Well Fiit | The Future of Home Workouts
As lockdown starts to lift and gyms reopen their doors, we speak to Sammi Adhami, the COO & Co-founder of leading fitness app Fiit, to find out what he thinks the future holds for home workouts. Here at Well Curated we think the success of Fiit lies in their recruitment of some of the best trainers in the industry. From Yoga with Cat Meffan to HIIT with Adrienne Herbert, there are seriously well known names serving up their expertise in world-class classes. Add to that the fact it has become habitual to workout at home, and we’re sure apps like Fiit will hold their place in the health & wellbeing market.
Lockdown has seen a huge shift in the way we consume fitness, do you think the future of home workouts is sustainable?
It is ultimately the future, except the future is already here. This is like the Blockbuster & Netflix moment or the shift to online retail, Uber is never going away. This is the same, home workouts are here to stay and in a big way. Convenience was one of the two key pillars when we thought about the issues of going to the gym, any barriers such as travel time, the weather, kids being sick, working late they all impact your ability to make it to the gym but if you are at home you can always do it no matter what. People are always going to want to go to the gym and interact, but this recent survey says it all from The New Consumer, Coefficient Capital – (82% have tried home fitness, 81% prefer home fitness to the gym, 59% won’t go back to the gym).
Being a fan of the spin studio and hot yoga classes we struggle to enjoy working out in our living rooms, what exercise equipment have you invested in to enhance your home workouts?
I have a few sets of dumbbells, a kettlebell and a workout mat, about £300 worth. The number of people who have invested in treadmills, spin bikes and rowers for the home is huge in the last year, I think more and more people are going to be using connected equipment at home. You could also turn your heating up a lot for the yoga!
With access to unlimited classes and an addictive live leaderboard how do you maintain a healthy relationship with exercise? Is this something you try to communicate with your users?
Fiit is ultimately about finding what is right for you and to balance out your weeks and months. We have the most exciting and challenging HIIT classes that push you harder than you thought possible all with amazing music and energy from the incredible trainers, but we also have 100’s of classes to support balanced training. We have yoga, pilates, barre, runners stretching, breathwork, warm up, cool downs and mobility. There is everything you need for a balanced relationship with exercise.
Cross training improves fitness and prevents injury, what are your go to classes across your range of cardio, strength and rebalance?
I am a big runner and since starting Fiit I have had very few injuries due to mixing it up all the time. I love our Titan classes which are HIIT with dumbbells and nonstop cardio, these are tough! Our Push Pull strength class series with Gus and for recovery Yoga with Chris, Mobility with Richie and Runners Stretching with Adrienne. I also tried Barre for the first time since we launched it, this is harder than you think!
How important is exercise for managing your mood? Or do you use other methods to escape/switch off?
Exercise is habitual for me now, I have always been into sport and training but since I launched Fiit I have been doing more and it is now strange if I don’t exercise each day, but, and it is a big but, it doesn’t always have to be high energy. Fiit got me into yoga, stretching, breathwork, pilates etc. When my 2-year-old son wakes up he says ‘mini class Daddy’ (10 minute class) and grabs my phone and connects it to the cable on the TV and wants to do a Fiit class, it is now a habit for him as he has seen me doing it each day for the last year. Apart from exercise I like to listen to music, loud!
Spotting new trends and trainers in the industry is key to your success, your series of Breath-work classes with Richie Bostock @thebreathguy are great to see, what trends/trainers should we be looking out for in 2021?
Some things need to be kept under wraps but all I can say is we are going to be adding more incredible trainers throughout 2021. The highest rated classes right now are our HIIT classes, either bodyweight or with dumbbells. Our Game Days which involve 100’s of people competing on a live leaderboard with their connected stats via a heart rate monitor are proving the most popular so we will be adding more trainers that can keep pushing the boundaries and the energy in these concepts.
Has the boom in the wellness industry and the success of Fiit inspired you to take on other aspects of wellbeing in the future?
The beauty of wellness is it now encompasses everyday life, from clothing to travel, food, technology, content, celebrity, music you name it. The fact Fiit has positively changed people’s lives is what makes me the most proud, so whatever avenue allows us to grow and add more value to people’s lives we will follow.
Co-founders Dan, Sammi & Ian.