LIFTS Episode 115 - From Gyms to Health Hubs: The Next Era of Fitness | PerformX Special (Part 1 of 3) | with Jaclyn Hughes, Tim Gray & Rez Barad

0:00And I think the key thing is to first understand where you are strong, which is in my opinion, like strength is obviously becoming so integral and obviously lean muscle tissue and it's becoming so attached to longevity. So just having really, really good coaching and really competent foundations to develop from is huge. I think upskilling staff, notoriously level three personal training qualifications are very basic. and some of the territories and topics that we are going to have to understand and look into require a different calibre of individual. But I'm very surprised when I go into my local gym that I'm finding it hard to get a personal trainer who can actually talk to me about sleep, who can tell me what my garment's shouting at me and how to get it out of the orange.

0:49Even though I've read lots of information, attended multiple seminars, I still don't have that advanced knowledge of how to alter my own score. So my goal is the Health Hub would be accessible to everyone. And actually we should probably just have the equivalent of an Apple Genius Bar in the gym with some geeky personal trainer or maybe someone that's been to Tim's show. And it's very knowledgeable about translating all the wearables.

1:23Matthew Januszek:Good morning, everyone. Come on, this is a British good morning. So let's just try it one more time. I've come from America and they have all this sort of hype stuff. So I'm kind of with my colleague here from the US. And I want to say that the Brits do have some of that energy. So good morning, UK. Welcome to this session. This is the live session of lifts. Normally we do these behind a camera. so there's just two or three of us with a couple of guests, and it's a lot less intimidating than having a room of people looking for us. So I'm very excited about being here and what we're going to talk about today.

2:03So how are you doing, Mo? I'm doing well. I'm a bit jet-lagged. I just came over from D.C. yesterday, but I'm doing well. And I want to kick it off. Before we get into this subject matter today, one, good morning, Performix. Thank you so much for having Matthew and I here. We were here last year and really excited to come back. But Matthew, last week you actually had some recent news with Escape Fitness. You had a transaction happen. It's a business that you've owned now for a few decades. Congratulations on that transition. How are you feeling?

2:38Matthew Januszek:I'm feeling good. And it's nice to be back in Birmingham because about 26 years ago, we had a small sort of three-foot by two-foot booth here where I had a lot of dreams about setting up a fitness equipment company. And 25 or six years later, we were able to sell that in the United States. So yeah, thank you for asking. And it's nice to be back in sunny Birmingham where the whole thing started. Well, we have an excellent group here to talk about the gym as a health hub. And this is something that we've seen, certainly on the podcast. We talk about this almost every week. in the U.S., around the world, in the U.K., Australia, the Middle East.

3:18The role of the gym has really evolved over the last five years, especially post-pandemic. So what we saw happen during the pandemic is when gyms are shut down in most parts of the world, when consumers walk back into the gym, they were different. They're coming in with wearables. They're coming in with greater awareness and visibility into their own health. They're coming in with the need of taking more ownership over their own health. And a lot of that is probably related to two major reasons. One, consumers understood that when you control your health, you are less susceptible to getting diseases and to living better.

4:02I think the second one is potentially, at least in the U.S., and I understand a bit in the U.K., there is a bit of an inherent either distrust or lack of credibility within our own healthcare organizations such that they're looking at outside sources. They're looking to people like Tim here who's on stage for advice and influence. And as a result, because people also are going to the gym more frequently, they're looking to see, are the gyms able to offer more? And certain gyms have explored that, and we're going to speak a bit about that, and really talking about what are the role of gyms as fitness, wellness, and healthcare intersect.

4:43Certainly they are, in a lot of ways, at the front lines. So with that, I'm happy to introduce our three panelists. I would love to give you each 30 seconds to speak a bit about an intro, about yourselves, and we will kick it off. Hi, thank you. Good morning. I'm Jacqueline Hughes, the owner of Ultimate Training Solutions. I specialize in behavioral science and advanced communication skills. I think the lady that done our intro, she summed it up perfectly. I go around mystery shopping and testing health clubs, cruise ships, spas for a living and charge a lot of money to give my feedback. So I have a really bad job.

