The Move It smart mini gym could make working out at home a lot easier

[midian182]

Making time for the gym isn’t easy. Sure, you could use home workout videos, but they're just not as good and often can’t reproduce a full range of exercises. There’s always the home multi gym option; assuming you have a massive amount of room and quite a bit of money. But now, a Hong Kong-based startup has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a home gym that’s compact, affordable, and comes with a ton of connected features.

Move It, the all-in-one gym from Eggplant Technologies, has already blasted past its $30,000 target on Indiegogo. With a month still left, current funding stands at $52,783 from 238 backers. Looking at the system, you can see why it’s proving so popular.

When fully assembled, the kit measures around 40cm tall, 38cm wide, 21cm deep and weighs about 5kg (11 pounds), meaning it can inconspicuously sit in the corner of a room when not in use, and you’ll easily be able to carry it to any room in the house.

The system consists of four pieces of exercise equipment: pushup handles, an ab wheel, a resistance band, and a jump rope, allowing for a good combination of cardiovascular and resistance exercises.

The ‘smart’ part of Move It are the interchangeable handles that plug into each piece of equipment. These feature gyroscopes, pressure sensors, Bluetooth, and infrared sensors that can detect not only which part of Move It you’re using, but also the type of exercise being performed, such as wide or narrow grip pushups.

All the information feeds back to the app, which provides feedback on form, calories, burned, and number of reps performed. It can also recommend different live and pre-recorded workouts to follow along to. These vary in difficulty, but the app will pick ones based on how it rates a user’s abilities.

One of the system’s most interesting elements looks to be its social features. For many people, the solidarity that comes with working out at home can put them off the idea of exercise, but the Move It app can help with this problem. With it, you’re able to see which of your friends have worked out, and the app challenges you to outperform them within a set time limit. "You can be ranked on a leaderboard with them, and you can poke your friends and set them goals too," said Ivan Ho, Move It's CEO and co-founder.

Move It seems to hit that sweet spot of providing enough exercise options for a full workout session while not being bulky or too pricey. The fact that it makes exercising at home pretty enjoyable and the connectivity features are more than just gimmicks is a big plus, too.

Move It is available to preorder for $169 on Indiegogo right now, with an estimated shipping date of August. If you wait until it hits the market, expect to pay $229.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/64446-move-smart-mini-gym-could-make-working-out.html

 

[davislane1]

Do you even lift, bro?

 

[sac39507]

Lame. The only way to make it easier to work out at home is to have it done for you. This will be just another clothes hanger piece

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Lame. The only way to make it easier to work out at home is to have it done for you. This will be just another clothes hanger piece

No.... I think it could work. Yes, it's a glorified jump rope, push up, and ab roller, but it's also pretty cheap and it tracks your progress. Home gyms are really expensive. Even a gym membership can be $30 - $50/month. And none of them can graph out your results to compete with your friends.

Don't under-estimate the competition thing with tracking your activity. I've seen plenty of people change their daily behavior to beat their friends in step-count thanks to the FitBit on their wrist.

I think this will work.

 

[Greg S]

Really cool idea for connected devices.

 

[davislane1]

Lame. The only way to make it easier to work out at home is to have it done for you. This will be just another clothes hanger piece

No.... I think it could work. Yes, it's a glorified jump rope, push up, and ab roller, but it's also pretty cheap and it tracks your progress. Home gyms are really expensive. Even a gym membership can be $30 - $50/month. And none of them can graph out your results to compete with your friends.

Don't under-estimate the competition thing with tracking your activity. I've seen plenty of people change their daily behavior to beat their friends in step-count thanks to the FitBit on their wrist.

I think this will work.

It may work financially, but this will be a 1-month purchase, just like most gym memberships (profitable for the provider, a waste for the consumer).

The problem is the competition, tracking, etc. and the unit itself are all novelty. Most people are simply not committed to getting into shape and selling them some product that supposedly makes that easier and more fun isn't going to change that.

