Living through the age of tracking every step, monitoring every heartbeat, and tallying every pound shed, the innovators at PEAR Sports have sought to break the monotony.
“One of our favorite lines here is, ‘Thanks for telling me what I’ve done but will somebody please tell me what to do?’ Christian Schauf, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for PEAR Sports, told us. “I think that really sums up kind of what PEAR is.”
The fitness gurus at PEAR are indeed telling people what to do, having put the art of coaching back into the exercise game.
“What we’ve done is basically taken the world of tracking and added another layer to it,” said Schauf. “What we do is create interactive, audio-based coaching. It’s not just a book on tape that you’re listening to. It’s actually a system that reacts in the moment to what your body is doing.”
In collaboration with 40 or so Olympic athletes and former world champions, PEAR has captured the voices of these experts and used them to guide any individual through a workout. From start to finish, these coaches educate and direct the participants through a workout, specifically tailoring the routine based on the individual’s age, gender, heart rate, fitness level, and personal goals to name a few. When the going gets tough, the coaches also provide encouraging motivation to ignite the fire beneath a spent user.
But PEAR hasn’t stopped there. Recently, the fitness company launched PEAR 2.0, a major overhaul update to their dynamic smart phone application.
Now, subscribers to the app can keep track of their VO2 max measurement, an all-encompassing scientific measurement that provides users with an accurate and well-rounded gauge of they’re true fitness level.
“VO2 max is such a great indicator of overall fitness for a person,” said Schauf. “It puts you on a scale for your age and your gender and it really kind of shows you how you’re doing. I think historically, the biggest indicator of people’s fitness was most people’s weight. It’s such a bad measure because there are so many things that can affect it. If you’re building muscle, you’re going to get heavier.”
Subscribers to PEAR can also stay committed to their goals by following a flexible and advantageous workout plan.
“Training plans, what’s been difficult about them is … it’s kind of the same type of workout over and over and over,” said Schauf. “We found that people have a hard time really sticking to those unless they are super committed.”
For one thing, life gets in the way. Secondly, being repetitive can get boring. To help remedy those issues, everyday, PEAR gives its customers a number of recommended workouts based on where the individual is located, how much time they have to spend to break a sweat, what types of physical activities they enjoy, and what they need to accomplish in order to reach their previously set goals.
“We don’t want you doing the same thing everyday, said Schauf. “It’s kind of a balance. You have like 20 recommendations everyday and basically these will guide you to your goal with flexibility.”
One of the final major additions to PEAR 2.0 is the ability of the application to recognize repetition counts. In doing so, the personalized coaching coming from the app can keep tally of reps as well as motivate the individual while they are pumping out the last bit of push ups or stretching out a final set of lunges.
With the update complete, the folks at PEAR are now turning their attention to spreading and getting their name out into mainstream view.
“People can get the idea that, ‘Hey, if you want to make some change, you’ve got to have some guidance,’” said Schauf. “Or for people that are just bored running, to have someone coaching you and talking to you on the workout, it sounds cheesy, but if you try it, it’s a pretty cool experience.”