5:25But my goal is really to look at people, process and to see the ways that they can improve what they're doing, whether that be improving staff training, maximizing revenue from different processes and audits and systems and just try to make sure that the guests are looked after, the customers are looked after. and investing in the staff training. That's my bag. Hello, everyone. I am known as Tim Biohacker on social medias and run the Health Optimization Summit. So kind of I would like to think I brought biohacking to the UK originally back in 2014, something like that, and been running large-scale events around 4 ,000 people since 2019.

6:08So I kind of get to see a lot of the trends before they happen because I have quite a lot of followers messaging me, asking me things, so I get to see trends before they start happening. So what we're going to be talking about today is super interesting because I've been seeing biohacking labs around the world doing what gyms want to do right now. And instead of having empty biohacking labs and empty gyms, kind of merging the two together is really good. So I've seen this coming, so it's a very exciting talk for me today. Hi, everyone. I'm Rez Barad. I'm founding director of House of Fitness. We've got three London-based facilities.

6:45I think uniquely, I'm kind of placed at the intersection of trying to transition from a traditional facility into more of a health hub at present. Funny enough, about seven years ago, I went to one of the first health optimization summits, and I was blown away at some of the things that were really on the edges that are now becoming mainstream. I remember Aura was kind of starting out. Everyone's got an Aura ring now. And I think, as Mo said, the transition after COVID and the consumer just becoming a lot more sophisticated. And I just felt like there was an opportunity to try and transition our facilities and various different conversations over the year, trying to navigate what is feasible for a small business and what you can integrate within it without kind of overstepping too much into the medical space or too much into the biohacking space and what modalities can be integrated within the business model whilst it still makes financial sense.

7:46So, yeah, it'll be an interesting conversation.

7:49Matthew Januszek:Well, look, I think a good place to start is with you, Rez. There's no doubt that there's a big opportunity. I was doing some research prior, and it says that the biohacking and longevity category, depending on how you specifically define that, is projected to grow by 10 % annually up until 2030. So there's a lot of people looking at the space. However, gyms, and particularly in the UK, how that sort of partners up with the medical side and NHS is definitely a little bit of a minefield that needs to be navigated. And I'm sure there's a lot of regulation and challenges that people like yourself have got to figure out in terms of finding your lane.

8:32Matthew Januszek:I know you've done quite a lot of work on this, Reg. So give us a bit of an idea about how you're defining this health hub. Is it an upsell? Is it a partnership? What are some of the non-negotiables that you're considering as you're moving ahead in a relatively new direction? Yeah, really interesting because I watched JC actually talk before on the panel and there were some of the things that he was trying. And I think the key thing is to first understand where you are strong, which is in my opinion like strength is obviously becoming so integral and obviously lean muscle tissue and it's becoming so attached to longevity so just having really really good coaching and really competent foundations to develop from is huge I think upskilling staff notoriously level three personal training qualifications are very basic and some of the territories and and and topics that we are going to have to understand and look into require a different caliber of individual, whether that is an education pathway.

9:38So I think foundationally, you need to have your staff understand the space better than the consumer does. And I think the biggest realization that I found coming back from COVID is the gap between the coach and the consumer was narrowed massively. So essentially, a lot of coaches were just seen as glorified rep counters, and they were just there to keep people company because there were questions that members were feeling to me that were like this is actually like you're now getting into the realm of like I've got an aura and my REM sleep and how can I improve this and some of the sophistication of the consumer was out outpacing the actual coach so I think that is a massive area and I know Phil Lerney who's on advisory board is now working on developing a pathway and education there I think secondly is also understanding right you can have this utopia of having everything integrated in one place where you've got essentially GPs and physios and blood works and everything in one place.

10:35But it is very difficult to kind of do that overnight. So I think you have to be very aware of, I guess, your consumer, your capacity, and what makes sense to integrate straight away. I think for us, the biggest thing that we're now looking at is the biggest bang for buck kind of opportunities. I think for us, massively sleep is one for a lot of people sleep is often one that they struggle with so if we can start building education and and pathways and if they are using wearables being able to look at that data and and add a layer of accountability that isn't necessarily available on the current apps necessarily i think that's a lot of the basics we're looking at and obviously there's more sexy stuff but that's not going to have immediate adoption.

