Fitness in 2030: How will tech transform our workouts?

Where does Odders Lab sit in the evolving fitness landscape?

Odders Lab is the studio behind virtual reality fitness apps like LES MILLS BODYCOMBAT™ and LES MILLS DANCE™ , bringing the fun to fitness. We've been working in XR – immersive technologies that blend physical and digital worlds – and fitness for over seven years.

And now we're exploring how technology and AI can be harnessed to work in smart glasses for fitness. Right now, AI glasses function via a private in-lens display – transmitting the users’ messages, incoming calls and open-ear audio for calls, music and more – via an on-wrist control band.

How will technology reshape the fitness experience, beyond how or where people train?

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what is going to happen, but the experience of working out is going to be amplified by technology even further. The way we see that happening specifically is in terms of hyper-personalization of the experience.

Members will still be using weights, machines and accessing lots of different fitness modalities. But AI and augmented reality will be layered into every space, amplifying the experience with real-time, personalized data.

How do you see technology enhancing the human connection in workouts?

We don’t see tech replacing humans in fitness, rather the way ahead will be an amplification of them. We’ll be supercharging the member experience to meet them where they are.

For example, if you take personal trainers or group-led experiences, tech will help trainers to know increasingly specific information on how members are feeling.

Trainers will be able to track progress made, and at what level. And then they will be to adapt experiences to individuals, even in a group environment, in a way that helps members progress at their own pace.

What parts of the fitness experience is technology best placed to improve?

One of the biggest advantages that AI and smart glasses can offer is the ability to be context aware. That will revolutionize the way we work out by offering users the ability to use their surroundings to amplify workouts. Tech will enable them to seamlessly record the plates they’ve used and provide hands-free progress tracking using AI. By logging this information, smart glasses will be aware of what they've done, and help them reach where they want to get to.

The at-home user is well serviced by this tech. Will it eventually evolve to be usable in-club?

Absolutely, this tech will be recording a user’s unique information. This means they’ll arrive at their club, and trainers and Instructors will know how they slept, the last time they trained, and so on. This will allow staff to embed modifications into the user experience that are highly tailored to them, improving the member’s ability to go at a pace that is relevant to them and improve their enjoyment.

What role do you see smart glasses and XR environments playing in making workouts even more immersive and motivating?

In our space, we've done a lot of work combining fitness with gamification. Working with Dan Cohen and Rachael Newsham on Les Mills BodyCombat XR, and also with the Les Mills Dance team, we learned motivation is key. Something we’ve lacked in the past is the ability to actually react to what the user is doing in real-time. The direction smart glasses are headed in means we’ll be able to make sure we’re motivating members wherever they are. That is part of the magic of Les Mills and that is also what we are embedding in our agent when working on this.

How far away do you think we are from this tech becoming accessible to a mass audience?

That is going to take a few years. Right now we’re starting to see this tech reaching certain demographics. But to apply it at an ecosystem level could take around five to seven years. In 2025, smart glasses hit over 8 million sales just in the West, without taking into account China. And that is only going to grow once the big players like Meta, Google, and Apple start raising each other.

Right now, Meta is taking the lead, but Google and Apple will follow suit. Of course, once that democratizes, this will provide gyms, personal trainers, and lots of fitness stakeholders the ability to roll out hyper-personalized fitness experiences for the end users.

If you could sum up the future of fitness in one idea or feeling, shaped by emerging technology, what would it be?

Well let's say that the blue sky we’re aiming for at Odders Lab is that in the future, members will have all the tools and information to get the exact routine they need for that day. That will be optimized by the ability of stakeholders like trainers or gyms to have that information and ensure that workouts happen in the most efficient way.

So I wake up, and my personal fitness assistant will be able to suggest what I should do today, keep track, and everything will be seamless because it will be recorded for me, by the assistant, which will share that information so that the user can apply it directly and just focus on making the most effort for my gym experience.

What’s next in the pipeline for Odders Lab?

A big talking point for our end users is driving the capabilities of connected fitness with glasses that layer AI layer into the product. We're building that with our fitness agent called Oddy from Odders Lab. In the future, we to be able to connect this technology into anything that has a screen, to either replace the screen or make it more usable with glasses.

This way, the user won’t need to log into anything or wear secondary fitness trackers. They’ll just put on their glasses and go. The AI layer in their glasses will allow them to access all the relevant information in real-time. So that is where we are most passionate and working towards!

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