Fitness leaders have long complained that the public’s focus on weight is counterproductive. We all know that muscle weighs more than the same amount of fat, but fat accommodates 22% more space, so that tells us the real measurement we are looking for is volume. As you lose fat, the results are obvious as areas of the body shrink, but the weighing scale is still groaning. That’s pretty deflating.
Our obsession with simply measuring weight gain or loss has frustrated fitness leaders for a long time but measuring body composition with a 3D body scanner produces fast and, to the relief of many, non invasive, results. Once your goal is set, each time you return for a scan over the course of your fitness journey, you’ll see how you’re losing the fat and where it’s going from.
Styku 3D body scanner is the technology invented by ex NASA Physicist turned entrepreneur, Raj Sareen. Styku uses a powerful camera, housed in a portable aluminum base that cleverly extracts millions of data points in less than 30 seconds. Surface measurements of the subjects’ waist, chest, and arms are taken and the 3D model that can be rotated, panned, and zoomed from over 600 infrared images.
Customer Engagement and Retention:
Health Club operators have discovered that the Styku technology is a hugely effective way to tempt, engage and retain clients.
Diana Williams founded Fernwood Fitness, Melbourne Australia – was so impressed she’s installing Styku throughout her 70+ clubs. “We use it not just as a selling tool but more as a retention tool,” she said. “A measurement is just a number. But a visual image of what they look like, rather than their imagination, is much more motivating.” Diana also offers short-term 12-week challenges at her gyms, with Styku scans before and after “so they can see the difference,” she said. The initial outlay is a worthy investment, given the competitive advantage. “It’s an added service,” she said. “We do charge for it, but if someone’s not motivated, we’ll give them another scan at no charge to keep them”
David Whitaker, Finance Director at 3-1-5 Health Club, Lancaster, UK commented: “Styku has provided us with a market differential and the perfect interface for engaging with our customers. It offers a consistent and professional way to set goals and track progress of our members within the club and wider community. The team is offering a Styku scan as part of our 10 week Body Transformation Programmes, to validate the effectiveness of what we offer and help increase retention. I’m delighted that our return in investment was achieved in just 12 weeks.”
“Measurements are translated in to every day metrics so we can all understand the comparisons”, said Raj Sareen, CEO of LA-based Styku, which incidentally is now one of the largest suppliers of body scanning technology to fitness clubs, internationally. After showcasing it’s brilliance at IHRSA 2015 and with subsequent successful pilot schemes, Styku is now in 350 locations across 25 countries worldwide.
An Accidental Discovery
The technology was not initially designed for health clubs. Sareen got his start by cheekily hacking into webcams and turning them into body scanners but he got really excited when he realised the inherent possibilities in Microsoft’s Kinect that could create lifelike 3D scans of objects with its high-powered camera and armed with this knowledge he knew what route to take his invention.
In 2012, he was 1 of 11 proposals invited to Tech Stars, a respected accelerator program; superbly, he came out of that with a business plan to market his technology to clothing retailers with view to creating clothes that would always be the right size.
Although the pilot programme with Nordstrum went well, Sareen soon realised the clothing and fashion industry was particularly notorious at being slow to adapt and adopt new technology, so he started looking into other industries. As a result, he completely pivoted his business around 2 years ago.
Sareen’s new focus became the health and fitness industry. He saw such great potential to use his software not just as a way to precisely measure body composition but as a way to set fat loss goals, compare age/gender rankings and determine health risks. Because Styku offers consistent believable and repeatable results, the progress reports are an incredibly motivating visual for the clients. Even those operators who were at first a little reluctant when they saw Styku for the first time, thinking it might be just too revealing, quickly had their doubts dissipated when they realised the value added proposition.
These early adopters appreciate that Styku is a great validator and provides a benchmark as the client’s body shape changes and improves. It offers credibility to any brand that takes their clients satisfaction and journey to success seriously.
React Fitness is proud to be the exclusive distributor for the U.K. market and Styku has launched at select health, fitness and wellness facilities already.
Adapted from original source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-28/how-body-scanning-became-the-latest-health-club-must-have
