VAHA will always be able to say it was here first. In April, the German-based company became the first smart mirror brand to launch in Britain. [1] At first glance, the VAHA X appears to be an elegant full-length mirror, but it is in fact a giant touchscreen that can stream live and on-demand exercise classes, connect you with a coach for a one-to-one PT session, and lets you take Zoom video calls and Instagram selfies as shown in figure 1. 

Figure 1.The smart home workout mirror

Figure 1 VAHA is a spin-off from a digital physio product called Pixformance, which is used by more than 600 fitness studios and hospitals in 11 countries. Founder Valerie Bures – who also co-founded Europe’s largest women’s fitness chain, Mrs Sporty – launched the smart mirror in Germany in 2019. She believes this background will give VAHA the edge in a rapidly growing category of home gym equipment

In the US, rivals Mirror (opens in new tab) and Tonal (opens in new tab) will be hard to dethrone. Sales of both surged during the pandemic as the nation scrambled to bring the gym home. Now VAHA has brought the smart mirror party to these shores there’s every chance the US brands won’t be far behind.

Vaha has over 100 on-demand classes pre-loaded into the mirror, as well as a rolling timetable of live classes throughout the day that you can book into and join. [3] Think of it like a digital boutique gym that covers fitness, wellness and recovery.

There are a few things to note when you’re setting up the mirror itself: it’s incredibly heavy at a whopping 45kg, so you’ll need two fairly strong people to manoeuvre it into the right spot and plug it in to the mains. You’ll also need a decent wi-fi connection, so the streamed workouts don’t lag.   

Once it’s switched on, it’s a case of downloading the Vaha app and pairing your mirror via Bluetooth to get started, which is a fairly simple process. During the set-up, you’re able to choose a specialised personal trainer, whose expertise is in-line with your fitness goals, and the basic Vaha membership includes a monthly 1-2-1 personal trainer session.

Our goal with VAHA is to provide everyone with a professional home workout that is not only effective, but also fun. [4] At the heart of our drive is the flow philosophy: when we are in flow, we forget space and time and become completely absorbed in what we are doing – optimal performance is combined with the greatest sense of well-being. To help our clients immerse themselves in their flow during workouts, we have embedded flow triggers into VAHA training: with individually challenging exercises, clear goals, and immediate feedback from personal trainers and movement analysis. All this in a classy designed mirror that can be inconspicuously integrated into any living room.

References:

1. https://www.coachmag.co.uk/gym-equipment/8898/vaha-fitness-mirror
2. https://www.insider.com/guides/health/fitness/mirror-review
3. https://www.independent.co.uk/indybest/vaha-fitness-mirror-review-smart-b1857575.html
4. https://www.ispo.com/en/ispo-award/2021/vaha

Cite this article:

Vinotha D (2022), The Smart Home Fitness Mirror: VAHA, AnaTechMaz, pp.126