No excuses now: Hong Kong online fitness passes make exercise easier
Take some of the heavy lifting out of getting fit with services to help you find classes and book them with a few clicks of your mouse
When a friend, frustrated with searching for a Pilates class, approached Rosh Pritmani with her problem, he had the answer.
"Many of the studios didn't have prices or class schedules listed online, and the big-box gyms that offered classes were asking for long-term contracts," says Pritmani. "Searching for a Pilates class was tedious and a pain."
But Pritmani had just come across ClassPass, a highly successful fitness pass start-up from New York that offers access to numerous boutique gyms with a contract-free monthly subscription. Pritmani and two silent partners decided to introduce a similar concept to Hong Kong. Launching on August 3, their start-up is called ClassCruiser.
For HK$899 a month, subscribers can take unlimited classes, including Pilates, yoga, mixed martial arts, indoor cycling, muay thai and dance, at more than 40 boutique studios and gyms across Hong Kong. Class schedules and bookings are online, and soon will be available through a phone app.
"Although the knowledge of the importance of fitness is increasing, the level of physical activity in Hong Kong is still very low. ClassPass in the US has got so many people moving. Sixty per cent of users are new to fitness - they never had a fitness regimen before," says Pritmani, 27, who has a degree in finance and strategy from the University of Southern California.
"We wanted to bring it to Hong Kong because the city really needs it. Our main concern is to get people healthy, happy and off their butts. We want to remove the barriers to fitness, to make fitness easy - just click and show up."