Democratising Livestreamed Fitness: supporting user's health and the leisure industry

In the UK, it has been previously reported that physical inactivity is responsible for one in six of all preventable deaths, with an estimated cost of £7.4bn/year (PHE). COVID-19 is creating fatal health problems that are an immediate and obvious concern; but what cannot be overlooked is that a sustained lockdown period will result in lower rates of wellbeing across society - lower levels of physical health, and deteriorating mental health that come from being isolated and limited in out-of-home pursuits.

The leisure sector, together with public health, is on-hand to help fight against the rising tide of inactivity in usual circumstances; but because of new regulations forcing leisure businesses to close and outdoor groups to be banned, overnight we have removed almost all extrinsic support that exists to support people to continue to be physically active. For example, early evidence suggests that the long government struggle against childhood obesity will be exacerbated by the pandemic (Columbia University).

Not only that, but leisure business cannot earn revenue using existing routes, and current trends indicate many will not be able to re-open after a lockdown is lifted, meaning we won't have these organisations there to continue to fight against inactivity once society becomes to return to normalcy.

Without any intervention, physical activity levels will plummet, and the UK (and the rest of the world) will face the next huge health challenge of widespread, chronic unchecked health issues associated with isolation and physical inactivity.

imin, the middleware platform for the leisure sector leaders, will rapidly develop a new API to deliver live information about live-streamed virtual exercise classes to existing and new B2B customers. By working in close collaboration with OpenActive and partners, this will be delivered across a number of local authorities and health bodies, to help those types of organisations to continue to support citizens to stay physically active whilst self-isolating, ensuring mental health and overall wellness is sustained in these most testing of times, as well as supporting fitness businesses to continue to deliver to their target users.

The Extension for impact allows imin to adjust our approach to prevailing conditions of COVID-19 to better support the UK population: the unpredictable rise and fall of lockdown restrictions. We will also leverage the increased focus on social prescribing and it's ability to support the population during COVID-19, by testing and exploring the integration of our innovations into new and existing social prescribing platforms to test efficacy on these patient pathways.