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Thursday, October 10, 2002

By Pamela Gaynor, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

For health club members who'd like to have personal trainers but find either the cost or time commitment prohibitive, two Pittsburgh-based companies think they've found a solution in technology.

BodyMedia Inc., which produces wearable devices to monitor human health indicators, and ClubCom, which provides entertainment systems and programming to fitness centers, said yesterday that they'd teamed up to turn treadmills and other kinds of fitness equipment into "virtual trainers."

Under a strategic partnership and distribution agreement, the two plan to market virtual training capability to health clubs and fitness equipment makers.

Their plan entails taking information collected from "armband" technology that BodyMedia makes, combining it with information collected from fitness equipment that club members use, and then accessing it over the Web.

The agreement would provide BodyMedia with its first foothold in a consumer market for the armbands.

Using the collected data, a human trainer could see what effect higher levels of stress -- such as a longer workout on a treadmill, or a workout at a steeper incline -- has on a member's heart rate, caloric output or other indicators of health.

With that information, the human trainer could recommend changes in exercise regimens to members without actually being present when the members do their workouts. The recommendations could be delivered electronically.

ClubCom's chief executive, Tom Lapcevic, said the capability would enable trainers -- whose services represent one of the health club industry's highest margin businesses -- to work with far more members at a lower cost.

The proprietary technology at the heart of the virtual training system also has other valuable applications for health clubs, he said.

It would enable clubs or equipment makers to perform preventive maintenance on expensive equipment by monitoring how often and how long it's used. In addition, it would enable club operators to monitor entertainment options their members are choosing so that they can provide data to potential advertisers.

Pamela Gaynor can be reached at pgaynor@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1613.