The fitness industry is advancing, and customers expect the best gyms, excursions, and home programs to offer better experiences. Online fitness has seen massive growth since 2020, with a projected 33.1% compound annual growth rate. Mapping technology has played a big role in fitness industry growth, with maps allowing for enhanced  digitized workouts that satisfy customers eager to hit their fitness goals. Whether online or out in the field, mapping technology blazes new trails for fitness industry leaders.

How Maps Help The Fitness Industry

Quality mapping technology allows customers to measure, visualize, and share their progress, prompting better retention with fitness programs. It elevates the fitness experience by giving users tangible progress markers, which encourage self-improvement, high-achievement, and ongoing dedication. Maps can also simulate the outside world in an indoor setting or modify outdoor exercise equipment to enhance the exercise experience. Happier customers are more likely to renew their gym, Peloton, or trail access memberships and keep fitness businesses thriving.

How Mapping Technology Helps Measure Workouts

Route mapping and visual progress markers help users measure their activities accurately and in a way that feels tangible. The latest mapping technologies technologies like 3D visualization, movement data, and milestone tracking let users get the most out of a workout. Mapping technology can even integrate with skiing trails, ocean swimming, or virtual cross-country bike tours.

More data allows athletes to qualify their achievements, measuring how far they’ve come and push them to improve. Mapbox customer AllTrails, one of the most popular apps for outdoor recreational activities, relies on mapping technology to quickly upload and process thousands of custom trails. This gives hikers the data they need to measure the distance, elevation, and pace of their hike with confidence. Similarly, Slopes uses map data to guide skiers between lifts and runs, recording statistical data on every slope.

Maps and Athletic Training Visualization

In addition to accurate measurements, athletes enjoy seeing their workout represented visually to analyze their progress. People seeking the best workout data should be able to see how far they’ve gone, know what’s ahead on their route, and understand the qualities of their workout in terms of elevation, traffic, and more.

Mapping technology allows fitness customers to see their route spaced out before them so they can track their progress alongside helpful information like a course’s gradient or their proximity to popular locations. Users can compare their progress with other members’ data overlaid on shared maps.

Using Mapbox technology, Sportsman Tracker brings visualization to a unique sphere––hunting and fishing. Success in the field requires a visual understanding of property boundaries, species territories, and navigational difficulty. Mapbox allows Sportsman Tracker to provide layered maps for their users, so hunters and fishers can be at their best.

Visualize Workouts, Even in the Gym

Not everyone chooses to or has the time to workout outdoors. A gym or personal equipment can be closer and more accessible, or there might be bad weather, which makes experiencing the outdoors on exercise equipment a suitable alternative. 

By incorporating mapping technology into exercise equipment, a treadmill doesn’t feel so stationary. Users can download rich maps with accurate elevation, distance, and scenery data. With 3D maps and simulating physical trails, biking and running in-place can feel like the real thing.

Peloton utilizes Mapbox to bring the fun of outdoor biking and running to a local or home gym. Utilizing mapping data, Peloton offers its users realistic routes, so users can bike to their favorite destinations virtually, or run a famous trail anywhere in the world. Additionally, customers can visualize their pace, elevation, and distance stats after every course in detailed, shareable reports.

How Maps Create Communities of Fitness

A key ingredient for fitness success is a sense of community. Athletes often want to feel connected to others to go further with their fitness routines. For fitness companies to attract the most users, their products must provide this connection.

Mapping technology allows athletes to share their workout data with others, so metrics like speed, elevation, and distance are viewable by friends or trainers in the fitness community. Users can upload their routes and view the routes of others to help inspire themselves and others and stay accountable to their fitness goals.

Fitness tracking app Strava uses Mapbox to create a community for runners, bikers, and other athletes. Users can log workouts in real time, dissect valuable stats, and share these elements with other members of the community. Whether customers are training for a marathon, trying to become faster bikers, or just reaching personal fitness goals, Strava allows them to tap into a community of support, resources, and insights that help them succeed.

Elevate Your Fitness Business with Mapbox

Mapping technology allows fitness apps to provide valuable services to their users. Maps allow for route tracking, progress visualization, and community creation. With mapping technology, users are able to qualify their achievements and pursue their goals with confidence.

Detailed routing, accurate metrics, and supportive communities create successful athletes and make for satisfied customers. This is why companies like AllTrails, Sportsman Tracker, Peloton, and Strava are some of many customers in the fitness industry benefiting from Mapbox.

Learn more about how Mapbox can provide elevated fitness experiences.