Top 7 OTT fitness classes in 2022

Our workout habits have changed—more and more people are choosing to sweat it out at home rather than make the trek to the gym. 

A recent survey found that there has been a structural shift in how society gets fit, with 55% of people planning to ditch their gym memberships entirely and work out at home instead. Thanks to the rise of online fitness classes, we’ve been able to turn our homes into fitness studios.

If you are looking to workout at home or start teaching fitness classes online, an OTT platform might be the solution for you.

The best exciting part about OTT fitness classes is that you can access your fitness class from anywhere around the world without having to meet in person.

In this article, we’re going to break down our favorite online fitness classes, from yoga to boxing to cardio, and how they use Vimeo OTT to teach classes online.

Ready to get fit? 

Best overall: Hoypro.com

Classes offered: Workout challenges, total body workouts, cardio, upper-body strength.
Price: $19.99/month

Millionaire Hoy started his career as a fitness instructor running bootcamps to help mothers get fit. 

However, with Chicago’s brutal Winters, he knew that he would have to move online for his business to survive. After growing his YouTube channel to 288,000 subscribers, Millionaire felt that he wanted more freedom, creativity, and community over his fitness classes. 

So, he launched Hoypro.com

For $19.99/month, Hoy’s community has access to 70+ workout programs, including monthly challenges and yoga classes. They can also choose whatever fitness regime they like, as there are 1500 different workouts (totaling 800+ hours!) available at any time on the site’s content library. 

To ensure the fitness community he built on YouTube could get the best workout possible, he created a branded app available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Chromecast. The reason for doing this was simple: he wanted to make his fitness classes as similar to his in-person bootcamps as possible. 

“For me, it’s really about, ‘How can I reach all of the people who are here, give them the most options, and have the best possible service for them?’”

Millionaire Hoy

Most popular: Corepower Yoga

Classes offered: Hot yoga, sculpt, meditation, and live classes.
Price: $19.99/month

Corepower Yoga is an excellent example of an online fitness class that truly puts its audience first. 

The online studio has 300+ classes available on various platforms like iPhone, Apple TV, Android, and Roku. Subscribers can choose from yoga, sculpt, or meditation classes, and the studio adds new classes every month to keep its content library fresh. 

The virtual classes are split up into several groups so subscribers can easily choose what class they want to take: 

For $19.99/month, subscribers not only get access to an entire library of classes but can also watch Corepower Live—the studio’s daily live stream. All they have to do is reserve a spot, check their internet connection, and an experienced instructor will guide their workout in real-time.

Best for yoga classes: Y7 Studio

Classes offered: Live flows, Vinyasa, meditation, and classes by length (60, 45, 30, and 15-minute sessions).
Price: $19.20/month

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Y7 Studio found itself in an interesting place: the online content they were experimenting with was suddenly the only way they could connect with their loyal following. 

So, the studio decided to jump in the deep end and go entirely online—basically overnight. 

A year later, the studio offers 200+ classes, and its thousands of subscribers can access 16,000 hours of content any time they want to get zen. However, the change wasn’t easy—as Y7 Studio’s owner Sarah Larson Levey explains.

“You should have seen us… Our CFO is editing videos. Our Ops Coordinator, who is now our Production Manager, she has fully switched roles, and we’re all editing videos. We’re uploading them to YouTube,” she remembers.

“I’m writing notes, like, ‘At 6:07 I hear a squeaking noise,’ and we’re figuring it out as we go, right?”

Sarah Larson Levey

Even though the studio didn’t have a tech team, they still wanted their classes to look professional. They turned to Vimeo OTT to turn their backlog of content into a channel that wasn’t just a good experience for their customers but also something they could monetize. 

Going online has allowed the studio to reach people that never had the chance of visiting in person.

“People who have never had the chance to really experience Y7 in the studio are loving it, and just so appreciative that they’re able to get these kinds of flows,” Sarah says. 

“That connection is helping us grow way beyond the four walls of our studio and allowing us to reach more people than we ever could.”

Best for boxing classes: BoxUnion

Classes offered: Boxing, cardio, sculpt, strength, yoga, meditation, and stretch.
Price: $29.99/month

The team behind BoxUnion launched the brand with one goal: to create a space that wasn’t intimidating where people could box for fitness. 

