Back in March, when COVID-19 forced gyms to close their doors, we all quickly realized that wherever you lay your mat is the “gym.”. According to the media analytics firm Comscore, “March of 2020 saw a 147% increase over the prior year in on-demand fitness video consumption.” In June, YouTube announced that in the three months since March 15th, daily views of videos with “home workout” in the title rose 515%.”

These trends are expected to continue in 2021 as we continue to adapt and adjust to the new normal. This newfound appreciation for sweating at home will only become more entrenched in our daily lives as the year progresses.

Here are some fitness trends to watch in 2021…

• Online Fitness Classes Are Here to Stay!

Before the pandemic, we associated exercise with “going to the gym.” As we’ve changed our habits, digital workouts have become the norm, and this will continue in 2021. Brands are embracing an approach that gives users access to a variety of workouts, including live-streaming classes and on-demand libraries.

Companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon are developing their own offerings. Apple Fitness+, launching in 2021, will offer workout recommendations based on the intensity of your last workout. Matrix Fitness has partnered with Apple to connect the Apple watch to their treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes.

• Focus on Restorative Fitness

The self-care/mental health trend has been brought home by the sky-high stress levels of 2020. Restorative fitness like yoga, pilates, meditation, and stretching made it into the top ten for 2020. In 2021, expect the trend to continue as we all deal with managing ongoing pandemic stress!

• Wearable Technology

Wearable technology consists of smartwatches and fitness trackers and includes devices like heart rate monitors and GPS trackers like those used in cycling. Their accuracy and capabilities have expanded. Some even offer AI fitness solutions; others use VR games to promote fitness. The wearables trend is growing and is expected to be a top trend in 2021.

Digital / In-Person Hybrid

While digital workouts and classes are here to stay, it doesn’t mean “in-person” classes are obsolete. A recent survey of professionals found that 92% hope to return to the gym in 2021. Forty percent of respondents are planning on returning exclusively back to in-studio workouts when they feel it’s safe.

• Interactive Home Machines

Whether it’s strength training or cardio, we’re adding workout machines to our home gyms and dedicated workout rooms. Companies like Matrix are creating large-screen consoles for their treadmills, ClimbMills, and ellipticals that allow users to stream and view live entertainment, browse social media, and race through virtual mountain trails while working out.

• Well Equipped Home Gyms

The market for home gym accessories will continue to grow in 2021. Whether it’s dedicated machines for cardio and strength training, all-in-one gym units, or flooring and storage trees and racks, the market for home fitness items and accessories will grow in 2021.

Physical fitness is vital to our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Digital technology has helped us through the pandemic, but it can’t completely fill the void of connecting and exercising with friends and instructors in the gym.

As we work through the challenges of the pandemic, we’ll begin to see the growth of this new “hybrid” community of both in-person and digital offerings. We’re entering a phase where we will each decide what works best for us, and as a result, the companies and brands that will survive will seamlessly serve the client who craves the community that an in-person class offers but still needs to take online classes as well.

For more information about the trends of fitness in 2021, contact an Opti-Fit fitness professional.

Opti-Fit Fitness Solutions today announced the opening of its new, comprehensive, and versatile home gym fitness store. You can now find some of the latest fitness machines at the Opti-Fit home gym shop, including treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes. Opti-Fit will carry gym equipment from Matrix, Hoist Fitness, Intek and more.

Their designs are well-recognized around the world for their dynamic performance, high durability, and superb comfort. Matrix’s new equipment can fit in any fitness facility space and help your customers find solutions to their specific needs.

The pieces of equipment from Matrix have a refined industrial design that will give your home gym a premium aesthetic feel. They undergo thorough tests against the highest international standards on their ability to withstand long term use for several years. The pieces of equipment from Matrix are ideal for home gyms, local housing fitness centers, small hotels, and similar facilities.

The new cardio equipment feature touch screen interfaces that give the users control to the data the machine collects and content that can engage them during exercise.

The Opti-Fit home gym store will also include the home gyms from Hoist Fitness that require minimal space to install. The home gyms provide a great option to users that may not have enough room in their homes or facilities.

Moreover, users benefit from a free fitness app designed by both Matrix and Hoist Fitness systems with numerous strength training workouts. The exercises are divided into programs for beginners, intermediate, as well as advanced athletes. They have animated step by step instructions with both photos and videos. It also allows users to track their body measurements and routines.

