Only a handful of people showed up for Ed Buckley’s fitness class.
As a group fitness instructor at Gainesville Health and Fitness Center, he jotted down the exercises that he used in class on a whiteboard displayed outside of the room, hoping to catch the curiosity of gym wanderers.
This minor ploy was the tipping point, doubling the class size in two weeks. Curious as to why, Buckley asked his new pupils what had attracted them.
Once people read what to expect, they felt more comfortable trying something new, he said.
This idea of connecting people through fitness and digitally integrating it into people’s lives spurred the creation of peerFit in 2011.
Buckley and three friends — all University of Florida graduate students — developed a free iPhone app and mobile website, that aims to “to make group fitness accessible,” peerFit co-founder and senior vice president Scott Peeples said.
In its initial phase, the 20-something-year-olds reached out to universities across the country, cold calling gym after gym. Northern Arizona University and only a few others were on board.
On June 5, peerFit partnered with MINDBODY, “the largest cloud-based software provider in the health, wellness and beauty industries,” according to its website. This connected the local business with a database of over 25,000 gyms throughout the U.S., officially launching the app nationwide.
MINDBODY works directly with the gyms, allowing members to sign up for classes, and partners with companies like peerFit to promote the gyms’ classes with a searchable database and user reviews.
PeerFit now has the ability to connect directly with gym-goers in any given area and app-users throughout the country.
Matt Redinger, co-founder and vice president of operations and finance, said many gyms have yet to catch up to the “digital promotions” of fitness- and health-related activities.
PeerFit also contacts gyms directly, in order to share this technology.
The next step for peerFit is to find people who love group fitness classes to download the app, input content and add their reviews to help others.
“We want to target not only people who already work out, but also those who want to work out but just don’t know where to start,” Redinger said.
PeerFit’s user reviews will provide insight for the newcomers. It will soon allow users to invite their friends to go to classes with them, he said.
When deciding on which class to choose, a group fitness class first-timer may wonder what exercise gadgets they’ll need to bring with them or how intense the class is on a scale of yoga to CrossFit. The peerFit app becomes your virtual gym buddy with all these answers connected through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to make it more accessible.
UF journalism junior and peerFit blogger Samantha Black, 20, has never tried a group fitness class until now.
Interning with peerFit has made group fitness more interesting to her and has pushed her to try a class, Black said. She now goes to iBurn and yoga every week at Southwest Recreation Center.
“People need to try group fitness because it’s going to push them to go faster, to go longer and to do things that they probably wouldn’t think to do on their own,” Black said.
PeerFit plans to build a system around users’ goals and it will recommend the class that best suits the user.
“We are trying to be the most complete booking service that’s out there,” Buckley said.
