified personal trainer or health coach. After all, clients hire us
for our knowledge and accountability, but they keep us for our
personality and ability to connect with them.
Source : By Ted Vickey Ted Vickey Ted Vickey, M.S., is the Senior Consultant - Fitness Technology for ACE. He’s been an ACE Certified Personal Trainer since 1992