About Opti-Fit Fitness Solutions

Opti-Fit is a commercial fitness company that provides dedicated and comprehensive fitness solutions to anyone interested in setting up their fitness facility. The company offers services that range from consultation to design and installation.

Opti-Fit Fitness Solutions can help exercisers personalize their fitness experience by ensuring that they use only top-of-the-line brands. Users acquiring their home gym equipment from Opti-Fit can benefit from quality machines, innovative planning, and competitive pricing.

For more information about the Opti-Fit home gym store, kindly reach us via Tel: 888-601-4350 or visit our website and contact your sales representative from the Team page

Do you shy away from signing up at your local gym due to Covid 19? Well, if you love to exercise, why not create a similar experience right in your home? A simple home gym with some work out equipment is all you need to keep yourself in shape. Not only can it help you save money, but you will not have to skip any workout routine.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to invest too much money in a home gym. You also do not need to purchase sophisticated equipment or expensive machinery. All you need to find is a small space where you can set up your private gym.  Here are some small workout room ideas that can help you get started.

Create Space in Your Garage

Can you afford to give up your garage or a small part of it? If so, you can convert the space into a workout room. A regular home gym should take up only about 10 x 6 ft. You can create space by making a few rearrangements and moving any extra supplies to a different storage unit.

Once done, remember to place some gym flooring to increase the level of comfort.

Set Aside your Basement or Attic

If your living situation disqualifies a garage as an option for home workout room ideas, you can find any other available space such as an unused basement or attic.

If the space is big enough, you can convert it into both an adult workout area and a kid’s playroom. By doing so, you can get a place to build your cardio while watching your kids.

Use a Corner of Your Room

If you live in an apartment, space may be hard to come by. However, when you rearrange or reposition your furniture, you can probably create enough space in one corner of your room.

Better yet, it can be a bonus if the space is right in front of a window that offers a lovely view. However, you should pay close attention to the flooring to prevent damage from heavy equipment such as dumbbells.

Avoid Treadmills and Invest in a Power Rack

Despite their effectiveness, treadmills are too big and expensive to fit into the average small workout rooms. However, you can reap the same benefits from a more traditional alternative that does not consume much space; power rack or squat rack.

During workouts, you only require a small space to use it.

Use Vertical Storage

When you are out of space, vertical storage or wall-mounted shelves provide you with the perfect place to store your workout equipment right after you finish exercising. Since you do not have too much space in your room, you may also use it to keep your mats, towels, and water bottles.

Acquire a Compact Home Gym Setup

You may consider investing in a compact gym setup if you do not have enough space. Depending on the available space, you can opt to get one that you can quickly fold once you finish exercising and put it away once done, or you can get one that you can leave when set up and ready to use.

Summing up

There is plenty of comfort in being able to exercise from the privacy of your own home and at your convenience. Your workout zone size does not matter too since there are plenty of exercise plans that you can perform without almost any equipment. Therefore, if you love to exercise, the above workout room ideas can set you in the right direction of what you need to set up your private home gym.  Contact your local Opti-fit fitness professional for your home gym design.

Getting The Most From Every Workout

Did you know custom dumbbells can be customized to match your particular physical preferences in regards to workout, maximizing the results you get out from what you put in.  Each workout you do will hone, tone, and maximize your muscle; and the sky is the limit on how far you can push yourself.

Key Advantages Of Dumbbell And Weight Plate Workouts

For those unfamiliar with dumbbell training in general, it’s worth noting key benefits of the practice include muscle activation, increased stabilization, strength imbalance identification and elimination, increased safety through expanded musculature, a broad variety of exercise options to expand workout scope, an expanded range of motion, and greater freedom of movement.

Naturally, customized dumbbells allow you to achieve these results in a way that directly benefits you, and can be conformed to your particular physiognomy. Plus, athletic toning incorporating dumbbells has an appearance of strength to it that positions a person as exceptionally strong in the eyes of onlookers; so there’s even a collateral bonus.

Similarly, weight plates allow for a high degree of customization, muscular stabilization, and individualized exercises. Many use weight plates taken from the bench press in the gym; but there are options for customization here as well that can more efficiently match your particular workout.