11:21And I think having something that's viable at scale is the crucial aspect. Jacqueline, I want to move to you next. When you look at operators in general, in the States, you've got brands like Equinox that last year launched a$40 ,000 a year membership. You've got longevity clinics like Extension Health that have a reboot at$15 ,000 and a premium tier You have 250 ,000. You've got Lifetime with Miura. In Australia, there's a brand called Total Fusion that, to your point, has a lot of those independent services, but they've not been pulled in together. When I hear about these things, when I go through these experiences, while they are wonderful, material, meaningful, high impact, accessibility seems to be an issue.

12:07And I know you recently worked with David Lloyds here in the UK on launching, I believe, a signature tier. Do you think that this market for fitness or health hubs coming into operators, is this a premium play or is this more of a mass market play?

12:26Matthew Januszek:This week's episode of the Lyfts podcast is brought to you by eGym. eGym is building the future of smart fitness. Their connected ecosystem combines intelligent equipment, AI-powered software, and the WellPass corporate wellness platform to help operators grow their business and deliver measurable health outcomes to exercises of all shapes and sizes. From powering gym floors to supporting employee wellness, eGym is redefining the workout one rep at a time. Learn more at eGym.com. I think it can be both, depending on where you're positioned. And I'll talk in a moment about the David Lloyd example.

13:03But I was also very lucky to be on the judging panel for the UK Active Awards last year. And everyone active had launched the U Plus membership. And that's probably an example of the other end of the market. They added on a wellness offering and it was only$9.99 a month. So I think that's what's much more accessible. So to me, a health hub is much more making something accessible to everyone, making something accessible depending on your demographic and your price point. So it can be like the everyone active, just an extra$9.99, or it can be like David Lloyd's pilot membership that's called Signature.

13:41We just launched this and trialed it in January. It will be reviewed in March. And it's only available in 13 of the clubs just now. So it's like in a pilot stage. And we're doing external mobile medical testing. So the members actually go into a mobile wellness clinic. They're getting their VO2 max. They're getting all their bloods done. And that's around an additional 140 on top of their membership each month. And there's a few other membership bases on this. I don't know if anyone read the Times article, but we're not talking about that. So I think that's offering at a different level. To touch on your point about the personal trainers and the standard of the quality of people, I agree.

14:22That's my biggest frustration. And what David Lloyd have done very well is they've put their trainers through advanced personal training. So they have a very specialist group of trainers that have extra training on longevity. They've been working on it for over six, seven months. So that now if someone's on that new signature membership, they get access to complimentary personal training and that's looking at all the wearables and the markers. So there's an external company supporting them and then big development internally. And I'll maybe add, as my final point, it's the gap between the knowledge of the consumer and the people working in the sector has become much more small and I'm going to blame Tim actually because I went to Tim's show a few years ago myself and sat in a Gary Breka session and spent about£2 ,000 within 20 minutes and just ordered absolutely everything that Gary Brecker was talking about because I'm menopausal and we'll spend money on anything right now, right?

15:23So I had grounding mats, hydrogen water, DNA testing, the whole thing. But I'm very surprised when I go into my local gym that I'm finding it hard to get a personal trainer who can actually talk to me about sleep, who can tell me what my Garmin's shouting at me and how to get it out of the orange. Even though I've read lots of information, attended multiple seminars, I still don't have that advanced knowledge of how to alter my own score. So my goal is the health hub would be accessible to everyone. And actually, we should probably just have the equivalent of an Apple Genius Bar in the gym with some geeky personal trainer, or maybe someone that's been to Tim's show.

16:05And it's very knowledgeable about translating all the wearables. That would be my thoughts.

16:10Matthew Januszek:Tim, question for you. In the US, I can't speak for what's happening in the UK, but in the US, it seems as though the industry itself and many of the manufacturers of different products and solutions and peptides, there's so much money going into the space that it seems to be growing faster than many of the traditional businesses are able to keep up. As an example, over the last six months, I've been going to many shows now and the ability for gyms to get involved in peptides and have them delivered to the gym and recommend things like a whole range of different injectable solutions is increasing quite a lot.

16:52Matthew Januszek:And it seems as though many of the gyms are trying to figure out how to recommend it, how to get involved in it. And so there certainly seems to be a little bit of a grey area in terms of where to go in this space. I know you certainly are one of these people that are at the cutting edge. So you're almost like predicting what's likely to happen next. And so how do you get that balance as a gym owner that probably needs to be a little bit less on the cutting edge, particularly when some of these biohacking solutions are very new. Some of the research out there is still unproven. And even when you speak to many very experienced doctors in this space, they acknowledge that there's some amazing benefits from some of these biohacking treatments.

