Matthew Januszek, co-founder of Escape Fitness, and Mo Iqbal, founder and CEO of SweatWorks, broadcast live from the floor of CES 2024 in Las Vegas for this wide-ranging episode of the LIFTS Podcast — one of their most ambitious field recordings.

The episode spans interviews with both early-stage startups and established businesses, covering the latest developments in AI-powered wearables, connected fitness, boutique studio economics, public health technology, and the kind of passion-project entrepreneurship that tends to surface at a show like CES.

What This Episode Covers

CES 2024, billed as the most powerful tech event in the world, drew tens of thousands of exhibitors and attendees to Las Vegas in January 2024, with the fitness and health technology sector occupying a growing share of the show floor.

For the fitness industry, CES functions as an annual glimpse at the technologies that will reshape gyms, wearables, and consumer health habits over the following two to three years — making it essential territory for anyone making product, investment, or programming decisions.

The 2024 edition was particularly notable for the prominence of AI-powered applications in fitness: from wearables that quantify strength training to analytics platforms designed to coordinate care across health and fitness providers.

Key Moments from the Conversation

• An AI-powered wearable designed to quantify and personalize strength training illustrated how device makers are trying to capture training data that existing wearables have not managed to measure accurately.
• Fitness industry strategists offered perspective on what separates durable innovations from CES hype, grounding the conversation in real industry experience.
• A display designed for connected rowers showed how hardware additions can bring a connected, content-rich experience to rowing without requiring a full platform replacement.
• Care analytics and coordination platforms demonstrated how technology aims to bridge the gap between fitness participation and measurable health outcomes.
• Smart resistance bands and suspension trainers brought data capture and progressive programming to traditionally low-tech equipment categories.
• Conversations on boutique fitness economics addressed how technology can drive profitability — a persistent commercial challenge that innovation alone rarely solves.
• The role of small, incubator-stage founders at CES emerged as a consistent theme: some of the most interesting ideas at the show come from entrepreneurs who entered fitness through personal passion rather than institutional investment.
• The role of technology in addressing the global public health crisis was raised across multiple interviews, reflecting a broadening of the fitness industry's self-perception from wellness service to preventive healthcare partner.

Why This Conversation Matters

Matthew Januszek has spent his career at the intersection of fitness equipment and the evolving demands of gym operators and consumers — so walking CES with a microphone is a natural extension of the strategic intelligence work that underpins Escape Fitness USA's product decisions.

LIFTS exists to surface these conversations for the full spectrum of fitness industry professionals who cannot attend CES themselves, ensuring that insights from the world's most influential tech event reach the operators, coaches, and entrepreneurs who need them most.

▶  Watch the full episode on YouTube

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