William Simpson
Luxury fitness chain Equinox is putting a price on the ultimate luxury: a longer life. The company on Monday introduced a membership that, for a hefty $36,000 a year, includes more than 100 tests designed to improve people’s health and extend their longevity.
In total, the “Optimize by Equinox” membership costs $42,000 per year. The ultra-premium offering includes personal training, nutritional guidance, biomarker tracking and more – all to improve daily physical performance and slow the aging process. Oh, and a regular gym membership? This costs an extra $500 per month or more.
Equinox developed the new partnership with Function Health, a health platform that performs laboratory tests to help members measure, analyze and monitor everything from heart health, immune response and hormone levels to glucose, insulin and other levels metabolic.
“This is a longevity program, but it’s also a health and quality of life plan,” Julia Klim, vice president of strategic partnerships and business development at Equinox, told CBS MoneyWatch. “This requires daily habits, because we don’t believe you can just get rid of bad habits like poor sleep or lack of quality exercise. So you commit to a program to achieve your personal goal, which could be to get thinner or stronger, have more energy or slow down the rate of aging.”
Whatever a person’s specific goals, the program will include a “robust” panel of tests to measure physical and mental performance, according to Klim. It also includes regular nutritional counseling, sleep training, personal training, and massages, all totaling about 16 hours per month of individualized attention from a variety of health, fitness, and other professionals.
“We are raising the bar with more testing and moving closer to health care,” Klim said. “And we’re partnering with Function Health to bring together experts in their respective fields.”
Despite the high price, there is already a waiting list to join the program, which will be launched at the end of May. Membership will initially only be available in New York, but will eventually expand to other cities. It will only be available to members of Equinox’s highest membership level, E by Equinox, which starts at about $500 per month.
Klim compared the subscription, which costs $3,000 per month and comes with a minimum six-month commitment, to the suite of services typically only available to professional athletes.
“Historically speaking, this type of program, with a team-based approach working to help you as an individual, has only been available to the best athletes on the market,” Klim said. “We want to bring this notion to the everyday, high-performing human that is the Equinox member.”
