Upscale fitness chain Equinox is launching one of the world’s most expensive gym memberships — a $40,000-a-year program aimed at improving overall health and longevity.
Equinox is teaming up with lab-test startup Function Health to launch “Optimize by Equinox,” a personalized wellness program that includes everything from personal training and nutrition plans to sleep coaching and massage therapy. Something is involved. The program, announced Monday, is part of a fast-growing market for longevity and wellness, where the medicine, biotech, wellness and nutrition sectors are merging in the quest to reduce the effects of aging.
“This is really a paradigm shift in how we can live life and avoid suffering,” said Jonathan Swardlin, co-founder of Function Health. “It deals with what’s above the surface, your abs and glutes, which you can see in the mirror which is great. But it also deals with what’s below the surface and what you can’t see in the mirror. And it’s revolutionary.”
The Optimize program starts with a battery of tests. Function Health will test members for 100 biomarkers — from heart, liver and kidney health to metabolic and immune systems to cancer markers and nutrients. Equinox will then run its own battery of fitness tests, including VO2 max, strength and range of motion. The tests are repeated twice a year.
An Equinox “concierge” pulls all the tests and data together and helps the member create a personalized plan to improve their overall health and wellness. Each member will have a core team that includes a fitness trainer, a nutrition coach and a sleep coach, as well as a massage therapist.
An Optimize membership includes three, 60-minute training sessions per week with a top-level trainer. It also includes two half-hour sessions a month with a nutrition coach, two half-hour sessions a month with a sleep coach and one massage therapy session a month. In total, the program equates to 16 hours of coaching and training per month, according to Equinox.
“It’s like Formula One or an athlete, where you’re given a team of top experts in all these different verticals, to design a program based on all the data we’ve collected,” Julia Klemm, Vice President President Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at Equinox.
The move will mark a major test of Equinox’s continued efforts to expand beyond fitness into the broader health and wellness business, which has become a boom market among the wealthy.
The company recently closed a new $1.8 billion funding round that refinances $1.2 billion in existing debt. It said its performance last month made for its second-best April in company history.
Equinox plans to open new clubs later this year in Philadelphia and Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood, bringing its total locations in the pipeline to 27. According to its website, the company currently operates in 107 locations globally.
Clem said Equinox has always focused on the “four pillars” of longevity: movement, regeneration, nutrition and community.
“I sometimes joke that we’ve always been in the longevity business and the science is moving fast,” he said.
The new program will cost $3,000 a month for at least six months. The fee does not include an Equinox gym membership, which brings the total for the year to about $40,000 or more.
“This is the first, ultra-luxury human service that meets the data-meet coaching program,” Klemm said.
According to Equinox, the Optimize program will initially be available in New York City and Highland Park, Texas in late May and will eventually roll out to other states. Members will be able to train at Equinox’s elite “E Clubs,” which are like private gyms with a higher membership fee.
Swardlin said Function Health’s mission is to help people live “100 healthy years.” The company’s own program costs $499 for a test of 100 biomarkers. Yet demand is so strong that it has a waiting list of more than 200,000 people. He said Function wanted to partner with Equinox “because they are the leader in the category.” Function data is most useful when it can be applied, he said, which is where Equinox comes in with its personalized fitness and health programs.
“Living 100 healthy years doesn’t happen inside a doctor’s office,” Swardlin said. “It’s in the decisions you make every day. And it’s in the way you exercise, and Equinox really helps close the loop on that.”
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