If you’ve ever dipped a toe in the veritable ocean of fitness-training smartphone apps, you’ve probably come across Runtastic. The seven-year-old fitness firm’s suite of more than 20 apps has garnered 195 million downloads and 95 million users from over 31 nations. And starting this month, one of them is getting a major makeover. Runtastic’s weight-training sub-brand Results gained 30 new workout videos and a new 12-week training plan tailored for women in an update released January 1.
“Millions of women already use Results to reach their fitness goals,” Florian Gschwandtner, CEO and co-founder of Runtastic said in a press release. “We’ve listened to their recommendations and created new content, customized workouts and a training plan that focuses on their feedback. We want to help any woman — young moms, businesswomen, fitness fans, you name it — succeed with Runtastic. With the new Results, we’re giving women an even more customized experience, which is bound to lead to fitness success and boosted self-confidence.”
It’s more than just a token effort. Runtastic has partnered with Adidas to produce content that will “inspire” and “educate” women with a targeted approach focused on “exercise,” “progress,” and “community.”
The new 12-week fitness program begins with a personalized assessment. From that point, the collection of 180 step-by-step instructional exercise videos, a week-by-week health guide, and nutrition resources adjusts periodically in response to feedback.
Some of the included workouts are carryovers from the original Results app, but others — namely 30 new bodyweight exercises, which each run from 15 to 45 minutes — hone in on areas like abs and glutes. Runtastic contends this training is suited uniquely to women’s physiology. “Women have weaker connective tissue,” Lunden Souza, a fitness coach at Runtastic, said. “One of the best things women can do for their bodies is strengthening their muscles.” The new workouts are optimized to improve “agility,” “stability,” and “endurance,” Souza said, and to prevent injuries.
“Our focus on women speaks to our commitment to encourage, empower, and equip women with the tools they need to achieve their goals, ” said Stephanie Peterson, the firm’s chief marketing officer. “I’m so proud that we’re a company that celebrates our female users and gives them the tools to build confidence and communities, inspire one another and achieve success together.”
Runtastic Results is available for free download in the App Store and Google Play.
Runtastic, a private outfit founded in 2009, was acquired by the Adidas Group two years ago for a cool $240 million. The original Runtastic app tracked distance, speed, pace, duration, heart rate, calorie consumption, and other metrics, and made those workout summaries available within via Runtastic’s line of GPS devices and a web dashboard.
The company’s sale initiated a trend: fitness apps coming under the purview of legacy sports brands. In 2015, Under Armour acquired Endomondo and MyFitnessPal for $560 million; Weight Watchers purchased Hot5; and Fitbit purchased FitStar.
The likely reason: Fitness apps remain a hot commodity. More than 50 percent of U.S. smartphone users downloaded a health-related tracking app in 2015, and the market is expected to grow by as much as 31 percent by 2020.
