A New Home for Fitness
Convenient fitness is here to stay.
Upon moving her family to Texas from Germany, high-powered attorney Dr. Slyvia Kampshoff searched for personal trainers nearby to continue her daily fitness routine in her new home.
“I couldn’t find anyone that wasn’t an intimidating, half-naked male,” Kampshoff jokes.
With a longtime passion for fitness and a tight schedule between kids and work, Kampshoff questioned why there wasn’t a convenient way to connect with personal trainers. Her husband, who found himself in a new city each week for work, disconnected from his fitness routine, wondered the same.
For a while, the couple settled for personal training at a gym, which made visits more difficult and less frequent. Then, the birth of their son was a turning point.
“When I was on maternity leave, I had a lot of time to reflect on what I really wanted,” Kampshoff said, “and having a son changed my life so much already, so I decided, ‘Why not go for it?’”
After 8 years practicing law, Kampshoff left to make fitness accessible and convenient for all.
COVID SHOCKS THE INDUSTRY
“We were in a lucky position when COVID-19 hit,” Kampshoff said. She remembers sitting in the office kitchen with Sputnik Managing Partner Oksana Malysheva, when Malysheva suggested she pivot to virtual training.
“Initially I pushed back but gave myself a day to think. The next week, our team implemented a video interaction feature,” Kampshoff said.
At first, clients were reluctant to try virtual training. Kampshoff led five virtual sessions weekly to share her experience and educate clients on the benefits of the virtual option.
Today, most of Kanthaka’s clients prefer virtual training because there’s a stronger sense of privacy. Plus, it’s half the price of in-person sessions.
Moving forward, Kampshoff says she’ll mostly do virtual sessions at home, too.
“It’s just so convenient,” Kampshoff said. “I don’t have to worry about tidying up, and I’m able to wake up at 5:55 am for my 6 am session.”
In December 2020, 30% of Kanthaka’s sessions were virtual with no ad-spend dedicated to virtual training. Kanthaka’s client-base also increased by 6X compared to 2019. And before COVID-19, only 10% of users were male. Today, men make up about 40% of Kanthaka’s total users.
CONVENIENT FITNESS IS HERE TO STAY
“Usually, people go to the parties, eat, travel, and wait until January 1st to start a healthier routine,” Kampshoff said, “but this time user behavior was different.”
Rather than the typical January spike, Kanthaka saw an explosion in December 2020 sessions after they launched a “Don’t wait til January 1st” campaign.
“I don’t think virtual will go away,” Kampshoff said when asked about where fitness is headed in the long term. “We just have to educate users,” she said.
According to Bloomberg, more than 350,000 fitness instructors and trainers in the U.S. saw in-person studio classes and personal training sessions dramatically shift for COVID. Now more than ever, users have been introduced to the idea of convenient fitness.
And Kampshoff isn’t stopping at personal training. She’s building an ecosystem around health by adding nutritionists to the platform as well as at-home equipment to sell with fitness packages.
Also in the books for 2021: improve the customer’s virtual experience by collaborating with video platforms to make fitness more accessible, and hit ambitions sales and virtual sessions goals.
To learn more about Kanthaka, go to https://mykanthaka.com/.
Originally published at https://www.sputnikatx.com on March 5, 2021.
