Paying thousands for personalized workouts
In years past, a new gym membership at the start of a year was as predictable as a glass of Champagne at midnight. But this is not a usual year, with a quarter of the health clubs in the country estimated to have closed in 2020, and a far larger percentage of clubs operating with limited capacity.
Not everyone, though, is giving up on the equipment and the training. For those who can pay for all the amenities of a gym, and then some, there is an array of high-end and highly personalized options.
Jim Curtis, the lead health coach at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, a school that trains health coaches who work in the fitness industry, said all of his clients had been getting more coaching during the pandemic.
“It’s a boom whether its virtual or in person for those people who can afford it,” Curtis said. “But with virtual, it’s almost better. You can spend more time with people. You can see their environment. And you don’t have to worry about commute time.”
In many cases, the workouts, and the equipment that goes with at-home fitness, have sent fitness bills skyward.
“I’m in for $31,000 a year based on my quick calculation,” said Nick Wooster, a fashion consultant who turned 60 during the pandemic. “For me, it’s a nonnegotiable. Plus, right now, I’m not doing a lot of other things.”
His exercise budget includes several gym memberships, a trainer who checks in with him virtually and works with him outdoors, a nutritionist, an age management doctor and
“tons of supplements.” He has also stocked his apartment with a pullup bar, weights, an ab roller, a yoga mat, a TRX suspension system and a massage gun.
“It’s so important to have the physical release,” he said. “I can work out in my apartment, should I have to.”
But his spending seems like a bargain compared with what former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz pays each year. He estimated that he is paying $60,000 annually to stay in shape, though that is down from the $80,000 a year he was spending when he was playing football. (At least he has a Super Bowl ring for his past expenditures.)
Cruz, 34, who works in
television now, said he had grown accustomed to doing Zoom workouts in the living room of his New Jersey home, with his trainer Eric Rakofsky on the other end. He has also done yoga at home and has hired a chef to help him with his diet during the pandemic.
“I do a lot of things in the modeling space,” he said. “It’s important for my body to look a certain way.”
Fred Koo, who works in the jewelry business, spends $75,000 a year on his fitness, he said. He uses a personal trainer six times a week and takes four to six group exercise classes. He has his own wellness and nutrition coaches.
“I do take my fitness very
seriously,” he said. “There’s always a workout at 4 p.m., and the day revolves around that.”
In the pandemic, he has leaned more on meeting his trainer and attending classes virtually, but he kept at it, even when he went home last year to South Korea. “When you train with your trainer six times a week, you’re like best friends and you’re always in communication,” he said.
Mike Bell, who trains Wooster, has created an outdoor, COVID-safe gym in his 450-square-foot backyard to continue to work with clients. “We build up a lot of momentum training,” he said. “So much of it is keeping that momentum going.”
He charges $250 a session. For a day rate of $1,000, he travels to clients’ weekend homes to train them and then hangs out afterward.
The money that has been lost by fitness clubs has been made up by entrepreneurial trainers who have figured out ways to connect with their clients directly.
Jill Anzalone, a trainer who lives near Foxborough, Massachusetts, had been the head coach at a high-end Orangetheory Fitness studio. But when it closed over the summer, she took her classes online through a fitness app called Moxie, which does all the work of connecting her and her clients. The company said trainers charged from $30 to over $200 for a session.
“It’s like a Zoom class but all through Moxie,” she said. “They can choose if they want to see me. I like to be able to see them.”
It doesn’t hurt that Anzalone is also keeping a larger share of what her clients pay. Now teaching six virtual classes a week with eight students in each, she earns what she did with the same number of classes with 39 students in a crowded studio.
Other trainers are charging retainers to be on call for a select number of clients. Rakofsky, who trains Cruz, is a former Golden Gloves boxer who until recently worked out of the high-end Performix House gym. (It was known for charging $900 a month and screening prospective members, but closed in December because of pandemic restrictions.) He has a group of clients who pay him annual retainers — some as high as $100,000 a year — to manage their fitness needs.
“I’ve done it for three or four years now, but it’s really jumped” this past year, Rakofsky said. “People want that priority, and they’re willing to pay for it.”
For his retainer, Rakofsky is managing his clients’ full fitness and diet plans and spends up to two hours a day with them, either in person or virtually. He also still maintains a roster of clients who pay his hourly rate of $300.
Both groups, he said, are more prepared for a winter of indoor, socially distanced exercise. “They’ve ordered the equipment and have the online platforms,” he said. “They’ve taken the necessary steps to be prepared.”
The cost of that equipment is substantial. People have flocked to expensive at-home fitness products with a recorded or livestream component. Peloton, the company that sells a $2,000plus spin bike and charges $39 a month for classes, may be the best known of them. It has reportedly doubled its sales during the pandemic.
But it wasn’t alone. Liteboxer, which is to boxing what Peloton is to spinning, sped up completion of a boxing machine that uses 250 LED lights to direct a user through a boxing workout. The machine costs $1,495, in addition to a $29 monthly subscription fee for coaching.
Seth Medalie, an avid golfer who owns a financial services firm, has generally worked out of his suburban Boston home since the pandemic. He bought a Liteboxer four months ago and has been using it to burn off stress at the end of most days.
“Pre-pandemic, I worked out three times a week in my home gym,” Medalie said. “During the pandemic, since I’m at home and working out every day, I started to get bored with my workouts.”
Now, he said, he looks forward to boxing after work. “When you get to dance around and punch something in the privacy of your own home, that’s kind of fun,” he said.