Elon Musk has plans to conquer Mars and these days the meat on your hamburger can be grown in a lab - so why are so many fitness businesses still using papers and pens to create workouts for their members?

While recent years have been showing improvement, when it comes to tech, the fitness industry has been lagging behind compared to other industries.

The current pandemic has displayed how not using technology to provide a more holistic service beyond the four walls of your facility can leave your club vulnerable. The virus has left us concerned not only about our health and that of our families, but also about the financial health of our fitness businesses.

While this period is rightly causing us grave concern, it may also signify a turning-point in our industry. It has highlighted significant ways that fitness professionals can expand their services and cater to a wider audience - namely, by creating a system that allows them to operate online.

From virtual workouts to payment and scheduling systems, that means every element of a company should be accessible via the click of a button or touch of a screen. We are being forced to innovate.

Certainly at Virtuagym, we were pushed to innovate our business model when the crisis hit. In the space of two weeks we transformed our offering to cater to the new realities of business life for our customers, who had to close down their facilities under new social isolation measures.

Our newly designed Virtuagym @Home bundle provides gym and studio owners with live-streaming and virtual training offerings that they can provide to their members while working out at home. So even though their facilities may be closed, they are still able to engage, train and stay connected, retaining memberships in the long-term and reducing the risk of churn.

In the face of a crisis, we learn, innovate and grow. After all, great technological revolutions often come at a shifting point in human history.

By creating and developing digitised services you take the first step towards a future-proof business. Digitising your company could be as simple as cultivating a strong social media strategy or as impactful as purchasing your very own branded company app like those developed by us at Virtuagym.

Even when the pandemic is over, it’s essential to engage members outside of the gym or studio building in order to ensure that your business can adapt to the changes of the 21st century. The situation is the same now across all trades.

People are spending more time than ever on their mobile phones so making sure that you are there with them in their pockets when they need you is essential.

So let’s make use of this time to take the next steps as an industry. Rather than panic and relegate ourselves to taking the economic hit, we should begin to explore the digital offerings that may be available to us online.

Let’s take this time to explore our options and begin to define the future of fitness.

It’s great to see many of our customers do well in these trying times by providing digital coaching services. As Darwin said, it’s not the strongest who survive, but those who adapt. Here's to staying safe but also to persevering in the face of this crisis and continuing to deliver the best offering with the possibilities technology allows us.

It may very well be that after the crisis, the fitness industry will no longer be the same. And that could actually be a good thing.

Find out more about Virtuagym @Home here.