Customized Exercise Equipment

Now some brands don’t allow you to customize weight plates or dumbbells. Though their products are worthwhile, there’s only so much that can be done with them. However, the following brands can be optimized to fit your needs precisely:

Custom Dumbbells Through Opti-Fit

Customized dumbbells from these brands can take your workout regimen to the next level, allowing you to achieve breakthroughs you may not have realized were possible. Opti-Fit offers custom dumbbells which allow you to take such close control over your athletic development.

Contact us to get a better idea what’s available, in-depth advantages of our products, and how best to optimize your performance with every workout.

outdoor gymCOVID has spawned one thing consistently in 2020 — and that’s the creativity of business owners in meeting rapidly changing regulations and consumer demand. One of those changing areas has been the advent of the “outdoor gym.” To be clear, outdoor exercise equipment has existed for a long time, but people in rainier climates like San Francisco often avoided it due to moisture, while people in hot dry climates like Las Vegas avoided outdoor exercise due to heat.

Now that indoor gyms are mostly closed, outdoor workouts are the latest fad. To capitalize on this you’ll need to understand the latest design options when creating your outside gyms and classes during COVID 19.

Designing your Unique Outdoor Gym

Go beyond simple product selection with a master plan. Professional gym design services can help you understand not only the best equipment for outdoors but also the best equipment for your physical space. Learn about how to set up not just 6ft apart, but with room to use your equipment correctly.

Experienced consultants will help inspect your area, incorporating square footage, lighting, budget, and much more into your initial estimate. During planning you’ll talk about the service your guests need. Will you focus more on cardio or strength training? Is your facility designed for families or singles? You’ll work to create a safe traffic flow and visibility for any instructors.

Before your build is finalized, it’s time to visualize in the design phase. Using advanced computer rendering you can picture your outdoor gym before it’s built. Your plan will be ready down to the length of cord needed to plug in that treadmill.

Understanding your Local Regulations

outdoor gymExperienced professionals will be up to date on the local laws and regulations of where they sell, but it never hurts to review in these fast-changing times. Consider if you would prefer spaced out machines or if you are willing to shut down equipment that sits too close together for current pandemic measures. You might want to set up your gym to accommodate reservations to work out instead of having open entry. Do you have space for sanitizing stations and disposable masks, additional airflow and ventilation, and full cleaning between users?

It’s a lot of information to take in when planning, which is why expert support is so important right now. Outdoor gyms are going to be important to the fitness industry for a long time to come, and now is the time to get started.

Contact the fitness equipment professionals at Opti-fit to learn more.

Expand your at-home-fitness routine by adding one of the Prism Fitness Smart bundles now available at opti-fit.com>products>bundlepackages. With six different options to choose from, each bundle includes the tools you need to expand your strength, flexibility, and mobility conveniently in your own home. They are a good all-in-one fitness option or as an addition to your existing at-home gym.

FITBENCH® believes in superior quality fitness tools reinvented to make training more efficient. It’s where function meets fitness. Leading the industry with its neatly designed structure, the FITBENCH comes in three different models to choose from…the ONESTUDIO, and FLEX models.  Each offers various pieces of functional fitness equipment, 360-degree movement, and locking wheel.

At Opti-Fit, we are a proud distributor of Matrix Fitness equipment.  They offer diverse and comprehensive lines of strength, cardio, group training, and fitness accessories equipment.  Here, you’ll find their complete line of Strength equipment and all specifications. For assistance with selecting the appropriate equipment, please Contact Us at Opti-Fit to determine the equipment that’s right for you.

Gyms, fitness centers, and health clubs have varieties of cardio, free weights, and weight-training equipment to enable users to pursue their fitness goals. However, in the wake of the recent coronavirus pandemic, people can no longer visit these fitness facilities.

Home gyms are now a go-to option for people who want to remain fit. Setting up a home gym seems expensive for many people, but it’s not entirely true; it all depends on your particular fitness goals and preferred exercises. Here are some viable home gym solutions:

Buying Fitness Equipment

Your fitness routines and preferences should help you choose the ideal gym equipment. For some, it would help to look for manufacturers offering all-in-one fitness gym bundles. The packages comprise readymade solutions for a home gym, ranging in price. Bundles allow you to make a single purchase and get access to many different pieces of equipment and exercise options.

