Fitness mirrors: we try the Kara Mirror, with classes including yoga, Pilates, kick-boxing and core
- The Kara Mirror, which retails for HK$12,500 (US$1,600), provides classes in English and Cantonese
- Janice Ng, an ambassador for sportswear retailer Lululemon, was among the first batch of trainers to film content for the mirror
I’m standing in front of a full-length mirror in a hotel room which has had the bed and furnishings ripped out and replaced with a treadmill, weights and a large fitness ball. I wasn’t especially excited about using precious staycation time to work out in a temporary gym, but when the Four Seasons Hotel concierge mentioned a “fitness mirror” I was intrigued.
I rather boldly select a 30-minute high-intensity workout and, after a quick scan that detects 17 key body points – including head, arms, knees, hips and ankles – I’m joined on the screen by an energetic woman in purple leggings.
After a quick warm-up, we’re doing lunges and jumping jacks together. She seems so in tune with what I’m doing (“Let’s take a water break,” she says when I’m flagging) that it’s easy to forget that it’s a preprogrammed workout and she’s not really in the room.
“The AI will learn – the more you work out the more it knows and will give you recommendations based on how well you do,” says Keith Rumjahn, the 36-year-old CEO and founder of OliveX, which makes the Kara Mirror. “Interactive fitness is about taking all your boring traditional machines like the bike and the treadmill and putting a screen on it with a live instructor and music. You can have the group fitness experience in your home.”
The tech-loving basketball coach (he wrote Coaching from the Base Up) and entrepreneur says the idea for the Kara Mirror came because having a career, a commute and two young kids at home meant he could no longer get to a Saturday group class.