17:37Matthew Januszek:but they still seem to say that there's not enough evidence to know exactly what the long-term impacts will be so how does someone like res navigate this space and and make sure they're not overstepping their mark in terms of what some of the you know being friendly to like the nhs where some of these things may be more applicable to what they should be doing and and be able to move forward be able to innovate but not get themselves into too much trouble big question that's a good question i mean i think if i think i'm going to use the medical system as an example for a second from where i'm going if every nhs or traditional gp listened to everything a biohacker talked about they would never have a baseline to work from and they'd be recommending things that could get them in trouble okay as a biohacker i don't have a medical license so i can do and say whatever the hell I like and test whatever.

18:33And that's great. And I think it's the same with Brian Johnson or Gary Brecker or Dave Asprey and Ben Greenfield. Kind of like we like testing stuff to show the world what's possible. But ultimately, I think what brings it all together is, okay, there's so many competing interests financially. For instance, if you look at Brian Johnson launching out his supplement line, which actually isn't really that good at all. But the thing is, is the hype is massive and the result is not that great at all. So what there needs to be is a central point of education for gym trainers or chief wellness officer or something or other to train the trainers so that the trainers can then help with the members because then it spreads the knowledge out.

19:22But if there's not one centralized place of, actually, here's the things that we know work, it doesn't necessarily mean whether they're proven with studies or not because you know there's for instance how long did it take for acupuncture to be proven that you know that it's actually has efficacy and now insurance companies cover it and so you know how many years does that take 20 30 years and so do we wait 20 or 30 years to implement some of these things that we know are working so really i think it is a common sense approach of what the hell and I think with the rise of GABIT ring, Aura ring, WHOOP band, Lingo, glucose monitor, N equals one, looking at what works for each of us, and collectively coming together and saying, this is what we find is working, is better than any study of 50 people in a controlled group, because it's actually what works for the population.

20:14So I think what the space really needs, and I've discussed this with Giles extensively, it's like the space really needs a central place for us, I think if the gym groups club together, for instance, and to say, how do we create this central knowledge body, it would be great. Because, you know, the problem is there's too many people listen to Brian Johnson when he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about half the time. He knows how to sell well. And it's the same with a lot of the other influencers. Who do you listen to that's right? It's actually, well, what collectively works. So I think that's really the future of this space to bring it together.

20:48Hey, Tim, so I actually have a follow-up question to that. And Jacqueline, I'll have you next. there's been a big shift with consumers in the sentiment towards influencers. You mentioned Brian Johnson. I think a lot of us that are in the industry saw that coming, and now consumers are building more awareness around it. You also look at Peter Atiyah and what came out with that without getting into it because it's not good for our YouTube ratings, you tell me, when I get into that kind of stuff. So consumers are becoming more aware. on one hand there's a benefit that you don't have a md or a doctor title in front of you because you're able to be more exploratory and try more stuff on the other hand look i just came from a conference the first consumer health conference at stanford university there's another one coming up first time at harvard in june and this is really where academia doctors and scientists are coming together to bring value down the chain to focus more on preventative care not just go up the chain towards healthcare because they're not making any progress there.

21:52So Tim, just a follow-up question to you. Have you seen the shift in consumer sentiment, to your point, consumers are getting more aware about efficacy and science and research. How does that kind of play into the things that you talk about? That's a good question. I mean, I think we're in the longevity gold rush right now. And I think we're about 20 % of the way in. And to your point, you know, growing 10 % year on year through 2030, I mean, it just, it's more of the same people. And the awareness is shifting. I think especially post-COVID, where, you know, regardless of your opinion on that whole scenario, our immune systems became super important.

22:32And the awareness around that is now global. So I think the things that biohacking and my colleagues have been talking about now since 2012 are much more prevalent. Much more prevalent. And I think Stephen Bartlett's obviously helped with this a lot because he talks about a lot of this stuff on his podcast. Because, again, because the industry is growing so quickly, brands like Whoop are doing very well. and then everyone starts listening to what's making the money and then all the industry comes in because they want to make money from the people making the money and therefore it kind of like accelerates the space.