While your fitbit example makes sense at face value, the simple fact is that accumulating steps is effortless. The activities here actually require work and committment–the number one reason more people aren't in shape. Competing with friends to walk more is comfortable. Trying to best Johnny's 157 rep set of pushups is very not comfortable. Ergo, so many fluffy citizens who find it "hard to make time for the gym" but relatively easy to find 2-3hrs every day for TV and video games.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

It may work financially, but this will be a 1-month purchase, just like most gym memberships (profitable for the provider, a waste for the consumer).

The problem is the competition, tracking, etc. and the unit itself are all novelty. Most people are simply not committed to getting into shape and selling them some product that supposedly makes that easier and more fun isn't going to change that.

While your fitbit example makes sense at face value, the simple fact is that accumulating steps is effortless. The activities here actually require work and committment–the number one reason more people aren't in shape. Competing with friends to walk more is comfortable. Trying to best Johnny's 157 rep set of pushups is very not comfortable. Ergo, so many fluffy citizens who find it "hard to make time for the gym" but relatively easy to find 2-3hrs every day for TV and video games.

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa....are you suggesting Americans are lazy?

You're right... if you're obese this isn't going to solve your problems. You probably need a personal trainer for some real motivation. But there are plenty of people who workout regularly. I imagine people who buy this will be those who already have gym memberships and use them. You could even take this thing with you to the gym and use it there. And I imagine personal trainers will be buying them for using with their clients too.

They could expand their product to offer a heart monitor or an ankle chip to record running/biking.

They may need a different color than Barney purple though...

 

[davislane1]

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa....are you suggesting Americans are lazy?

Naturally.

But there are plenty of people who workout regularly.

I'm one of those people and I can tell you right off the bat that this device isn't going to be in anyone's gym bag. It's too complicated to setup and its primary functions are entirely redundant inside a gym.

For example, why do I need a specual pushup device (that I have to take apart and assemble) when I have immediate access to 10+ benches and 5 smith machines? Not to mention, the floor. Why would I need a fancy cable gizmo when I have immediate access to 6+ fully adjustable cable machines? Etc.

Even the stat tracking isn't unqiue because the tracking + social functionality is a part of many popular fitness apps.

In order to get real results (for an otherwise healthy non-obsese adult) you have to train hard and eat consistently. Most people are not willing to do that (though, they'll talk about it all day long). They are enthusiastic and motivated for the first week and then the high wears off and they quit once they realize building and maintaining their desired body comes with the same set of requirements as a part-time job.

I'm not trying to bash the product or the people. Experience is simply telling me that this product is a short-lived impulse purchase for 99.9% of its buyers.

 

[wiyosaya]

I'm not trying to bash the product or the people. Experience is simply telling me that this product is a short-lived impulse purchase for 99.9% of its buyers.

I have to agree. This seems targeted at the person who knows that they need to work out, yet is unwilling to take on that part-time job. While it might be an improvement from what they are doing now, I see it as limited in its usefulness.

I joined a gym about 18 months ago after years of moderate hiking several times a week. I thought that the hiking was keeping me in good shape. All I can say is that the past 18-months have been a challenge mostly because I discovered that I was not in as good of shape as I thought I was when I joined the gym. The gym gives me a regular workout routine and updates it on a quarterly basis. They actually have a monitor that can be worn while working out and then the data can be used to track progress. Personally, I don't use it. However, from my point of view, anyone who is working out to compete to be in better shape than someone else will lose interest; exercising, as I see it, has to be for one's own benefit without regard to the condition of others. That said, for even the beginner's workout that the gym gave me when I first started, this "home gym" would not give me the same level of workout.

Diet is whole different level, too. I'm a insulin dependent type 2 diabetic, and I go to what some might call extremes - I weigh virtually everything to the gram and carb count. I would have to say that many diabetics that I have encountered want to pretend they are normal, but after having done that myself, my experience is that it simply does not work. I won't even comment on the obese component of the US population.

As I see it, this is only something that might bring those who buy it to the starter level, but I would speculate that when the majority of people who might buy this thing get it and use it for 30-days or so, it will sit in their closets forever more.