Mason Bendewald Predicts the Future of Home Fitness
In last week’s Variety article George Lucas and Steven Spielberg predicted the future of entertainment. While they had a few disagreements on some issues, both maintain that VOD (video on demand) is the wave of the future. We are already seeing this play out in personal fitness with wildly popular sites like DailyBurn where users can stream custom-designed workouts to their television, computer, or mobile device with just an internet connection and the click of a button. Mason Bendewald, director of the top-selling P90X Extreme Home Fitness series and developer/producer of over 100 dailyburn workouts, released an article late last year discussing the same trend in the home fitness industry – but is there a future even beyond that?
Speaking on a panel for the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Spielberg peered even further down the road into the future of entertainment.
“We’re never going to be totally immersive as long as we’re looking at a square, whether it’s a movie screen or whether it’s a computer screen. We’ve got to get rid of that and we’ve got to put the player inside the experience, where no matter where you look you’re surrounded by a three-dimensional experience. That’s the future.”
We caught up with Mason Bendewald (one might call him the Spielberg of the fitness video industry) to peer a little further into the looking glass. Could this same future be a reality for the home fitness industry?
“The future of streaming digital video in the fitness industry is here,” says Bendewald. “Dailyburn offers the best home fitness has to offer when it comes to content that engages, entertains, and inspires. Now it’s exciting to think about what the next evolution of this might look like. Spielberg talks about three-dimensional movies and gaming experiences but imagine the implications for personal fitness. Imagine a virtual trainer standing beside you in the comfort of your living room. When technology meets affordability the possibilities are endless. Maybe today you’re jogging through the African plains and tomorrow you’re climbing Everest in a fully immersive three-dimensional experience. Maybe you’re fighting ninjas in the garage. There’s a whole world of possibilities.
It’s even more exciting when you factor in technology like Intelliburn, which is already being utilized through DailyBurn. Intelliburn analyzes information about you and constantly learns and adjusts to give you a workout that meets your specific needs. The one-size-fits-all approach to home fitness is over. When you pair this state-of-the-art technology with advances in three-dimensional entertainment it’s really exciting to look ahead in the world of home fitness!”