Heart Zones System Helps Fitness Clubs Drive New Membership with Smart Data and Wearable Technology

The Heart Zones System for fitness and health clubs uses wearable technology, smart tracking and data displays to increase members' motivation and make training more efficient.

The Heart Zones System, an innovative system developed to motivate and encourage gym goers to understand and improve their fitness level, uses wearable sensors, smart data acquisition, display and analysis to provide users with insights into their training sessions and to help fitness instructors understand their members' needs and create personalized training programs to get better results.

The wearable sensor, the Blink Armband, captures members' heart rate without a chest strap and can also measure steps, while the Big Board collects and displays all members' data using the Heart Zones PE App for the iPad. The Heart Zones Training App, a standalone application available with the system, allows members and instructors to see the training data on their iPhone or iPod.

Heart Zones offers members data in real time and uses the Heart Zones methodology to deliver results. The methodology is based on using several zones for different levels of intensity to ensure members make the most of their training sessions. Workouts in each zone come with different physiological benefits. The zones are displayed in different colours to help members visualize their efforts and be able to switch between different zones for maximum impact while following instructions. The zoning methodology can be used in different types of training, including interval training, indoor cycling, and cross training.

The training sessions can be conducted using three or five zones. Workouts with five zones, ranging from easy to hard, are based on threshold training, a methodology that uses zoning for more serious training, with two thresholds that can be individualized to each member. The low threshold marks the first shift in the breathing pattern and acoustics, while the high one marks the point between sustainable and non-sustainable training intensity. The thresholds are used to assess changes in fitness and to anchor the training zones. In addition to these two training methods, the Heart Zones System offers a popular and widely used method based on the user's maximum heart rate.

For extra motivation, the system uses the Heart Zones Training points, which level the playing field for all members, regardless of their fitness level. The points are there primarily to help build members' confidence and give them a sense of accomplishment.

After each fitness class, the Heart Zones System also automatically sends a report to instructors' and members' email addresses, allowing instructors to create personalized fitness plans and members to see their results and the progress they have made over time.