Barry’s X Marks New Spots for Fitness Club’s Options
The X app of exercise provider Barry’s allows live and online classes with personalized attention.
Fitness club guru Barry’s has taken its latest step in using technology to maintain health activities during COVID-necessary shutdowns. It’s called Barry’s X and it’s an app that runs along the lines of Apple Fitness+, allowing body-conscious at-home exercisers the ability to access live and on-demand workouts.
In its announcement Joey Gonzalez, Barry’s Global CEO said, “Innovation and community have always been at the core of what we do. Barry’s X leverages proprietary technology to bring the key touch points of the Barry’s experience and its signature Red Room into an elevated digital setting.”
Gonzalez told Good Morning America, “Barry’s X was created to provide people with the opportunity to experience the best workout in the world, taught by the best instructors, alongside an incredible global community – no matter where you are.”
Fighting viral restrictions
Early in the pandemic — on March 16, 2020 — Barry’s announced shutdown of its traditional fitness venues. Its Instagram posting said it would “voluntarily, temporarily close all Red Rooms across the USA and Canada. The health and well-being of our family at Barry’s is our top priority…”.
But the company quickly matched its “get them back” actions with the ferocity participants experience in its Red Room HIIT exercises. First exercisers could view Instagram online workouts, then they could get some personalized fitness through Zoom classes.
As 2020 progressed, the company found large empty environments — like parking garages and rooftops — and turned them into accessible Red Rooms. Within 16 months of the shutdown, Barry’s had reopened numerous physical locales, by integrating tons of new safety protocols.
As Gonzalez told GMA, “We updated our HVAC system, introduced the use of EPA-registered cleaning supplies and …. [instituted] social distancing in class. [We] added five-minute breaks in between rounds to allow for extra cleaning and mask mandates.”
Tech allows total tracking
With Barry’s X’s built-in camera, exercisers can show the online instructor their actual stature, allowing the teacher to correct them individually. Privacy settings lets users control who sees them; e.g., only the instructor — not classmates — will access the feed.
As Gonzalez told GMA, “[You can] see old friends, new faces. And since it’s Barry’s, you can expect to see some famous ones as well.” Then the app’s “FitFam” component allows users who’d like family and/or friends to join them.
The app costs users $39/month (to start) or — if someone already pays for in-studio membership — the app is a $20 add-on. The starting package allows the user four classes every month. Barry’s is “the original high-energy, calorie scorching, cardio and strength interval training workout that kicked off the boutique fitness movement.” Now, as Gonzalez told GMA, “Barry’s X” is the first community-driven digital fitness product that seamlessly integrates key touch points of an in-person studio experience into a digital setting.”
