A man doing bicep curls with a Forme home gym.
Courtesy Forme

Get Your Home Gym (and Yourself) Into Shape With These Solutions

By Aileen Kwun
May 2, 2020
2 minute read

As gym closures continue (that is to say, most everywhere), the age of home fitness has arrived, and with it, a spate of online classes to match. Popular fitness studios like Sky Ting and Modo Yoga have recently transitioned to hosting live sessions online (as has Ashtanga yoga teacher Eddie Stern, who was just a guest on our At a Distance podcast), while apps such as Nike Training Club are temporarily offering free access. We’re also fans of the newsletter TheWorkout.Today, which sends a fresh routine to your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, along with a self-reflection exercise to hone your mind as well as your body. There’s plenty you can do from your living room with just a few free weights, a quality Gorilla Mat, and some good ol’ motivation.

Meanwhile, high-end fitness companies are finding a larger market as people invest in more personalized regimens. Peloton, for example, the cultish “smart” stationary bike, has seen a surge in sales, with its live-streamed classes also hitting new highs. Forme, a new connected smart mirror designed by Yves Béhar (who was just on our The Workspace of Tomorrow podcast, produced in association with ROOM), promises to be the Peloton of home-training systems, poised to potentially edge out existing options like Mirror and Tonal when it launches, later this year. Wall-installed and integrated with additional equipment that can be easily folded and concealed, the svelte design offers A.I. metrics, live personal-training sessions, and a variety of classes with on-screen instructors. Now available for pre-order, the literal black mirror launches this fall, with a subscription-based model to begin as early as September. Quarantine or not, “taking two hours of your day to go to the gym two or three times a week, as is recommended, can be a huge detour to your day,” Béhar says. “With Forme, we provide resistance-training as well as a variety of well-being exercises, methods, and approaches in a way that’s discreet in the home, doesn’t take up too much space, or even require another room.”