Roger Fingas
Apple's director of Fitness and Health technologies, Jay Blahnik, was on hand in Sydney this week to showcase the first gym equipped for GymKit, a technology introduced alongside watchOS 4.1.
The gym is operated by Fitness First, a global chain currently deploying GymKit-ready machines in both Sydney and Melbourne. In a demonstration for 9News, a woman paired her Apple Watch with an NFC reader on a treadmill, which triggered a prompt on her Watch to start her workout.
GymKit performs two-way sync of data such as distance, speed, floors climbed, incline, and estimated calories burned. This enables more precise tracking of workouts, though the technology is currently limited to cardio equipment — namely treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, and stair-steppers. Manufacturers Life Fitness, Matrix, StairMaster, Schwinn, and TechnoGym have promised support.
Machines can also show Watch data such as heart rate on their displays, which may be more convenient during an intense session.
Once a workout is over, all data is saved to the Watch before the gym equipment resets.
watchOS 4.1 was released at the end of October, and primarily introduced support for streaming Apple Music and online radio stations without an iPhone.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Sponsored Content
7 Comments
This would indeed be useful! Although I run outdoors mostly, I can still see this being useful for folks who do indoors cardio.
This is awesome. I do outdoor cycling mostly but planning of getting a stationary bike for the wifey. It would be really nice if there is one that will be compatible with the AppleWatch. :*
Interested to know if gym kit is compatible with iFit enabled machines. Pretty similar function.
Edit: hmm: looking at a channel nine feature it needs an NFC reader attachment to the equipment, looks retrofitted although others it looks an integrated feature in the equipment.
I was a member of Fitness First, but after I didn't go there for a while, I dropped the membership. Despite their near-global reputation for being difficult to quit, I had no trouble, but I was disconcerted that if my credit card authorisation expired, they wouldn't let me use the gym until I renewed it, yet letting it expire didn't stop them taking the money every fortnight. If I were in the market for a gym at the moment, I'd be more inclined to go to one of the 24 hour ones nearby, since sticking to normal hours is too inconvenient.
Another thing I know about Fitness First is that they love a publicity stunt, so I'm not surprised they jumped on GymKit so early. Also got to love Channel 9 for sending their one journalist in a suit. I've seen plenty of their reporters in much more casual gear, as warranted by the story, but the announcement of a gym fitout, they send the guy in the suit.