How Smart Mirror Gyms Help You Work Out from Home
The world of fitness and exercise is constantly evolving, particularly when it comes to the equipment and technology available to help you work out at home. Although there are many benefits to working out at home, one of the problems many people have, who perhaps can’t or don’t want to attend a gym is that when you are working out by yourself, even if you are doing your best to follow a routine on a YouTube video or an app, is that you have no real-time guidance on whether you have good form for the exercises you are completing.
There is no personal trainer there to tell you “straighten out your back”, “tuck your bottom in” or “stand with your legs shoulder-width apart, they’re too close”. As you know, the form is very important, not just so you target the right muscles, but so you don’t injure yourself by performing them incorrectly.
For many decades now, with different advancements in onboard computers and associated apps, brands and companies have tried to solve this problem and help to bring the gym and personal trainers into the home.
One of the latest and most cutting-edge developments in this regard is the invention known as the smart mirror or interactive mirror. How can a smart mirror help you work out from home? That is what we are going to discuss in the following post. First, though, while we’re sure you probably have a good idea of what they are, we’ll fill in any gaps and then talk about the very benefits you can avail yourself of by incorporating one into your home gym setup.
What Are Smart Mirrors?
What makes smart mirrors so smart? Well, it’s the modern use of the word smart for technology, like cellphones and watches. It basically means they are interactive and have enhanced features. Think of smart mirrors as being full-length tablets that can be used to display exercise routine videos and workouts you can follow along within the comfort of your own home.
Before you rush in and say, “that doesn’t sound different from using a smartphone, tablet, or even a large television to stream and playback workout videos”, there is more to it than just that.
As you will below, they are called smart for a reason and are not like normal mirrors in that they are not completely one-way.
Benefits of a Smart Mirror For Your Home Gym Setup
There are numerous great benefits you can get from investing in a smart mirror. Let’s look at some of the most important.
Personal Trainer in the Comfort of Your Own Home
Perhaps the biggest benefit you get from using a full-size smart mirror is that it allows you to have the same experience you would have if you were in a gym and working with a personal trainer face to face, from the comfort of your own home.
You can use the workout videos as a guide and because they are presented in full-size fashion you can align yourself with the people performing the exercises to make sure your form is correct. What’s more, rather than just offering this helpful insight into whether you are getting the workouts right or not, because they are a piece of smart tech, many of them offer the option of alerts and sensors that let you know if you are standing correctly and performing the exercise properly.
As if that wasn’t enough, you can also get advice and recommendations for how to enhance a certain exercise or routine by suggesting an increase in the resistance used.
Direct Contact with a Personal Trainer
As we noted at the outset, these are more than just one-way mirrors with an internet connection. With some, you can actually use them in a similar way to how you would use your smartphone, tablet, or computer to make a video call and speak directly to a personal trainer as you work out. This gives you an excellent opportunity to get that real-time advice and help that is sorely lacking when you work out at home and not in a class or at the gym.
A plethora of Special Features
Can you really call a smart mirror smart if it doesn’t offer you a plethora of different features and settings? One of the great things, like most other smart devices, is that a smart mirror can be synced up with your other smart devices. For instance, if you use an activity tracker watch of some kind, you can often connect it to the mirror to offer you a greater and more in-depth understanding of your workouts and the progress you are making.
Long-term Investment
We’re not going to lie to you, as you will see from this review of Forme Life Studios smart mirror, these are not cheap additions to your home gym. However, given that they eliminate the potential for making excuses to avoid working out and make you more accountable for whether you do any working out or not because they are always there looming over you, you should see them as more than just an expensive accessory and as a long-term investment.
The Camera Can Be Covered Up and Is Not Always Required
One of the concerns we have noted that many people have raised regarding smart mirrors is the fact that because they are two-way, even if you are not connected and using it as such, there is the potential for infringements on their privacy by unscrupulous ones. However, like the average laptop or another device with a camera, you can simply cover over the camera to stop anyone from seeing anything you don’t want to, whether it’s a personal trainer or someone trying to hack into your smart mirror.
Conclusion
There is no denying that smart mirrors have the potential to be the next big thing in the intertwined worlds of fitness and technology. Although they represent a rather big investment, if you are looking to get the same kind of experience you would from working out at the gym or with a personal trainer face-to-face, smart mirrors are a great option. Whether it’s you don’t have the time, inclination, or are nervous about a room full of lots of others potentially looking at you as you work out, smart mirrors can help give your workouts at home an edge and may mean you never need to go to an actual gym again.
