Fitness chain Gold’s Gym has launched a digital personal training app that features pre-recorded video trainer routines and a built-in music streaming service.

The service, which costs $9.99 monthly, offers members and non-members of the gym hundreds of trainer-led workouts. These workouts are spread across 10 different exercise modalities, and range from six to 60 minutes long.

According to Gold’s Gym, Amp is the first and only digital coaching platform launched by a brick-and-mortar health club brand.

“We took our 50-plus years of fitness experience and we applied it to the content and the programming and the workouts within Amp,” Gold’s Gym Chief Information Officer Adam Zeitsiff told MobiHealthNews. “The technology’s great, but it’s really about what you’re delivering to the user, what’s inside of it. … So, we decided to create workouts that can engage our members both in and out of the clubs, and really give them a Gold’s Gym trainer in their pocket with a coach-led workout wherever they are.”

Gold’s Gym’s decision to expand beyond its physical locations reflects a shifting focus in the industry, Zeitsiff explained, as there are no shortage of convenient digital fitness services — such as the virtual fitness network app ClassPass, which received $70 million in June, and the launch of Gixo's live workout app and funding announcement just a few weeks before. Amp was developed to ensure, in Zeitsiff’s words, that the gym chain would not become the fitness industry’s equivalent of Blockbuster Video.

“If you look at the fitness industry today, fitness industry club members or studio members are looking for the utmost flexibility in their workout routine,” he said. “There’s a number of new technologies, disruptive services, and fitness apps that have been out there and they’re finding ways to fulfill consumer need. As health club operators — not just us, but [others too] — we’re finding that these technologies and services are kind of disintermediating our members and our clubs, and we don’t want to do that.”

Zeitsiff said that while the app will be offered to certain tiers of Gold’s Gym members, the app holds a special appeal for those who might not be able to afford a full gym membership, or those that just don’t have a convenient location nearby. Also of note is the integrated music platform that Gold’s licensed for the app. This service includes thousands of ready-made DJ mixes of more than 40 music genres, and supports built-in interval and pacing tools through auditory signals. Importantly, Zeitsiff said, Amp’s music service isn’t tied to specific workouts, meaning that subscribers can listen in their spare time or mix and match tracks when exercising.

“You can do the same workout today with country music, and do it again tomorrow with hard rock and it feels like a completely different workout,” he said.

This feature is key to keeping users engaged with Amp’s services in the long-term, Zeitsiff continued. In addition, Gold’s will also be continuously uploading new workout videos and supporting limited-time events to keep users from bouncing off the app and their fitness goals.

“Every week we’re adding workouts to the different modalities, so this is not going to get stale,” he said. “There will be new workouts, there will be new challenges, there will be new modalities. For example, we’re going to create some challenges within the apps — you might want to join a six-week ‘Prove My Speed’ or ‘Lose My Gut’ challenge that we’re going to develop inside of Amp. … We understand that successful fitness comes from engagement, excitement, entertainment, and quality, and that’s what we’re going to continue to refresh all the time inside the app.”

Amp is available in the US and Canada for iOS and Android. Those interested can download the service as a two-hour trial and a subsequent one-week free membership before paying the monthly fee.