Elevate your group workout experience with Screen Assisted Training

To make your workout even more fun, it’s best to find your tribe and hit the gym together. Cult Group Class experience has been curated to provide a fun (and slightly competitive) session at the center. The class experience involves a trainer leading a group of members through different movements by instructing, correcting their posture and maintaining the class energy.

While group sessions are one of our most popular offerings, there are still a few hurdles we often observe while conducting such sessions:

1. Hesitance: Members, in a group class setting, are hesitant to reach out to trainers in case they do not understand how to perform the movements. This leads to members looking at other members to understand how to perform the movement or leads to them doing it wrong.
2. Losing time: Trainers in class end up spending a lot of time in class keeping track of movements/time/rounds and counting reps. This time can be better utilized interacting with members and helping correct their posture.
3. Lack of clarity: Members find it difficult to set intensity while working out with a class.
   

To solve the above problems, we decided to take the help of technology to create an immersive class experience and use this tech to motivate our members by celebrating milestones and achievements. So, like we often do, we came up with a product to solve this problem for our members and trainers. We call it Screen Assisted Training. With the help of the screen assisted training product we have made the group class experience smoother and more efficient 

What is Screen Assisted Training (SAT)?

Screen Assisted Training is a style of training where we use big screens to show live information regarding the workout in the workout arena to assist trainers and members during their cult sessions.

The screens display the workouts as and when it happens in the class and hence provide members with a continuous reference on how to perform movements. Any member who has doubts on how to perform a given movement, can quickly refer to the screen and understand how to perform that movement. 

SAT helps members and trainers keep a track of time and the flow of movements through audio and visual cues. Tasks such as counting reps are automated through the screen such that trainers have a lot more time to interact with members. Our trainers continue to have complete control over the class flow and control the different sections on the screen through a remote control device.

Elevating the class experience with SAT:

Now that you understand the need for Screen Assisted Training in our group sessions, let’s look at the key features of SAT:

1. Providing Continuous Reference on movements

The key section of the product where we provide reference and greater clarity on how to perform movements is the video screen (shown below):

• For a movement such as deadlift, the screen is divided into 2 parts, 

• On the left we showcase the deadlift movement which is to be performed by regular athletes 
• On the right, we showcase the kettlebell lift movement which is to be performed by new athletes

• We have a countdown timer indicating the duration (or reps) for which each movement is to be performed. 

• This helps members in setting intensity by providing clarity on the duration remaining in the workout for the movement

• Information on the ongoing round is also indicated

While members are performing the deadlift movement, the above screen plays the regular and new athlete videos on a loop. In case members have any doubts on how to perform the movement, they can look at the screen, understand the correct posture and perform the movement. This helps members check their posture and get to know if they are performing the movements correctly

2. Providing visibility into the class flow in a given section

To enable members to set intensity in a given workout, it is critical for them to understand the class flow in a given section. That is, how many movements are part of the section and the duration(reps) for which they need to be done.

To solve this and help members set the intensity and pace themselves during the workout, we showcase the summary screen which provides this visibility into the class flow.

3. Reduce Trainer load and enable trainers to spend more time with members

We reduce trainer load in session by offloading certain tasks to the screen and hence enable trainers to spend more time interacting with members and helping correct their posture. Tasks such as keeping track of time, keeping track of upcoming movements and counting reps are offloaded to the screen. Thus, enabling the trainer to spend more time with members.

4. Deep integration of music with the workout

Music plays a key role in the overall energy of the class. The intensity and beats per minute set the rhythm of the class and help members push more. It enables members to focus away from the effort put into lifting weights and more on the songs playing and hence makes the workout experience easier and more enjoyable.

With screen-assisted training, at every point of time, we know the exact workout and movement going on in class and so can seamlessly integrate music of the right intensity at the right section of the workout to enable a state of flow for members.

Each workout is divided into 4 parts: Mobility, Main workout, Finisher and Cool Down.

1. Mobility section - We kick start the workout with the mobility section where members warmup for the upcoming workout. With SAT, we integrate medium intensity music to ease members into the workout flow
2. Main Workout section - This is the main part of the workout with the key movements engaging the target muscle groups for the day. Using SAT, we integrate higher beats per minute audio tracks to ensure members can push themselves in this section
3. Finisher section - The finisher section is where the intensity of the class is the highest. We compliment this high intensity with high energy music to help push members to give it their all
4. Cool down section- After a thoroughly intense workout, it is necessary to cool down and stretch the muscles engaged during the workout, this is done in the cooldown section. Lower beats per minute music is played which matches the intensity of the section. 

