After helping pro athletes hone their game, Uplift Labs launches an app for everyday gymgoers

Uplift Labs has built a reputation with movement analysis software widely used by college and professional sports teams.  With just a pair of tripod-mounted iPhones or iPads, the company’s Uplift Capture software can use sophisticated computer vision techniques to track how athletes move, evaluate their performance, and offer guidance to avoid injuries. And as of Tuesday, the company is offering a new app—simply called Uplift—designed for individual athletes. As of launch, the app allows users to track their jumping performance, something cofounder and CEO Sukemasa Kabayama says matters not just to basketball players and track and field stars but to anyone interested in tracking their overall athletic performance. [Image: courtesy of Uplift] “The vertical jump is something that is a measurement tool,” he says. “Power and lower body explosiveness has applicability for a range of dynamic movements and sports and even in fitness, like CrossFit.” Kabayama, who was previously president of Tesla Motors Japan, says the company grew out of his own experience trying to stay fit and avoid injuries in workouts like CrossFit and has always aimed to offer an app that any athlete could use, not just the elite. “And we consider athletes anybody who has a body,” he says. [Image: courtesy of Uplift] Thanks to machine learning algorithms developed over the past couple of years, the app requires only a single phone, making it more accessible to everyday users. And while the company does recommend people use it with a tripod, it can also be held by a coach or workout buddy with a steady hand in a pinch. Generally, every time people use it, it will calculate metrics like jump height, takeoff velocity, and reactive strength index, allowing people to track their performance over time. Kabayama imagines people will use it through a gym or as part of a sports team, and the company plans to offer plans to make it easy for coaches and schools to monitor and subscribe for large numbers of athletes, but anyone can download the app and use it for $12.99 per month after a month’s free trial. Users can also join or create groups to cheer on—or compete with—teammates, friends, or athletic rivals, which Kabayama envisions could help young athletes in remote areas see how they compare on a broader scale. The company is likely to build out suggested groups for users to join, as well as letting them create their own. [Image: courtesy of Uplift] “We’re going to have a leaderboard ready,” he says. “On the leaderboard, you can see how you compare in terms of your vertical jump height with your teammates or your friends.” Kabayama expects the app to gain more features over time, including other activities that can be measured, and additional ways to share results through social media. And it also includes a generative AI-powered coach who can offer fitness advice, including getting explanations and images of common exercises or suggestions for particular workouts. The company worked to put reasonable guardrails on the AI and use Uplift’s data and employee experience to make sure it provides useful, accurate athletic advice through a chat interface. “You’re just talking to it as if you were talking to a coach,” Kabayama says.  The new Uplift app isn’t intended to replace the Uplift Capture professional tool, which the company continues to actively develop. But, Kabayama says, it can further democratize access to athletic analysis and training.  “Our company’s mission has always been not just working with professional and elite athletes,” he says. “That’s certainly where we started, and our technology has been validated, but we really started the company with the vision of improving movement performance and movement health for all people of every single type of skill and ability.”