Myzone Built a Gym Community. Now You Can Bring Your Own Watch.

The person on the next exercise bike can be faster, stronger and considerably less out of breath. Myzone can still give you the same score. Its arithmetic starts with your heart rate relative to your own maximum, turning exertion into coloured tiles and points. In a room full of people doing different versions of hard, the scoreboard offers a common language.

That is an appealing proposition for the member who will never win a sprint. It is also a commercial proposition for the gym that wants that member back next Tuesday. Myzone sells the devices and software connecting those two interests: personal recognition for the exerciser, a reason to return for the operator. Now it is loosening the connection between joining its community and buying its hardware.

Founded by fitness entrepreneur Dave Wright in 2011, Myzone has spent years making heart-rate training social. Its newer smartwatch access, sold through Myzone Go, makes the strategic question unusually plain: how much of the value sits in the sensor, and how much sits in the people who notice your workout?

01 / THE RULESEven red has a ceiling

Myzone Effort Points, usually shortened to MEPs, accumulate by the minute. The grey zone begins at 50 percent of maximum heart rate and earns one point per minute. Blue earns two, green three, yellow four. Red, the highest zone, also earns four. The scoreboard contains no extra points-per-minute prize for moving from yellow into red.

That ceiling is a useful detail in a product built around competition. It does not remove every incentive to overdo a workout, but it avoids making the highest zone more lucrative than the one below. The recurring target is 1,300 MEPs a month, with status progression recognising successive qualifying months. A single heroic session cannot substitute for months of participation.

The system begins with an estimated maximum heart rate, using age in its calculation. Myzone can adjust that estimate upward when a user sustains a higher reading. Personalisation matters: two people with the same pulse need not be in the same zone. Equally, an estimate remains an estimate. The points describe one kind of exercise intensity, not a complete inventory of what a body accomplished.

02 / THE CUSTOMERA gym buys another Tuesday

For operators, the product extends well beyond a belt. A facility license supplies software, challenges and training support, with optional additions. Screens display live workout tiles so instructors can see participants’ relative intensity. The app carries activity records and community features beyond the studio. Myzone’s website displays brands including David Lloyd, Anytime Fitness and Snap Fitness; the opportunity spans boutique studios, larger clubs and public leisure settings.

The business therefore has two customers to satisfy. The operator wants a service that helps members participate and renew. The member wants feedback that feels useful enough to earn a place in an already crowded digital life. Myzone can sell through the facility while also reaching individuals through its online shop and subscriptions. This is fitness hardware attached to a recurring software business.

Myzone currently advertises a 25 percent increase in member retention among the typical outcomes its customers see. That is the company’s claim, not a controlled demonstration that installing the system produces that result. People who adopt a fitness tracker may already be more committed. A gym assessing the purchase needs to distinguish that selection effect from any improvement created by coaching, challenges and the technology itself.

03 / THE OBSTACLEThey already had a watch

The clearest documented friction appeared at the entrance. In March 2024, Myzone explained that operators found it difficult to persuade some members to buy another wearable. Its response was MZ-Open, a route into participating Myzone environments through Apple and Android smartwatches. The planned switch-on covered the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“We listened.”

Leon Rudge, then Myzone CTO, on the decision to open smartwatch access, March 2024

London boutique operator Milo and the Bull piloted the feature. Its head of fitness, Josh Cooper, reported that existing-watch access encouraged people who had no interest in purchasing a new device to try Myzone. That is a specific adoption problem and a specific product response. It also puts a limit on the hardware company’s instinct to make every new participant a hardware customer.

By November 2025, Myzone was describing a broader software-first direction through Myzone Go. It adopted the label Motivation Technology, or MoTech, and put long-term participation at the centre of its pitch. The branding is ambitious; the practical change is easier to grasp. A compatible watch can become a ticket to the group without another sensor purchase.

04 / THE BILLWhat joining actually costs

There are now several ways to pay. At the time of research, Myzone’s UK shop listed the MZ-Switch at £119.99 and Myzone Max at £129.99. The former can move between chest, arm and wrist; Max is a chest-based device. Myzone Go’s published August 2026 terms listed £5.99 or US$6.99 per month after the applicable trial, with billing governed by the app store.