The world of fitness and exercise is constantly evolving, particularly when it comes to the equipment and technology available to help you work out at home. Although there are many benefits to working out at home, one of the problems many people have, who perhaps can’t or don’t want to attend a gym is that when you are working out by yourself, even if you are doing your best to follow a routine on a YouTube video or an app, is that you have no real-time guidance on whether you have good form for the exercises you are completing.
There is no personal trainer there to tell you “straighten out your back”, “tuck your bottom in” or “stand with your legs shoulder-width apart, they’re too close”. As you know, the form is very important, not just so you target the right muscles, but so you don’t injure yourself by performing them incorrectly.
For many decades now, with different advancements in onboard computers and associated apps, brands and companies have tried to solve this problem and help to bring the gym and personal trainers into the home.
One of the latest and most cutting-edge developments in this regard is the invention known as the smart mirror or interactive mirror. How can a smart mirror help you work out from home? That is what we are going to discuss in the following post. First, though, while we’re sure you probably have a good idea of what they are, we’ll fill in any gaps and then talk about the very benefits you can avail yourself of by incorporating one into your home gym setup.
What Are Smart Mirrors?
What makes smart mirrors so smart? Well, it’s the modern use of the word smart for technology, like cellphones and watches. It basically means they are interactive and have enhanced features. Think of smart mirrors as being full-length tablets that can be used to display exercise routine videos and workouts you can follow along within the comfort of your own home.
Before you rush in and say, “that doesn’t sound different from using a smartphone, tablet, or even a large television to stream and playback workout videos”, there is more to it than just that.
As you will below, they are called smart for a reason and are not like normal mirrors in that they are not completely one-way.
Benefits of a Smart Mirror For Your Home Gym Setup
There are numerous great benefits you can get from investing in a smart mirror. Let’s look at some of the most important.
Personal Trainer in the Comfort of Your Own Home
Perhaps the biggest benefit you get from using a full-size smart mirror is that it allows you to have the same experience you would have if you were in a gym and working with a personal trainer face to face, from the comfort of your own home.
You can use the workout videos as a guide and because they are presented in full-size fashion you can align yourself with the people performing the exercises to make sure your form is correct. What’s more, rather than just offering this helpful insight into whether you are getting the workouts right or not, because they are a piece of smart tech, many of them offer the option of alerts and sensors that let you know if you are standing correctly and performing the exercise properly.
As if that wasn’t enough, you can also get advice and recommendations for how to enhance a certain exercise or routine by suggesting an increase in the resistance used.
Direct Contact with a Personal Trainer
As we noted at the outset, these are more than just one-way mirrors with an internet connection. With some, you can actually use them in a similar way to how you would use your smartphone, tablet, or computer to make a video call and speak directly to a personal trainer as you work out. This gives you an excellent opportunity to get that real-time advice and help that is sorely lacking when you work out at home and not in a class or at the gym.
A plethora of Special Features
Can you really call a smart mirror smart if it doesn’t offer you a plethora of different features and settings? One of the great things, like most other smart devices, is that a smart mirror can be synced up with your other smart devices. For instance, if you use an activity tracker watch of some kind, you can often connect it to the mirror to offer you a greater and more in-depth understanding of your workouts and the progress you are making.
Long-term Investment
We’re not going to lie to you, as you will see from this review of Forme Life Studios smart mirror, these are not cheap additions to your home gym. However, given that they eliminate the potential for making excuses to avoid working out and make you more accountable for whether you do any working out or not because they are always there looming over you, you should see them as more than just an expensive accessory and as a long-term investment.
The Camera Can Be Covered Up and Is Not Always Required
One of the concerns we have noted that many people have raised regarding smart mirrors is the fact that because they are two-way, even if you are not connected and using it as such, there is the potential for infringements on their privacy by unscrupulous ones. However, like the average laptop or another device with a camera, you can simply cover over the camera to stop anyone from seeing anything you don’t want to, whether it’s a personal trainer or someone trying to hack into your smart mirror.
Conclusion
There is no denying that smart mirrors have the potential to be the next big thing in the intertwined worlds of fitness and technology. Although they represent a rather big investment, if you are looking to get the same kind of experience you would from working out at the gym or with a personal trainer face-to-face, smart mirrors are a great option. Whether it’s you don’t have the time, inclination, or are nervous about a room full of lots of others potentially looking at you as you work out, smart mirrors can help give your workouts at home an edge and may mean you never need to go to an actual gym again.