High-end 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 partners with lab testing startup Function Health to launch “Optimize by Equinox,” a personalized health program that includes everything from personal training and nutrition plans to sleep coaching and massage therapy . The program, announced Monday, is part of the rapidly growing longevity and wellness market, where the fields of medicine, biotechnology, fitness and nutrition are merging in an effort to slow the effects of aging.
“This is truly a paradigm shift in how we can live with vitality and avoid suffering,” said Jonathan Swerdlin, co-founder of Function Health. “It deals with what’s above the surface, your abs and your 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 begins with a battery of tests. Function Health will test members for 100 biomarkers – ranging from heart, liver and kidney health to metabolic and immune systems, 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” gathers all the tests and data and helps the member design a personalized plan to improve their overall health and fitness. Each member will have a core team that includes a fitness trainer, nutrition coach and sleep coach as well as a massage therapist.
The Optimize subscription includes three 60-minute training sessions per week with a top trainer. It also includes two half-hour sessions per month with a nutrition coach, two half-hour sessions per month with a sleep coach and one massage therapy session per month. In total, the program equates to 16 hours per month of coaching and training, according to Equinox.
“It’s the same as Formula 1 or an athlete, where you’re given a team of the best experts in all these different sectors, to design a program based on all the data we’ve collected,” said Julia Klim, vice president of 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 sector, which has become a booming market among the wealthy.
The company recently closed a new $1.8 billion funding round that refinances $1.2 billion of existing debt. He said his performance last month was the second best April in his history.
Equinox plans to open new clubs in Philadelphia and the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles later this year, bringing the total number of locations in the pipeline to 27. The company currently operates 107 locations worldwide, according to its website Internet.
Klim 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 catching up,” she said.
The new program will cost $3,000 per month for at least six months. The fee does not include Equinox gym membership, bringing the total to about $40,000 or more for the year.
“This is a highly luxurious, human-centered service that meets data and a coaching program,” Klim said.
The Optimize program will initially be available starting in late May in New York and Highland Park, Texas, and will eventually roll out to other states, according to Equinox. Members will be able to train at Equinox’s elite “E Clubs,” which are more like private gyms with higher membership fees.
Swerdlin said Function Health’s mission is to help people live “100 years of good health.” The company’s program costs $499 for testing 100 biomarkers. Yet demand is so high that there is 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.” He said Function’s data is most useful when it can be applied, and that’s where Equinox, with its personalized fitness and health programs, comes in.
“Living 100 years in good health doesn’t happen in a doctor’s office,” Swerdlin said. “It happens in your daily decisions. And it also happens in the way you exercise, and Equinox really helps close the loop on that.”
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