Pratt Institute, Masters of Industrial Design Thesis Project 2020

Home exercise equipment comes with a major problem: it doesn’t match common living space aesthetics. Most people don’t have spare rooms designated for exercise, so their home gyms stick out like a sore thumb. The Groove reexamines how fitness equipment is designed, and pushes it to a new aesthetic level.

Comprehensive experimentation with miniature models allowed me to combine opportunities for bodily ambulation with furniture-like forms.

The expanding bench stood out as the most successful exercise-furniture concept. The everyday bench has a familiar form that is already used for multiple purposes. Over the span of five months, three prototype iterations led to the final form of The Groove.

The Groove has three levels of resistance. You can engage one band for the least amount of tension, or two or three bands for a more difficult workout.

Removable seats reveal the inner mechanism for storage and easy access to your resistance bands.

Top left: Resistance bands can be swapped for different strengths. This enables additional tension customization and easy replacement of damaged bands.

Top right: The end units are on rubber wheels, so they quietly glide across any type of flooring.

Bottom left: Handheld resistance bands are integrated into the bench. They can be used for bicep curls, seated and standing rows, tricep extensions and more.

Bottom right: The barbell attachment functions as a telescoping tube that snaps into the resistance band handles. Its telescoping feature allows for easy storage. Since the resistance is provided by bands and not weights, it is lightweight and hassle-free.

Resistance band training is incredibly diverse, and incorporates the four pillars of fitness: aerobic, strengthening, stretching, and balance. All are important in maintaining physical health.

When you buy a home gym, you are only investing in the exercises that machine can provide. Unlike treadmills and stationary bikes, the Groove enables a dynamic full-body workout.

We all know how important it is to find a fitness regimen that compliments our unique lifestyles. We should be realistic about what physical health means to each individual, and how we choose to manage our lives and our living spaces. Taking care of ourselves goes beyond caring for our bodies, but our surroundings as well. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other. The Groove fits into your daily schedule and your living room.