Strength By Numbers: Digital tools for wellness and fitness professionals to effectively
evaluate strength and movement performance
Measuring strength and movement performance is useful for almost anyone, from sports coaches who
are assessing athletes. These wellness professionals need to improve client outcomes for weekend
warriors looking to improve strength and power.
Andrew Lemon and Jordan Thurgood, along with their cofounders, had a vision to use new technologies
to provide accurate movement and strength data for almost any functional human movement, which led
to the birth of Strength By Numbers (SBN).
Lemon’s career was as an osteopath who had also spent many years running education courses, training
people in the importance of quantifying assessments they performed. Thurgood had spent several years
in technology and research commercialization. In 2016, the cofounders had a conversation around the
development and benefits of strength and movement assessment technologies. It sparked the question
of why the innovations were so underutilized by the general population.
“We saw an untapped opportunity for sport, wellness, and fitness professionals to utilize the incredible
benefits of performance measurement technology. We put our heads together and identified three main
reasons people weren’t taking advantage of the information at their fingertips. They were unsure of how
to use it, worried it would add more time to their sessions, and concerned it would just be another financial
cost on their business,” said Andrew Lemon, Cofounder of Strength By Numbers.
Accurate technology systems had previously only been available to elite sports organizations and
biomechanics labs. They were often big, bulky, and difficult to use. The SBN founders believed they could
address a gap in the market and set out to make performance assessment technology simple to use and
more intuitive for everybody.
Fast forward to today, and Strength By Numbers now provides advanced assessment technology for health
and fitness professionals. Over 60,000 Australians have been assessed by its user-friendly technology, and
this number continues to grow rapidly.
A comprehensive suite of products that drive meaningful insights
Lemon and Thurgood pulled together a team with decades of experience in research, health and fitness,
design, software development, engineering, and education. And after years of development and countless
iterations, Strength By Numbers now offers a suite of products known as the AxIT System.
The AxIT System provides powerful, intuitive assessment technology that is easy to use and comprehensive
for measuring performance and recovery. The three main products are Push-IT, Pull-IT, and Stomp-IT.
• Push-IT is a smart dynamometer designed to be a go-to isolated strength assessment tool. It
provides instant strength metrics and enables the user to track progress over time and measure
the effectiveness of specific movements.
• Pull-IT is a versatile device that is smaller than your phone and can measure up to 150kg of tension
force, making it the go-to isometric testing tool, turning any environment into your own
biomechanics setup.
• Stomp-IT are the world’s thinnest smart force plates that allow you to perform single and double-
limb performance assessments across both the lower and upper body.
Democratizing data for the everyday fitness and wellness professional
Lemon says that to give professionals and their clients actionable insights, the team has focused on
providing simple, understandable information delivered through an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface.
“Whether someone has goals of improving their strength or returning to sport after a break or injury, AxIT
will give them the ability to measure, monitor, and analyze their muscular function accurately. This tool is
valuable to professionals as it enables them to make the best decisions to optimize their clients’ training
and management plans. People routinely fail because if they can’t see improvements, they lose
motivation. The AxIT System tracks their progress, which helps individuals stay accountable and
motivated,” said Lemon.
Barriers to adoption are now coming down in the wellness sector
Lemon said with the rise of wearables and fitness apps, the wellness sector is changing quickly, and
harnessing rich data enables professionals to make better decisions.
“We are seeing an acceleration in the adoption of technology and digital tools in the wellness and fitness
industries, with digital-based products like smart watches and fitness bands becoming more mainstream.
We’re seeing the barriers to adoption coming down,” said Lemon.
Strength By Numbers continues to broaden its brand by penetrating the Australian professional wellness
and fitness markets. It now looks to expand its global footprint to the UK, the EU, and the US. Innovative
product development will also create new market opportunities in the coming period, allowing Strength
By Numbers to tap into a larger customer base.
Answer:
1. What key problem in the fitness and wellness industry led to the development of Strength By Numbers
(SBN)?
2. Identify and explain the three main barriers that prevented professionals from using performance
measurement technology.
3. How does the AxIT System help improve data accuracy and decision-making for fitness professionals?
4. Explain how tracking performance data over time (as done by SBN) can improve client motivation and
outcomes.