'A hub for all things fitness': The new virtual workout platform you can join for Dh18 a month​​​​​​​

When the pandemic hit, it seemed serendipitous that Dubai personal trainer Grant Goes was already working on an online fitness platform.

The portal – Find Fit People TV – went live on July 1, aiming to connect people with not only live-streamed exercise classes, but also educational talks on fitness and nutrition.

Better yet, it's all available for $4.95 (Dh18) per month.

Goes, who is originally from New Zealand, has been working on the idea for about 18 months, so when the pandemic hit, he says it was an easy pivot.

Especially as his previous project, an app to connect people with personal trainers and coaches in Dubai, had been impacted by a slowdown in business because of the economic situation.

"We had to pivot when Covid hit," Goes says.

"We saw everybody doing their online classes – and I knew people would want to keep doing that. So we wanted to make a kind of hybrid business model offering everything online."

The platform will offer live-streamed fitness classes from Dubai and around the world, as well as some pre-loaded on the website that can be performed on demand. The sessions will include a diverse range of mediums, including HIIT, yoga, dance and boxing.

The educational channel will offer webinars from global experts about everything from nutrition to sleep, meditation and pregnancy.

And finally, a community page will highlight success stories – anything from "a weight loss success story to if you've just climbed Mount Everest," Goes says. Anyone is able to contribute to this, and he welcomes all stories to be sent in via the website.

Eventually, the portal will offer live-streamed fitness classes 24 hours a day, meaning no matter what country or what time zone you are in, there will be something available.

While Goes had already started working on the platform well before the pandemic hit, the past few months have been about fine-tuning the offering for a post-Covid-19 world.

He has leveraged his connections in fitness studios here and further afield to find trainers to lead the classes.

But what about that price tag? How is he able to offer the service at such a low cost?

"The idea is that it's more about volume and audience," Goes says.

"I wanted it to be really accessible for people and allow people to access coaches and the expertise of coaches in other areas of the world."

Goes also insists it is a "multicultural platform", and he is now in talks with trainers in countries such as Argentina and Singapore, and in the UAE, to bring teachers on board to teach classes in other languages.

The personal contact details of all the trainers and experts who give talks will also be provided, so anyone with follow-up questions can get in touch.

"It's a hub for all things fitness, so people can have that connection with another person," Goes says.

"It's a great way for people to discover fitness and also the greater world that comes with it."