And over the past three years, that’s exactly what they did. By mixing beat-bumping music and an inclusive atmosphere, the brand now has many fitness studios across southern California. 
BoxUnion was already in the process of launching online classes when they had to shut in early 2020. They began testing their content on Instagram Live to see if their community would be interested in their online classes. And with the (hugely) popular response, the studio started building an OTT platform so its subscribers could access classes at any time.

The studio now has subscribers across five different continents, and its members are engaging online thanks to a private Facebook group for the BoxUnion Digital Community. The members directly message each other and take classes together.

“It’s motivating and fun for people to know they aren’t working out alone,”

Felicia Alexander / BoxUnion co-founder

Best for strength: System of Strength

Classes offered: Meditation, control, ebb+flow, restore+recover, and no equipment workouts.
Price: $24.99/month

Keri Croft and Gretchen Dusseau created the System of Strength to be more than just a place to work out. The founders think of it as something bigger—a lifestyle and an attitude. 

So how exactly did this larger-than-life brand channel its momentum from the studio to the screen?

Thankfully, the studio had stockpiled content into a library since it opened in 2012. When they had to shut their doors, they thought it would be easy to pivot to virtual classes as they had already invested in a customized digital platform.

“While it served the purpose at the time, it didn’t allow us to be as nimble with making changes without having a developer team for support,”

“That’s when we started looking into different platforms that were more user friendly and offered the flexibility to have more autonomy, and not require developers to do the work for us.”

Darcey Wion

The studio switched to Vimeo’s live streaming and OTT platforms so they could offer on-demand content as well as live stream classes. It also gave their members a chance to trial the online classes for free before paying for a full subscription. 

Best for quick workouts: Fit Fusion by Jillian Michaels

Classes offered: 10-minute workouts, bootcamps, cardio, pilates, body strengthening.
Price: $9.99/month

The fitness instructor that needs no introduction: Jillian Michaels. 

When Michaels launched her online classes to the world in 2017, she offered members a one-stop-shop for on-demand streaming workouts. People can subscribe to Fit Fusion and access a wide range of workouts, from cardio and yoga to pilates and even ballet body strengthening. 

As the fitness classes can be streamed on iOS, Android devices, AppleTV, AndroidTV, Roku, Chromecast, and Amazon FireTV, members can join from virtually anywhere as long as they have an internet connection. 

When a member wants to stream a workout, they can use the Fit Fusion site to search for the perfect class based on their preferred trainer, targeted areas, modality, and even the length of the class. The portal also has an entire library of educational documentaries for members who want to learn more about diet and lifestyle.

Best for cardio: Body Shoppe

Classes offered: Tempo Dance Cardio, Flex + Flow, HIIT, yoga, and cardio.
Price: $25/month

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Body Shoppe moved quickly to keep their fitness classes available to members—launching online 24 hours after they had to shut their doors. 

Although the studio didn’t have an existing content library, it built up its on-demand content to offer members over 130 classes within the first month. It now adds new classes every week to keep content fresh, as well as offering Livestream workouts. 

Owner Kelsey Greenfield says the key to launching the online portal was picking the right platform. She created a list of must-haves, like an interactive chat feature, high-quality video, and ease of use, and went from there.

“(We needed) a platform that would deliver clear video as we burpee across the screen, an easy interface for our customers to use, and features that would allow us to interact with our users in real-time,” she says. 

After picking the perfect platform, Body Shoppe now uses features like interactive chat to hold members accountable by taking “attendance” and encourage and give feedback to people in the class. 

“Our goal is to make it feel like you’re in the studio with us.”

And the studio’s plan post-COVID?

“We absolutely plan to keep virtual classes going, even after operations go back to normal(ish),” Kelsey says. 

“Our members are loving it, and we’ve engaged a broader market outside of New Orleans.”

Wrap up

This past year made significant impacts on the fitness industry, but we are thrilled to many fitness content creators and studios blossom in new ways with on-demand video content.

Starting an online fitness program is no easy feat but for these fitness entrepreneurs, their resilience and adaptability made fitness accessible to many of us. We are excited to see what they have in store for us next!

Thinking about launching an online fitness studio? Learn how you can get started today.