Personal Training 2.0

As my post-graduation summer months come to an end and the beginning of the football season begins, I find myself trying to kick those much-enjoyed summer beers into touch and attempting to get myself fit for 'pre-season'. Very professional. Unlike my well-intentioned run on Monday morning.

It started off so well - iPod on full charge, strapping on ankles to hold various ligaments in place, suitable pair of shoes on and probably unsuitable clothing on in my vain attempts to impress the Surrey yummy mummies while on their daily jog. I confess to not remembering much of the next 23 minutes due to the excruciating pain my gut was enduring. However, I do remember resorting to exaggerated heavy breathing in order to seek pity from the said ladies of Surrey, realising after two minutes that my anticipated air of coolness and fitness would appear more like an air of constipation due to the inevitable 'stitch'. Through the sweat coating my eyes, I also remember performing a casual market research session on 4 women between the ages of 30 and 45. I don't profess to be Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock but I did note a couple of things. Each runner was:

1) kitted up as if they were preparing for 2012.
2) well groomed. Running's not just about getting fit.
3) wearing something on their wrist, be it a heart monitor, a copper band or an aid for listening to their power tunes.
4) listening to music through white bud earphones. No real surprise there, then.

These people take their running seriously and it is because of them that Nike+ arrived on the scene in 2006. Nike+ originally worked with your iPod to track your performance and help you improve your fitness and running times. Since, it has slowly developed alongside advancements in modern technology to provide an electronic personal training service + (shorthand is suitable here, no?) an online running community.

This month, Adidas has released MiCoach, its arguably belated repost to Nike+. On the surface, it looks as if it will be more appealing to Joe Bloggs, the athlete. While Nike+ merely implies that its service can be used by any sports person, the MiCoach brand is built on its provision of training plans for many different sports.

One thing, however, is glaringly missing from both products - a service that offers support and advice for its users while they are injured. Nike+'s recent online update moved the focus away from just supporting your individual training sessions to providing support for your entire fitness programme. Furthermore, nowadays the Nike+ website is more of a community - a Facebook for runners. The problem is that when a user gets injured, there is little rehabilitative help on offer. So, while they recover from this potentially disheartening spell of injury, they are effectively excluded from a community that they have been a part of.

MiCoach seems not to lean towards the community aspect of 'Personal Training 2.0'. However, this does not excuse it from providing injury support. In its current advertising campaign, MiCoach demonstrates that it is providing a service fit for professionals. In a product that is endorsed by athletes such as Jessica Ennis, Andy Murray and Jonny Wilkinson, all of whom have suffered from serious injuries in the past, it seems odd, if not wrong, that MiCoach doesn't offer support while you're enduring some down-time.

So, in this battle to be the leader in Personal Training 2.0, Nike, Adidas and any future competitor should look at how they can provide a more complete service and study how they can include injury support - a service that might help you 'be faster to the fast break, be faster to the ball'. MiCoach Rebound, or Nike+ BounceBack, perhaps?