Jeff Halevy is the CEO of Altis Movement Technologies, a venture-backed technology startup that will bring its AI Personal Trainer to consumers.
An award-winning entrepreneur and fifteen-year veteran of the health, medical, fitness, and technology industries, Jeff’s career counts successes and exits in verticals including health clubs, education, and content creation, insurtech, television and media, and public health advocacy.
Jeff Halevy is regarded as a thought leader and innovator in the health and fitness industries, which has earned him distinction in the mainstream media, with features by CNBC, Fox, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Women’s Health — to name a few — as well as trade publications like Club Solutions.
Jeff regularly delivers cutting-edge, motivational, entrepreneurship, and healthy lifestyle keynotes at/for esteemed associations and corporations like Bloomberg, UBS, AIG, AARP, and Entrepreneurs’ Organization.
He has consulted a variety of esteemed medical institutions including Human Genome Sciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Hospital for Special Surgery.
In addition to his companies and personal business endeavors, Jeff Halevy serves on the advisory boards of two tech companies: Venmo-founder’s new social media platform Ense and fitness industry software leader Exercise.com.
We recently spoke to Jeff Halevy where he shared the inside scoop on his new project, Altis.
What are you able to tell us about Altis?
Altis is on a mission to democratize access to health, starting with its primary lever: what we do with our bodies.
Let’s face it, for most, exercise is painful. Either physically, due to injury — or mentally, from not getting results, not having enough time, or simply not knowing what to do.
Many take a first swing at solving this with exercise instruction from a class — in-person or virtually — from different digital options (even social media), or from an app… only to end up exactly where they started, if not even more frustrated and demotivated.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have an elite personal trainer, who understands your body, capabilities, limitations, and goals? Who never blinks an eye carefully watching and instructing your every move?
Would it be even better if this trainer were always there with you and only cost $39 per month?
That’s Altis!
Altis sees you, understands you, and personally instructs you from a soundbar-size console that connects to any screen via HDMI, and delivers the most interactive and hyper-personalized fitness experience ever.
This is all made possible by Altis’s proprietary computer vision and deep learning models.
Altis’s computer vision neural network, Body GPS, is like GPS for human movement. It brings sports lab-grade sensorless kinematics into your living room, reading your body perfectly in 3D — and even showing you your avatar in real-time, along with on-screen graphical targets, to improve and correct your form. It really gameifies the entire experience.
This Body GPS data is paired with our deep learning model that was trained on tens of thousands of hours of programming and hundreds of millions of programming decisions by Olympic performance directors, strength and conditioning coaches in the pros, and internationally acclaimed doctors of physical therapy — the type of people who call Lebron a client.
We are first powering a “traditional” personal training strength experience with these technologies but are soon adding other movement-based disciplines like boxing and yoga. We are also so launching a clinical alpha with a large physical therapy partner.
And because Altis is able to capture the body so accurately, we are the first company to truly bring the human body into the Metaverse — and on that front, the possibilities are endless!
How do you see AI changing our relationship with fitness?
AI will optimize outcomes regardless of application. Fitness has been the victim of meritless nostrums for decades. You can’t argue with data. I believe that is finally about to change, and make scientific, evidence-based approaches to personal fitness available to everyone.
You have spent a good part of your professional career as a personal trainer. What do we lose when we move away from people and turn toward technology?
Yeah, I wore the “celebrity trainer” hat years ago, then health club owner. So obviously I realize the social and relational aspects of fitness are very important. Will some technologies pull us away from this? Sure. But others will just help us unite our virtual/in-home and real-world/gym experiences.
This is another area where Altis excels and we are in fact launching with select health clubs and hospitality partners, like Hyatt. Altis will become a platform for what everyone is now calling the hybrid or omnichannel experience because it delivers seamless continuity regardless of channel or environment.
What advantages does Altis offer compared to your standard gym routine?
Most people’s standard routine is to use the treadmill at the gym and quit within 12 months!
Altis actually helps exercisers — at home or in a gym — gain clarity and context. Altis first assesses a user to determine which exercises and regimen are right for their body, based not only on their individual goals, but also their individual capabilities and limitations (like ranges of motion of joints). Altis then puts together an optimal program for a user that is also modified and adjusts in real-time based on performance.
I think Altis really gives people the confidence and peace of mind they need to know they are doing the right thing for their body, at the right time, and in the right dose.
How has COVID affected your business model and marketing approach?
It really hasn’t. Since we are going to market B2B and B2C, and since gyms aren’t going anywhere and neither is home exercise, we feel we are uniquely positioned to meet the consumer exactly where they are right now, by providing a ton of “hybrid” flexibility.
Altis is the right solution at home, at the gym, or even when staying at your favorite hotel.
What kind of an impact do you see technology having on health and wellness in 2022?
Exponential. I think as we see Metaverse, wearables, IOT, and other technologies converge, it will yield a geometric result. I think cardio equipment that is internet-enabled and streams classes was just the beginning.
One day soon we’ll look at Peloton like AOL — and that’s not a knock against Peloton. I think they did a great job opening the category and built a great brand. But there are levels and levels of innovation and improvement just around the corner!
