Why training data belongs to the athlete and not to the gym
Most fitness software stores data under a gym. We do it the other way round, and that has consequences right down to the data model.
In most fitness software, your workouts are tied to your membership. If you cancel, the gym keeps the data and you start again somewhere else. That’s not a technical necessity but a choice, and we’ve made it differently.
With us, everything is tied to the person. Your training history, your food diary, your measurements and your photos are stored under your account. A gym gets access to what it needs to coach you -- not ownership.
What that means for an athlete. You take five years of personal records with you when you move. You can train at two gyms at the same time without your history splitting in two. And if you stop exercising and start again a year later, it’s all still there.
What it means for a gym. At first sight nothing, which is why almost nobody does it. But a new member who brings their history with them is a member you can coach from day one on what they can actually do -- instead of on an intake conversation and a guess.
Where it rubs. A gym that loses a member also loses the insight. That’s the price, and we think it’s the right one. Holding on to data to hold on to people isn’t retention but hostage-taking, and it doesn’t work anyway: anyone who wants to leave goes regardless.
It’s in the data model, not in a setting. Every table in our system is linked to a user, and an organisation is given rights to it. The other way round would mean a gym could own a row with a person in it, and that’s exactly the kind of construction you can never undo later.
