Apple Fitness: a personal feedback loop that bridges the virtual divide
In a previous article I laid out a few thoughts about some of the key principles I bring to bear in my day job working at Crosslands as their learning designer. I spoke a little about the process involved and the kind of stages I might typically go through when I work on a course. Now in my fifth year I am still using these.
Then more recently I put together some personal reflections on how learning design is fundamentally linked to the curation/creation of a hospitable environment where expert skilled instruction makes effective use of accessible resources.
In this post I am going to underline this point with something I have been reflecting on from a sweaty yoga mat in my kitchen.
Apple Fitness
After several recurrent jogging injuries I swallowed my pride and took the advice of my wife seriously¹ to give some time to weekly core exercises and begin to strengthen my body in less damaging ways than road running. This was about three years ago.
I already had an Apple Watch so the relative convenience of enrolling in the Apple Fitness programme seemed like a no-brainer. For about £80 for one year I could access something that would fit in with my timetable² and save me a lot of money compared to the local gym offerings. So I went for it.
Does Apple Fitness exemplify 'skilled instruction and accessible resources within an hospitable environment'?
Well, the environment I 'entered' is made up of several components:
a yoga mat in whatever undisturbed space works for you (for between 10 and 30 minutes)
a screen/speakers/headphones that can project the Fitness app (TV, iPad, Mac or iPhone will work)
an Apple Watch
I look exactly like this.
The visual/ergonomic design across these elements is incredibly polished and holistic. At the core of the experience are Apple's three fitness rings (standing, movement and exercise) that gamify your physical existence in peculiar ways (anyone else gone out for a walk at 10pm to complete the red movement ring?).
Tell me how I am doing
One key characteristic you will see in any excellent learning environment is the use of personalised feedback - the Watch operates as a highly personal specific data source which is then represented on screen or with a haptic 'tap' on your wrist when those completed moments are reached. It couldn't feel more personal (I should also say that cocoon-like intimacy of AirPod headphones really cements this extraordinary experience).
You new imaginary coach
Let's just get the obvious thing out of the way here: the grand illusion is that these are real people serving you a real fitness class in real time, which of course they aren't. It's all professionally pre-recorded, performed and sliced up in ways that the Worthing Fit4 Membership can't compete with. It's your new imaginary coach!
I came across this excerpt from a post by Brace Belden³ on the rise of podcasting. He speaks directly into my last point:
"...parasocial relationships—that two-dollar phrase for people who are also excited to write things like “ontology”—are so popular now, being simulacra that work just good enough to replace the real thing. The “friendship simulator” element is crucial in all this, and also its most sordid part. The hugely popular shows have a familiarity to them, the host drawing listeners in such that you feel like you might just be a shy participant in an exciting conversation.
…Shows like this have a flow that the listener doesn’t actually participate in—the hosts have gone home, you’re the only one in the room, and it’s a dead conversation that’s already happened—but, given the intimacy of how the product is consumed, can get the same psychic impression. On your commute, while you do laundry or cook dinner, your best friend lives in your phone."
(Belden is himself a podcast host which makes this even more fun to read). Apple is providing a personal fitness trainer at the fraction of the price, providing challenging routines and just in case you felt like this as an impersonal experience - is providing the most intimate feedback you could get.
Scaled-up Diverse Hosting
Each of the instructors have been carefully 'curated' to encourage wider learner participation. During my time of taking these classes I was glad to be instructed by a woman who was clearly in her 70s, another who might be described as 'rotund' or others chosen from a range of diverse ethnicities. One class was led by a man with a prosthetic limb - I loved how normal this diverse bunch of coaches felt to be around. And by being at ease with them meant that I was at ease with myself - surely the goal for anyone who is out of shape or slightly embarrassed about their physicality, right? I was being generously encouraged by a caring inclusive community - and not implicitly body shamed within some evolutionary ‘survival of the fittest’ space.
These are important considerations for the way a fitness program is framed. Many YouTube equivalents out there unwittingly get this wrong. An organisation as large as Apple has done well to invest in this framing especially as they look to scale things up for lots of non-fitness types. It reminds me a little of the inclusive success of ParkRun, but maybe I will leave that until another time.
You’ll notice that these observations aren't getting into the specific classes. What I am doing is pointing out that effective learning requires a curated setting.
How effective was it, and can it improve?
Well - I think it's important to say that I participated in this for two years and then unsubscribed. My reasoning was that it had provided me with some helpful scaffolding, but then I needed to move away and do my own thing (I also wanted to save some money).
Positively, this had been a guided opportunity to develop a clearer idea of how to DO core exercises. One of the key principles behind effective learning is making space for deliberate practice - you can’t simply tell someone about the thing - you really need to give them practice time to develop habits and patterns of familiarity.
Apple bean-counters might argue that this was a failure because I'm not coughing up the dough any more, but I would argue that another perspective: that effective education always results in removing scaffolding. That might not sit with the capitalist dream of deeper wallet commitment, but I certainly made progress into great physical fitness - and with it - independent, confident practice.
I suppose my growing conviction is that online virtual education provision can only get you so far. One of the benchmarks for our work at Crosslands is that serving mature participation in a local community must always be the focus. The wonderful era of virtual tools is not an end in itself.
Maybe Worthing Fit4 is the best way forwards after all...
¹ Finally.
² Let me say straight away that I am a strong believer in the power of embodied communal activities - they break the trend for extreme individualism that late-capitalism has certainly infected us with. Isolated 'mastery' is poisonous to mental health and the apparent inefficiency of gathering with others in specific places, at specific times, for specific activities that can't be done anywhere else is a great thing that should be taken advantage of at every opportunity. There, I said my thing.
³ Source here. Thanks to Charles Arthur for linking to it with his excellent Overspill newletter.