23:12So I think it ties in just in global awareness in general of we're the sickest generation in history and in fact sicker than our parents. So I think we're the first generation to have less life expectancy than our parents did. and so you know we adapt pretty quick to be quite honest I mean might seem that we don't but we do actually adapt quite quickly you know it's the whole the whole masculine and feminine side of things for instance as an example where we went with one way then we went completely the opposite and now we're kind of finding a balance in between and I think it's the same same with health and fitness and biohacking I just wanted to add about more the perception there's a lot of options available whether it be injectables peptides um what i've really noticed is some people that are making the decisions are quite judgy and because their opinion on something that might shape what's available or how they treat the guests or how they treat the members i think that's the dangerous part so whether you have a personal opinion about whether you should be doing nads or injectables or any of these types of things that should be put to the side and we should be just looking at how to support the member where they are and finding the right fit for your brand, whatever that is, but just avoiding some of the judgment or the stigma to depend on what people's journey and what they choose.

24:39Matthew Januszek:So being in the traditional fitness and health industry, which I guess many of the people in this room are, came, the foundations was exercise, nutrition, and in some extent recommending recovery or sleep. When we get into the realms of biohacking, there's a lot of other things that sprinkle on the top of that, but you can't seem to take away from the sort of true statement, which is if you don't have a good foundation of strength training and good nutrition and sleep, then a lot of the other stuff's going to have relatively little impact in comparison to getting that right so it seems as though we're at the heart of the this this movement but we're the foundation of this movement so again probably question i'll start with res but what do you think we can do about sort of bringing the message down to basics that we're probably not doing as good a job on uh that we should do and you mentioned strength training you know there's certainly there's some extremely solid research around strength training for pretty much everyone, from my mum to an elite athlete to our kids.

25:47Matthew Januszek:So how can we tap into the basics, and what are some of the things that you're thinking about in that respect? For sure. Just to add my two pens that no one asked for on the question before, I think ultimately it's very easy to forget that anyone and everyone in this room is already in the one percentile, right? The medical industry has just failed us. Like Tim said, this is the most unhealthy, the most sick we've ever been. So we're already starting with a paradigm that does not work. So to sit there and question some of these modalities that might be fringe or whether Peter Tia or Brian Johnson's getting a rise, irrelevant.

26:23That's like the nuance. I think the key thing that needs to happen that I believe is happening as someone that also invests in a lot of technology, like actual physical money in the stock market, is that capital flows data and when it can be underwritten. for the longest time ever fitness was on you could not fund it and it still cannot be funded in the same way that care homes or nurseries or basic things that hedge funds can go and actually model and put money behind for the first time because of data because of ai because of some of the wearables you're able to actually underwrite it that's why capital is flowing into it and that's why you've got this massive boost of like various influences whether good or bad i think it's absolutely necessary for that to happen.

27:07To use a side example, when Tesla started out, Elon Musk started with a Roadster, which was the most expensive flagship car. And then he moved down funnel and made the masses available. And he brought down the models that everyone now sees on the street. I think something similar follows in every sector. Fitness is going to have to have the same thing where you're going to have memberships that are 100 ,000 pounds a year for those who can afford it. And eventually, once money comes into it, once you can bring the technology and the price and cost down that's when you're going to be able to have a hyperbaric chamber that won't cost 100 grand that's like a niche example so from my perspective i almost think like sometimes we look at all wrong we feel like we're trying to defend something that's failed us for the longest time and my approach with my facility is always actually there's a reason these people are here the system hasn't worked for them do you know i mean and and having this exploration of maybe they don't necessarily need to go quite fringe but the basics i don't need to explain the veracity of sleep and strength training and even having regular blood works done and actually understanding what's happening inside of you.

28:10So that's my little rant on that topic. What was your actual question? Thanks for that.

28:16Matthew Januszek:So the basics, like we're still, you know, for years in gyms, we've been showing people how to use strength training. What place does that have in this new health hub? Because it seems that a lot of people are not even doing the basics so you know are we getting too carried away without delivering those fundamentals yeah for sure look i think in the advisory board we always discuss this the uk is always fluctuated between 15 to 17 percent market penetration of gyms in every form so whether that is here strength training whatever it is that means the vast majority are just not going to come to the gym so you're going to have to get penetration in different ways right whether that is brian Johnson's podcast, sleep, movement, whatever it may be.