I truly believe there are 2 types of people in this world – the first one who workout diligently and let nothing stand in the way of their ritual. And then there’s the other type (guilty to say I am a part of this) who let everything be an excuse to not work out! Its time we approach our procrastination head-on and get working on getting fit since we have a pandemic to survive. The collection showcased here includes AI-assisted home gyms (this personal trainer is not going anywhere), home-fitness and trainer that double up as a mirror when not in use (keep the world guessing about the secret behind our new fitter body) and even traditional gym equipment but revived to be modern so that it won’t clash with your existing interior. Now we truly have no excuse to procrastinate, do we?
Yves Behar’s Forme is the 2020 version of the magic mirror that will make you come out of this quarantine fitter than before. Get in Forme-ation! Forme is a 6 feet tall smart mirror that doubles up as a home fitness trainer and machine. “We wanted to make a fitness machine that’s fully integrated into the home without it being an eyesore,” says Béhar. While similar machines in the market are offering cardio or yoga, with Forme you also get weight lifting, aerobics, and functional training on top of the usual programs. When not in use, the machine’s arms slide back and it turns into an elegant mirror for your home. The instructors are thoroughly vetted and you can track your progress by syncing it with your smart devices. Forme takes care of our body and our mind – that should be our focus for these complex times.
Inspired by their namesake, the Matryoshka Dumbells additional weight can be added to these dumbells by nesting the weights together. Designed by 7 nepo, these innovative fitness free weights take inspiration from an unlikely, surprising source – matryoshka Russian nesting dolls! Like the doll-in-doll system, additional weight can be added by nesting the weights together. With a quick snap-in/snap-out mechanism, you can transition from light to heavy in seconds to accommodate your workout routine without interruption. When you’re finished lifting and want to squeeze in some cardio, the handles double as a jump rope by connecting an included cord.
The Tempo Studio is a gym-set that comes complete with a display and a motion-tracking camera that actively scans and monitors your exercise in 3D. With built-in exercise routines that are guided by expert trainers performing live exercise sessions, the Tempo is the equivalent of going on a Zoom video call with your gym trainer. Hop onto a personalized live session with a gym trainer of your choice and the trainer on the other side of the screen guides you through your workout.
Introducing the world’s most portable fitness device. Monkii bars 2 is a gym by Dan Vinson and David Hunt you can take anywhere! Paired with the app it’s more than just fitness equipment – it’s your own private gym, personal trainer, and adventure guide built into one. Simply set up in less than a minute by hanging the device from any support structure – like a tree, swing-set, basketball goal, or even the door at home or the hotel. Then get a full-body workout targeting your upper body, core, and legs through hundreds of exercises and workouts.
Designed as a product to let you work and work out at the same time, Brian Oak’s crazy hybrid of a desk-chair and treadmill – named Fitwork, keeps your legs active while you work. Whether you’re sitting in front of a laptop or standing in front of one, it’s the sedentary lifestyle that Fitwork tackles. The setup (which is sure to grab a few eyeballs) comes with an office chair attached to a treadmill underneath, and an elliptical in front. Coupled with an elevating desk, the Fitwork allows you to keep the lower half of your body active while you work, giving you cardio as well as keeping your spine engaged, whether you’re sitting or standing while working.
Habit Furniture is a coffee table/bench that inverts to turn into a workout bench so your fitness equipment does not utilize all your space. Created by Designer Glory Tam and Doctor Albert Au, Habit lets you see and remember your priority of working out with ease by staying in front of you. Whoever said home gyms are bulky!
Mental workout is as important as a physical workout. Wanting to design a seat that guides you into sitting cross-legged, Gao Fenglin’s Meditation Seat can only be sat on in a certain way, directing the user’s behavior and encouraging a seating position that keeps your back upright, and your legs folded inward. The cross-legged position finds itself dating thousands of years back in Oriental and Indian cultures. Used often for meditation as well as for eating, the posture is said to increase blood circulation and joint flexibility, while strengthening bones, and keeping your back upright. It also aids digestion.
Recognizing that most people don’t have the space for gym equipment in their home, or the money for a gym membership, or even the willpower to head to the gym every day, Josh Hume embarked on a journey to bring the gym to the household. The catch? It had to be the smallest, most exhaustive (and exhausting!) gym ever made. After multiple iterations, the FITT Cube was born. With its 450mm edge dimension, the FITT Cube occupies as much space as a footstool and comes with a mini-stepper (with its own seven-segment LCD display), a rotating seat, gripping handles, a plyometric platform, and even resistance bands. The FITT cube also comes with a user guide, exercise chart, and a nutrition guide to keep you on top of your fitness game. Arranged in their optimized formation, the FITT can be flipped over to any side and used to work out on, be it anything from stepping exercises, to twisting exercises, to push-ups or lifts, to even plyometric workouts… the FITT was designed to cater to all.
There’s probably a sizable overlap in the Venn Diagram that shows the intersection between Star Wars fans and Fitness Freaks. Onnit’s range of Star Wars-inspired exercise gear couldn’t be more ideal for that audience. Take for instance the kettlebells that come in rather realistic sculpted cast-iron, modeled using the heads of Darth Vader, The Imperial Stormtrooper, and Boba Fett. The idea behind using masked characters for the kettlebells not only makes for easier molding (imagine how annoyingly detailed a Chewbacca kettlebell would need to be), but also lends a certain gravitas and badass nature to the weights. The kettlebells also weigh in an increasing order of importance, with Boba Fett weighing in at 50 pounds, to the Stormtrooper being 60 pounds, and mister Vader weighing 70 pounds.
If you wish to monitor the effects of your workout, the Circular Smart Ring by Amaury Kosman retains an impressive amount of functionality in a ridiculously small form. It does so, mostly by shifting a lot of the load to your smartphone. The Circular Smart Ring connects to your phone via Bluetooth, giving you all your data in a neatly collated dashboard. During the day, the ring captures your activity, blood oxygen levels, energy levels, calorie burn count, among other metrics, while at night, the ring ambiently tracks your circadian rhythm and records your sleep quality, heart-rate variability, sleep disturbances, REM cycles, and sleep and wake times. Using pretty state-of-the-art data processing and machine-learning technology, the ring, its app, and the app’s assistant Kira help you collectively better understand your health and give you bespoke advice on how to improve it.
And if you plan to return to your old gym, wait till they install sanitizing methods like this award-winning self-sanitizing door handle design!
Students Sum Ming Wong and Kin Pong Li were inspired by the SARS outbreak in the 2000s and figured that a self-sanitizing door handle is more effective than the chemical-based cleaning processes we are using right now. The handle is made of a glass tube with aluminum caps at each end and the entire handle is covered in a powdered photocatalytic coating made from a mineral called titanium dioxide. The bacteria is decomposed through a chemical reaction that is activated by UV light reacting with the thin coating on the glass tube. Powered by an internal generator, the handle converts kinetic energy from the opening/closing motion of the door into light energy and that is how the UV light is always doing its job. This germ-killing product actually destroyed 99.8% of the microbes during lab tests and that is more than what Thanos did with his infinity stones.
We know it’s so much easier to be lazy when no one is watching you, but instead of watching the news and stress-eating our way to another illness, let’s utilize this opportunity to at least start working out! They say the first 21 days are the hardest – well, let’s get done with those difficult days so, by the time we step outside to workout, we will be in a better position than we are now!
