Do Smart Gyms for the Home Have Internet?

Thanks to smart home technology, just about every aspect of your home can be more intelligent.

From your dishwasher to your sprinkler system to your treadmill, all these devices can be controlled via mobile app or even voice commands.

But along with modern technology always comes a certain amount of confusion, leading many to wonder: Do smart gyms for the home have internet?

Here we’ll tackle that question, as well as explaining the primary types of smart home gym equipment available today.

By the end of this article, you’ll have a greater understanding of how smart home gym equipment works.

You might even be convinced to run out and buy some smart home workout equipment for your own home.

Do Smart Gyms for the Home Have Internet?

Yes! Smart gyms for the home have internet the same way any other smart home technology such as smart TVs do.

Using the IoT (Internet of Things), the equipment connects to the internet and interfaces with an app on your smart phone.

Note that you’ll still need to have a wifi network in your home to give the smart gym equipment something to connect over.

Smart home gyms have internet in order to allow you to track your progress and metrics via a smart phone app.

For instance, you can track your calories burned, number of reps, weights lifted, and even heart rate monitoring.

You can also stream live or recorded workouts either via your phone or a screen on the gym equipment, if it has one.

Connected to your Apple Watch and/or a smart scale that tracks body weight and muscle mass, you can have an amazingly complete view of your personal fitness.

Some home gym equipment can even connect directly to live personal trainers for guided one-on-one workouts.

Most smart home gym equipment requires monthly subscriptions in order to access live workouts or trainers.

For instance, Peloton charges 39 a month to have your stationary bike connected for live workouts.

Types of Smart Home Gym Equipment

There are many different types of connected fitness equipment on the market now to suit all different fitness levels and interests.

Whether you want a stationary bike, a treadmill, resistance training equipment, or something totally different, there’s something out there to suit you.

Here we’ll dive in to the various types of internet connected gym equipment available now.

Stationary Bikes

The OG smart home gym equipment is the stationary bike. A stationary bike is a bike that is fixed in place for indoor cycling workouts.

Smart stationary bikes are equipped with large touchscreens where you can view live and on demand streaming workouts to ride along to.

They also have speakers for music, and can automatically adjust the resistance level based on the workout you’re doing.

Smart stationary bikes are also paired with fitness apps for your smartphone where you can track your progress and see how many calories you’ve burned.

The Peloton stationary bike hit the market in 2014 and was a game-changer for the at home workout, allowing people to participate in live streaming workouts alongside hundreds of other people.

The Peloton bike isn’t cheap, coming in around $2,500 plus a monthly subscription fee, but the ability to capture the energy of a cycling studio at home seems to be priceless:

As of September 2021, Peloton has over a million connected subscribers.

Treadmills

That old gym standby, the treadmill, is getting a whole new lease on life with the advent of smart gym technology. Treadmills were once incredibly boring  — who wants to stare at a wall for an hour?

But now, newer smart treadmills come equipped with video screens and even Google Maps technology. Imagine — you can pretend you’re running on a trail in the Andes mountains instead of your living room.

Other smart treadmills allow you to stream live and on demand classes from real trainers. You can even compete against other people from your home, giving an extra boost of motivation.

NordicTrack offers treadmills equipped with iFit technology allowing you to stream hundreds of recorded workouts so you never get bored.

Meanwhile, stationary bike champion Peloton now also has a treadmill of its own hitting the market.

The Peloton Tread and Tread+ aren’t cheap, with the fully loaded Tread+ model priced at over $4,000.

However, the ability to stream live workouts gives you the ability to change up your workouts every day. You can replicate the experience of pricey in-person fitness classes.

Resistance Training

For those looking to build strength, there’s smart home gym equipment for resistance training.

These smart home gym machines can take the form of weight machines, rowing machines, or other strength training equipment.

For instance, Tonal is a high tech home gym machine that mounts on your wall. When equipped with varying attachments, you can push or pull up to 200 pounds of weight via electromagnetic resistance.

This provides a kind of workout you simply can’t get by using your own body weight. Then there’s Tempo, a free weight machine where trainers walk you through lifting weights.

Smart rowing machines like the Hydrow Rower are also popular these days. Equipped with screens for recorded workouts, they can automatically adjust resistance as you build up strength.

Other Smart Home Gym Equipment

If you’re looking to replicate the experience of cardio fitness classes, the incredibly popular Mirror might be perfect.

True to its name, Mirror hangs on your wall and looks like a regular mirror until you turn it on.

Then it transforms into a giant screen broadcasting workouts like cardio, yoga, boxing, barre, and Pilates.

Thanks to Mirror’s internet connectivity, you can work out one-on-one with personal trainers who give real time feedback.

Final Thoughts

We hope you now have a better understanding of how smart home gym equipment works. Thanks to the IoT (Internet of Things), these high tech gym machines help you track your fitness journey.

They also help keep you motivated and accountable by gamifying fitness, letting you compete against other users and get real personal training.

Used in conjunction with a smartphone, smartwatch and/or a smart scale, you can get an amazingly comprehensive picture of your overall fitness with a smart home gym.