What do I want from a gym?

And when marketing meets reality

Hello,

I would have liked to have added audio to this post, but things have run away from me a bit since returning from my holiday, especially since I have started a new job! More on this to come in a future post.

Sarah

Photo by Danielle Cerullo on Unsplash

Would you pay $40,000 (USD) for an annual gym membership?

Now, before you reject this amazing offer out of hand, let me tell you about what that figure will get you:

• Blood tests to check various biomarkers such as hormone levels

• Fitness tests assessing strength and movement range

• Access to a nutritionist

• A sleep coach

• And I assume use of the gym facilities… including the showers and toilets

A package offering these benefits was launched earlier this year by a luxury US fitness brand Equinox (currently, there is a waitlist, just in case you were wondering). And it is part of their optimise program that aims to help people live a ‘long, healthier life’ through personalised health and fitness plans.

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Health is wealth (but only if you can afford it)

Shortly after reading this article¹ about Equinox, I checked out the company’s website and perhaps not unsurprisingly, I was met with some slick branding along with the usual array of inspirational slogans using terms such as ‘limitless’, ‘potential’, and ‘transformation’. These were accompanied with images of young and incredibly ripped models — things that I have come to expect on most modern gym websites. (I say with a sigh).

Equinox is obviously geared towards the wealthiest of the wealthy and not at someone like me. And the optimise program is likely to draw attention from the media because there is interest in knowing who the people are that have the means and that are prepared to pay for the program. (They might be the same people who invest in longevity and anti-aging research). Meanwhile, little old me is just interested in a gym that is convenient from home, can provide group classes, and that won’t cost me the earth for a monthly membership.

Yet I am intrigued by gyms like Equinox, or at least in the way that they are marketed, and the possible effects on the perception of health and fitness for the rest of us.

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Health and fitness messaging

Anyone who has been following my writing here on Substack for a little while will know that it was only relatively recently when my perspective began to shift about my own health and fitness. I have written previously about how for much of my youth and 20s, I had a fickle relationship with exercise. Then, when I was in my mid-30s, I joined a strength training facility that provided some of the tools to help me reframe many deeply ingrained perceptions that I held about my body.

But I admit that when I first started strength training, I did fall into my own cognitive trap where I thought that my body would transform within a matter of months into something resembling the models on Equinox’s website. The image in my mind was a bit like this - ripped abs and able to complete a workout without looking like a hot (and sweaty) mess. Oh, and have bouncy hair.

I can only assume that this image was largely constructed from a lifetime of messaging where the primary goal of exercise (for females) was something that you did to lose weight.

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I don’t want to be optimised

Fast forward a few years and fortunately, I don’t quite think the same way (no abs in sight and my hair has never been and will never be bouncy). I am now in my early-40s and I am grateful that I enjoy moving for movement’s sake and that exercise is an important part of my life, but not something that has taken over my life.

Although that isn’t to say that some of that earlier messaging isn’t still there floating around in my mind. I am still surprised how some of the marketing about health and fitness hits me on social media, or like when I first read about Equinox’s optimise program because my brain started shouting: Why are you not doing more? Why are you not optimising!

And then: But you could look like some of those models if you did more exercise, ate better… you get the idea.

I say all of this because I have started scouting around for a new gym so reading about Equinox and it’s insanely expensive optimise program came at a funny time. Shortly before my holiday a couple of weeks ago, I was at the initial research stage and focusing on the practical stuff — location, cost, convenient class times and so on. But now, I have started to consider how the gyms are advertising themselves online and I also want to know; who are the people in the marketing campaigns? And is there a range of bodies, ethnicities, and ages presented?

I will see how the research goes and am considering doing some trials in the next couple of months, so I will have a better sense of what is out there. But in the meantime, any gym that claims to offer anything remotely like optimisation or where the focus is on weight loss are not getting a call-back.

I don’t want a life optimised for peak performance. It kinda sounds a bit intense to me. I’d much rather have a life well lived.

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Coming up next week!

• Right now, I am not sure what next week’s post will look like. My husband is American and while we don’t live in the US (his family do!), we have tried to remain measured whenever we watch any US-related news. My fingers and toes are crossed for a peaceful day of results and that hope wins.

• And remember, remember, the fifth of November (also the same day as the US Presidential election results). What a strange bunch of traditions we have in the UK where we commemorate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 by burning effigies of Guy Fawkes and setting off fireworks!

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1. The original one that I read is behind a paywall, but a quick search online will bring up some results.