Ah, Life Time. The gym that doubles as a luxury resort where your membership costs more than your car payment and the locker rooms are fancier than your first apartment. Just when you thought they’d reached peak wellness, Life Time has decided to bless us with even more digital fitness options. Because, obviously, what the world really needed right now was 100 new on-demand classes to ignore while binging Netflix and promising ourselves we’ll “start tomorrow.”
The Age of Digital Transformation (and Excuses)
Life Time is leaning hard into the digital age, expanding its app like it’s trying to win the App Store Hunger Games. With a new buffet of on-demand classes and meditation sessions, Life Time is meeting the “ever-growing demand” for flexible, accessible wellness solutions—aka making it easier for us to pretend we’re active without leaving our couches.
Now you can seamlessly integrate fitness and mindfulness into your daily life, assuming your daily life isn’t already fully booked with doomscrolling and avoiding eye contact with your Peloton. This move is part of Life Time’s master plan to provide personalized experiences beyond their physical locations, which is corporate speak for, “Please keep paying us even if you never set foot in the gym.”
Integrating Digital with In-Club: The Best of Both Worlds (or the Worst, Depending on Your Wi-Fi)
According to Jayme Zylstra, Life Time’s executive producer of on-demand and live streaming (which is definitely a job title that existed five years ago), the integration of digital content with the in-club experience is all about creating an inclusive, customer-centric platform.
Translation? They’re trying to make sure you feel guilty both at the gym and at home.
Zylstra proudly announced that Life Time offers a diverse range of classes, from strength and cardio to yoga, Pilates, and ARORA (which sounds like a skincare brand but is apparently their active aging program). These classes are designed to be accessible anytime, anywhere—because nothing says “wellness” like doing squats next to your laundry pile at 11 p.m.
No One Left Behind (Except for the Treadmill You Haven’t Used Since 2020)
“We produce videos for all levels,” Zylstra said, as if that was a revolutionary concept. “Our performers and classes do not want to leave anyone behind.” Which is great, because my last yoga class left me behind somewhere around Downward Dog.
Apparently, Life Time’s on-demand classes include modifications so that, no matter what, you feel successful at the end. Because nothing boosts your self-esteem like a perky instructor telling you to “listen to your body” while you collapse face-first into a yoga mat you bought during quarantine.
Global Digital Engagement: We’re All in This (Lazy) Together
According to the PYMNTS Intelligence report (which sounds very serious), nearly 100% of consumers engage in at least one digital activity every month. Shocking, I know. This statistic probably includes activities like checking your phone 47 times before getting out of bed and Googling ‘symptoms of motivation deficiency.’
Countries with advanced digital infrastructures, like the U.S. and Singapore, show higher levels of digital engagement, while Brazil’s digital activity highlights the growing tech presence in developing economies. So, basically, we’re all glued to screens worldwide, and Life Time is here to make sure one of those screens occasionally shows a Pilates class.
Leveraging Digital Engagement (a.k.a. Trying to Make You Care)
As digital engagement rises globally, Life Time is capitalizing on this trend by offering more than 28,000 weekly classes. Yes, you read that right. 28,000. That’s approximately 27,990 more classes than any of us will ever take.
“In addition to our on-demand classes, we host over 70 live streaming sessions every week,” Zylstra said, probably while doing a plank. “This allows for real-time interaction with various instructors from across the country.”
Real-time interaction means you can experience the same crushing guilt of skipping a class as you would in person, but with the added bonus of not having to put on pants.
The Future of Fitness: Personalized, Digital, and Completely Ignored
Life Time isn’t just throwing classes into the void, though. They’re listening to user feedback to refine their offerings. Apparently, customers have requested longer classes and more specific instructor access, which is code for, “Can I just have the hot instructor from Tuesdays on demand all the time?”
So now, Life Time offers 45- to 60-minute classes to “elevate the digital experience.” Because nothing elevates your fitness like the existential dread of realizing you still have 50 minutes left in a cardio session.
As Life Time continues to evolve its platform, member feedback plays a crucial role. If I had to guess, that feedback probably includes:
“Can we get a class that burns calories just by watching it?”
“Does meditation work if I’m also checking emails?”
“How do I un-enroll from guilt?”
Final Thoughts: Fitness at Your Fingertips (and That’s Exactly Where It’ll Stay)
Life Time’s digital expansion is ambitious, impressive, and exactly what you’d expect from a company that recorded $2.2 billion in revenue last year. They’re clearly doing something right, even if most of us are doing it wrong.
So, if you’re looking for a new way to pretend you’re committed to fitness without actually committing to fitness, Life Time has you covered. Just download the app, pick a class, and then ignore it like the responsible adult you are.
Or, you know, actually do the class. But where’s the fun in that?
Disclaimer: No yoga mats were harmed in the making of this blog, though several were aggressively side-eyed.
