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Work(out) from home: Pandemic fuels online exercise boom
Home workout gear and services have boomed during the pandemic as at-home athletes seek a proxy for gym life.
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An attendee uses a Liteboxer interactive boxing home workout during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 7, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AFP/Patrick T. Fallon)
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nteractive comment sections and virtual reality headsets: internet-connected fitness gear and services have boomed during the pandemic as at-home athletes seek a proxy for gym life.
While home workouts long predate the coronavirus, they have taken on a social aspect that looks set to become the standard in a world reshaped by the pandemic.
"A big part of going to the gym together is sort of suffering together... you build a camaraderie around that," Jeremy Needham, who does customer education for US boxing fitness company Liteboxer, told AFP at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
"And now that we don't share that space, at least in real time, we have to do it virtually," he added.
Like other companies that sell internet-connected fitness gear, Liteboxer offers customers access to workouts, competitions and other features for a monthly charge -- on top of the roughly $1,200 wall-mounted machine.
The market for fitness tech has been growing for years, but the industry has gotten a boost in the last couple of years, similarly to how the pandemic accelerated e-commerce and remote working trends.
"Connected equipment exploded onto the scene in a big way as consumers had to shift the way to work out during the pandemic," CES organizer Consumer Technology Association (CTA) noted in an industry forecast.
