The Covid pandemic was peak time for fitness classes moving from the gym to people’s homes. Every studio was offering streamed sessions of whatever you needed to get your heart rate up and your muscles toned, and there was a flurry of apps delivering recorded fitness sessions.

But Floe is making the home-exercise experience more personalised – and more engaging – by running a full daily timetable of classes led by live instructors.

“Floe is different. Classes are streamed live from our purpose-built studios where the instructors can clearly see each participant,” Floe founder Mark Blackman tells Broadsheet. “This allows instructors to provide personalised motivation and support, just like they would in a real studio.”

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Floe’s trainers deliver yoga, Pilates, HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and strength classes from its studios in Alexandria, Sydney, which are beamed direct to members’ mobile devices. The app uses a two-way video connection so you can follow the instructors and then receive real-time tips from them on form, for example.

“The instructors are able to see each participant on a large panel screen, which allows them to provide feedback. They can see participant names, know if it’s their first class or they’re a regular – all things to help them build a genuine connection,” says Blackman, adding that while instructors can see their class members, other members taking the class can’t see each other.

Blackman reckons that human connection is super important for both the instructors – “they are energised by leading live classes where they can see the positive impact they’re having on people’s lives; it’s their purpose as instructors” – and the participants.

He says that although lots of people discovered the convenience of at-home workouts during the pandemic, many of those apps didn’t keep people motivated. “Most people sign up and then hardly use them. It has been estimated that only three to eight per cent of people who subscribe to these apps are still using them after 30 days. This is because it’s hard to stay motivated and feel connected with pre-recorded content – there just isn’t the support and accountability that comes with a live instructor,” says Blackman.

Floe’s classes are 30 minutes in length so they can easily fit into schedules. Many of Floe’s members are time-poor and have children, so the convenience of not having to schlep to and from the gym is appealing. Many also don’t love that the gym “scene”.

Blackman says the team understands that not everyone can make specific times, so it has launched on-demand Encore sessions for members to replay classes from the past 24 hours. “We have some members that do a number of classes each day at 10 or 11 at night,” he says.

*The Floe app costs $9.95 per week for unlimited live workouts, with cancellation at any time.

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