Those are different purchases. A device price buys hardware; Go supplies a subscription route using a supported watch. A facility’s bill also reflects its license and chosen setup. Comparing one retail price with an entire gym installation would miss the screens, receiver, software and staff work that make the class experience possible.

For an individual, getting started is also a small administrative exercise. Myzone’s setup guidance asks users to register an account and associate it with a facility code, or use a regional code when they do not belong to a partner gym. Stored sessions need to reach the app to appear in the record. These mundane steps matter to a product selling recognition: a workout that never uploads cannot join the conversation.

Myzone itself took on outside capital after years of organic growth. Its January 2022 announcement reported a $17.2 million investment from BGF, alongside the involvement of technology entrepreneur Vin Murria as investor and non-executive chair. The reported valuation was $102 million. At that point, the company said it served more than 9,000 facilities in 84 countries and had shipped over two million devices. Those are dated expansion milestones, not a count of today’s active subscribers.

05 / THE NEXT WORKOUTThe strength question

A heart-rate product can make cardiovascular exertion legible. Strength training raises a different measurement problem: a pulse trace does not tell a coach how much weight someone lifted or how well they moved it. Myzone’s March 2026 HFA Show announcement addressed that gap with proposed Strength Tracking, intended to recognise strength-based sessions within its effort-reward system.

The same announcement introduced Garmin integration and Switch 2.0, a revised interchangeable wearable. By July, Myzone’s support documentation listed Garmin among Go’s supported devices, and an August challenge promoted that connection. Switch 2 also appears in the current device catalogue. Strength Tracking remains an announced initiative in this profile; announcing a feature and establishing its everyday availability are different milestones.

Existing hardware already illustrates why activity context matters. MZ-Switch uses electrical sensing on the chest and optical sensing on the wrist or arm. Myzone advises chest use for the most accurate readings and flags gripping and unpredictable movements as difficulties for optical measurement. The choice of wearing position is more than a matter of which strap matches your shoes.

06 / THE COMPETITIONThe wall screen is not the whole moat

Myzone does not own group heart-rate training. Polar Club also puts live readings and colour zones on a shared screen, gives instructors feedback and sends workout summaries to personal accounts. A gym comparing systems should examine the devices its members already use, the instructor workflow and what happens between classes. A colourful display alone is a limited distinction.

Myzone’s positioning rests on the combined experience: its MEP currency, recurring status goals, club challenges, social connections and multiple ways to join. The member can carry a recognisable score from one workout to another. Supporting rival hardware complicates the competitive picture in a useful way: a smartwatch can compete for the user’s attention while also delivering that user into Myzone.

The leadership changes fit that direction. Former Life Fitness president Jay Worthy became Group CEO in April 2024. In 2025, Myzone announced product, sales and finance appointments, then added behaviour-change specialist Dr Heather McKee as Motivation Science Advisor. Its public culture emphasises inclusion and recognition; these appointments show how it is staffing that proposition with operating experience and behavioural expertise.

07 / THE TAKEAWAYGive somebody a reason to notice

The transferable lesson is practical. Make progress visible soon enough for a newcomer to experience it. Choose a comparison that does not reserve recognition for the fittest person in the room. Then use the resulting information: Myzone’s operator guidance describes spotting declining participation and following up personally. A dormant dashboard cannot do that work for the staff.

For an operator evaluating the system, a sensible pilot would track adoption, repeat visits and continued membership together. It would include beginners and occasional visitors, not just enthusiastic regulars. That is an evaluation approach, not a promised Myzone result. The question is whether more people build a useful routine after the introduction.

The approach is less compelling where members dislike shared scoring, instructors ignore the feedback or connectivity makes a simple class feel technical. It also depends on choosing a measure suited to the activity. Myzone has made an instructive concession by opening access: the device somebody already owns may be good enough to get them started. The harder sale comes every week, when that person decides whether to show up again.