If a bundle package isn’t right for you, here are some additional home gym equipment options to consider:

  1. Gym Equipment for Cardio Exercises

If cardio is your primary fitness source, you may consider an investment in a single piece of equipment such as a treadmill, elliptical, spin cycle, stairclimber, etc.   Treadmills are often a popular choice. With a treadmill, you can perform basic cardio workouts like jogging, running, or walking, but if you’re looking for high-intensity interval training equipment, consider a piece of speciality cardio equipment that could be  more effective for you.

For those that prefer step-based exercises, there are many options available.  Climbmills, stairsteppers, and vertical climbers can occupy minimal space and are suitable for HIIT workouts or other aerobic conditioning. Mix in some jump ropes, resistant bands, and a yoga mat to increase variety to your cardio regimen.

  1. Strength Training Equipment

Your home gym is not complete without strength training equipment. Strength training exercises target specific muscle groups to improve muscular fitness. Many prefer free weights and equipment like the barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls, and kettlebells – all available in different sizes, shapes, and weights. Others prefer weight machines such as functional trainers, multi-station units, or selectorized equipment.  Whichever your preference, including strength training equipment to your home gym can round out any fitness routine.

Leverage At-Home Workout Videos and Apps

Looking for prescribed workouts or a fitness professional to help guide you through?  There are more free workout apps and videos available than ever. Prerecorded instructor videos can last from 5-45 minutes, and provide a full workout session for many home fitness routines. These apps and videos help you perform a range of exercises, including high-intensity interval training, boxing, barre, pilates exercises, etc.

In today’s environment, set up a gym at home by looking for compact exercise equipment that is easy to use and store. And, select an instructional workout video or app that suits your particular workout style.

Commercial fitness facilities are becoming more high tech in an attempt to improve the user experience and meet the demands of more tech savvy clients. By adding new technology solutions and benefits, facility owners are hoping to increase new client acquisition and retention. From the user’s perspective, many professional clients like the fact that they have easy access to their work or to media outlets so they can get a start on or finish their day without deviating from their regular routines. Other clients simply enjoy the improved user interfaces and staying current on social sites.

User-Friendly Consoles

User-friendly consoles not only offer charging ports, they also provide clients with an option to record their workouts through Bluetooth connection or Wi-Fi. This allows the user to keep track of their progress and save the information on their phone, laptop, or other electronic device. In return, for all the benefits these state-of-the-art consoles offer clients, they also provide the gym owner with an accurate record of how often the equipment is used and when specific components may need to be replaced or repaired.

Wi-Fi Access

Commercial fitness facilities offer Wi-Fi access to their regular members, so they are able to connect with fitness or music/media programs on their phone while they are working out. This also allows the user to connect with the machines they are using and share data. If a client has a specific workout recorded or saved on their phone, it can be sent to the machine they are using. Data is easily passed back and forth so the client has an accurate record of their performance.

RFID Access

Radio-frequency identification is also being used to identify users as they enter and leave the facility. This makes a 24-hour facility much easier to manage and safer for the clients who prefer to use the gym after normal business hours. Convenience is key and keeps payroll under control so that the facility does not require 24-hour staffing.

Charging Capabilities

By having charging stations close or on  the fitness equipment, clients can use their wireless headsets or earbuds and connect with the machines they are using without having to keep their phones on them. They can plug in their phone and go on with their workout without having to worry about dropping their phone or letting the battery go dead.  Many pieces of equipment now offer wireless charging capabilities as well.

Electronic Training Programs

Clients can choose from electronic training programs that have been designed specifically for them by a personal trainer or they can choose from an online program they like. Using electronic programs reduces the need for having a personal trainer on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Personal trainers can record training programs using a video or audio format, depending on the preference of the client. This allows them to work out when it is most convenient for them and forcing the trainer to meet their scheduling demands. Additionally, many manufacturers include technology that’s suited for group training classes and can give the instructor visual queues of client performance to aid in coaching effectiveness.

Video Tutorials for Strength and Cardio Training

For individuals who are not familiar with specific cardio or strength training exercises, a video tutorial can be used to teach them the proper mechanics of an exercise to ensure the user is doing it properly. Tutorials can be used for almost any type of activity when it comes to exercise and fitness. A video can be set up to teach an entire class if the students already have a good understanding of what exercises or forms are going to be used in the video.

By upgrading to a more technologically-advanced facility, commercial fitness centers can meet the needs of their clients while still meeting their bottom line. Providing user-friendly tools in an electronically-supported environment is a win-win for everyone involved.