A full review of the Tempo Studio, now available in the UAE
It’s best I admit this right at the jump—I’ve never been a gym guy. I’ve tried it many times throughout my life, and besides the awkwardness I felt working out in a room full of people, shuffling from machine to machine, wiping things down and trying to ignore all the smells, the real issue was convincing myself to actually go there, out of my way, multiple times a week, for seemingly the rest of my life. Try as I might, I couldn’t make it a part of my lifestyle.
It’s not just the gym, though. I have always had a million excuses, both for myself and others, as to why I could never fully commit to physical self-betterment. Someone must have been actually listening, because it seems the Tempo Studio, an AI-powered home smart gym complete with a built-in personal trainer, was made to address each of them.
Here all of a sudden, in my home, is a large yet sleek-looking machine, a roughly two-meter-tall metallic easel-shaped device with a huge 42-inch screen and weights in a storage compartment at the bottom. When I turn it on, after making my own profile and setting my fitness goals, I’m presented with a seemingly endless number of classes (3,000 and counting) all separated into categories including HIIT, strength, yoga, meditation, flexibility, core and more—with lengths as low as 10 minutes if that’s all I have to spare.
When I start the classes, I put down my mat 1.8m away from the machine, put on the machine’s heartrate monitor on my wrist, and once the little cameras detect me, I’m greeted with a number of trainers who guide me through each class, as the screen tells me not only how many reps I’ve done, how fast my heart is beating, but also corrects me as I go if my form is off. If I’m taking a live class, I can even get feedback from the trainer as the class goes on.
This tech is called ‘3D Tempo Vision’, and the AI uses 3D sensors to track 250,000 points on your body up to 30 times every second. It’s nifty stuff, but while it’s extremely helpful to be able to interact with the machine and know how I’m doing—something I could previously only do in one of those classes I signed up for and only attended once or twice in a gym—it also has some of the same gamifying side-effects of the Apple Watch, adding an interactive element that an old workout VHS tape featuring Olivia Newton John just couldn’t.
The key thing is, it’s been two months and I’m using it every day. Yes, me, the guy who could never commit to regular exercise in the decades he’s been on this earth. I’m noticing results and feeling better, and it’s due in no small part to the fact that I now can access a personal trainer at any time of day, get a workout in that I actually enjoy with classes I have fun taking, and can track my progress.
Everyone’s needs are different, of course. Some people actually like the gym, and I am forced to assume, how it smells. If you’re like me, though, this might be the device you’ve been looking for. The Tempo Studio has had a profound impact on my life so far. That’s about as ringing an endorsement as I can give you.
The Tempo Studio from Tempo is priced at AED 10,995. Find it here.