Digital fitness platform Balanced is launching out of beta Monday, aiming to provide exercise and fitness content tailored to seniors. 

For $20 a month, Balanced offers unlimited access to on-demand and live fitness classes. When users sign up, they can input information about injuries, pain points, illnesses and personal goals, and they’ll be recommended a video series geared toward their needs. The company’s offerings are also reviewed and vetted by a physical therapist. 

Balanced CEO Katie Reed said the focus on the senior market is important. Other more general virtual fitness options are geared toward a younger and healthier population, where a customer’s osteoporosis or chronic conditions might not be considered.

And she argues the current senior-focused fitness classes aren’t very appealing. 

“When looking at some other websites that are trying to tackle the older adult space, they treat it like a prescription or like medicine. And the website will say, ‘Gosh, you know, 30% of you will have muscle loss this year, when are you going to fall?’ Why would I want my grandmother to land on a site like that?” Reed told MobiHealthNews.

“It definitely hasn’t inspired her. It’s more like fear mongering.”

Balanced was cofounded last year by Reed and COO Kelly Froelich, both former engineers at direct-to-consumer virtual-care company Ro. They launched a pilot in independent living communities in the fall of 2020, and raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding from Primary Venture Partners and angel investors from companies including ClassPass, Ro, CityBlock and Stack Overflow earlier this year.

Reed said the company is starting on a direct-to-consumer path, but it aims to eventually distribute its program via Medicare Advantage plans.

“It makes sense with healthcare. I mean, for us, it could be different, but again, keeping my grandmother out of an online PT appointment, …….

Source: https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/balanced-catering-seniors-its-new-fitness-platform