Community is also a large part of keeping connected fitness machines engaging; all five companies offer Facebook groups for users to discuss their workouts and find people with similar goals or stats to digitally work out with. Live leaderboards, a feature that shows where the user ranks against other people who’ve taken the same class, can also... See more

This level of interpersonal connection is why Hydrow CEO Bruce Smith doesn’t think connected fitness machines will have a negative social impact, and that the sense of community that typically form at brick and mortar gyms will be more distributed. “Connected fitness is about bringing your body and your screen life together,” he says. “The more we... See more

Tonal CEO Aly Orady says that similar to smartphones, which were first thought of as luxury items, the math may make more sense once the price of a machine is spread out over a couple years. “The formula for this to work at home is the financing program,” he says.