In addition to music integration, we also have integrated audio cues when the movement ends. The 3-2-1 audio cues provide context to members to push to their best ability in the last 3 seconds of the workout.

Here’s a sample of the 3-2-1 audio count and music transition from mobility to the main workout:

• The 3-2-1 audio counts starting at 7 secs in the video, provides context to members and enables them to push themselves
• The transition from lower intensity music to higher intensity music can be observed comparing pre and post the 11 sec mark. The rest screen during this time indicates a  transition from the mobility section to the main workout section. Higher intensity music is played which corresponds to the upcoming intensity of the main workout

5. Motivate members by celebrating milestones and welcoming new athletes

Taking the first step towards fitness is an accomplishment and maintaining consistency is a badge of honour. We use the product to celebrate these achievements and motivate members to continue on their fitness journey.

The Welcome New Athletes screen shown below does the same by recognising new athletes in the session. It provides trainers context on who the new athletes are and helps the entire class celebrate the first step these members have taken in their fitness journey 

We also celebrate members who have accomplished milestones on the cult platform using the Celebrating Milestones screen shown below. These celebrations and recognitions help motivate members to continue on their fitness journey and give it their all.

6. Gives Muscle Focus and Weight recommendation

For every weighted movement in the main workout, we showcase the muscle which is in focus using the screen below:

This provides additional information to members on which muscles should feel the tension due to the movement. We have a recommended weight screen which recommends weight for each movement within the main workout. These ensure that members do not have any confusion about what weights to lift.

Let’s take a look at this video to understand how these features fit together during the main workout.

Building Blocks of the Product

There are two building blocks of SAT: the TV App and the Content.

We have built an android app with all the required capabilities. To run this app on TV, we installed MI Boxes in the TVs at the centre. To enable seamless delivery of the workout using this app even when the network connection goes down during the class, we needed to make sure that all of the content is available before starting the class. For this, the app communicates with the backend effectively to get all the content before time and saves it to serve the content without internet connectivity also.

The TV App gets the video and audio content of the next five hours of classes and downloads it.

The app is handled by the trainer using the tv remote during the class to do previous/next or pausing the video for a while.

The app also has audio running capability. We play different audios for different parts of the movement. As required the audio volume decreases by itself on the screens where the trainer needs to interact with members. There is also (3,2,1 stop) audio which is executed on every movement screen.

The app screens are divided into three parts: Pre-workout Screens, Main Workout Screens and Post Workout Screens.

1. Pre-workout Screens are displayed when there is still time for the class to start. This part includes screens that display information about the trainer, the first-time users attending the class, the milestones, and the pre-class tips. 
2. Once the class starts, It starts to display the main workout content till the workout is completed including movement videos, audio etc.
3. After the class is over. We display the post-workout tip information and end the class with the 3,2,1 We Are Cult Ritual.

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Now, let's talk about how the content is aggregated and stored in such a way that for each workout, it is fetched perfectly. The content includes different types of information like videos, images, audio and text information. 

For each workout, we have a Workout of the Day (WOD) planned, which contains a series of exercises. We have 1600+ exercises in total, of which 600+ exercises are used in SAT. These exercises are very elaborate and capture a plethora of information such as

1. How to perform the exercise?

Information about what should the stance be, the grip, what should be the position of the body while performing the exercise, and what should be the position of the rack? We also have videos which are shot in-house that capture how the exercise should be performed, in the correct form, and are also played on the TV.

2. How many calories are burnt while performing the exercise?

We capture the minimum, the maximum and the average calories expended - this information is later used to calculate the total calories spent in a class, which appears in the fitness report.

3. Which muscle(s) is/are activated during this exercise?‍

During an exercise, a certain muscle/muscle group is used. It’s important for the members to know which body parts are in action so that they can focus better on these muscles.

Our roadmap for the launch

Currently, we are live with Screen Assisting Training in 20 centers across four cities and for two formats (S&C and HRx Workout). Here’s a list of centers we are already live at:

We will be scaling this to 60 Cult centers by the end of September and 100% of Cult centers for the formats of S&C and HRx Workout before the end of the year. We are also constantly working on expanding the product across formats for Boxing, Burn and Yoga.

Meet the team

Engineering - Neha Gupta, Ayantika Dey, Manbir Singh, Gaurav Agrawal, Amit Kumar  

Design - Neelam Gulrajani, Vinaykumar C

Format - Ritesh Telang

Product - Ajay Koti

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Hope you had fun reading this! We are looking forward to meeting you and your fitness gang at one of our centers. More updates coming soon. ;)

Since you are here, check out our Smart Workout Plan blog where In the Cult Gym setting, we use artificial intelligence to solve common confusions around how to perform movements and how to design a workout plan.