Equinox Is Launching A $40,000 Gym Membership Aimed At Longevity—Here’s What Comes With It

Topline

A new gym membership with a yearly cost equivalent to almost 70% of the average American salary says its combination of physical training, biomarker testing, nutrition planning and other services aims to help members live longer as the so-called longevity economy booms.

Key Facts

Big Number

$59,384. That was the average annual salary in the United States in the last quarter of 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, meaning the Optimize program costs 67% of the average working American’s salary.

Surprising Fact

Equinox, a private company that also owns the SoulCycle chain of fitness studios, in March completed a $1.8 billion funding round, in part to refinance its $1.2 billion of debt. The gym was founded in 1991 and operates 107 locations around the world. Membership comes with unlimited group fitness classes and many of the clubs include a spa, boutiques and a snack bar. Access to all gyms worldwide costs $405 per month, with other membership programs starting at $275. Many popular gym memberships are far cheaper—Planet Fitness offers membership as low as $10 per month and Gold’s Gym packages range from $15 to $50.

Key Background

The launch of “Optimize by Equinox” comes one month after Equinox announced it would partner with Function Health to bring lab tests to the gym, part of the company’s push to become an epicenter for all things health and wellness. The so-called longevity economy reached $5.2 billion in investments in 2021, Fortune reported, as America’s wealthiest citizens spend more of their time and money on proven and experimental ways to live longer. A July study suggested 46% of people making more than $250,000 per year have said they plan to use a majority of their discretionary income on improving their health and wellness, according to Fortune, and that high-income Americans are more willing to participate in more extreme programs like conducting gene editing on their future children or uploading their consciousness into a piece of technology.

Tangent

Bryan Johnson, the millionaire CEO of Kernel, a tech company creating a brain monitoring device, went viral last year after admitting he spends $2 million per year on reversing the natural process of aging. His doctors say his medical age is already at least five years younger than his biological age, which he achieved by following an ultra-strict regimen that includes physical fitness, sleep, diet, supplements and seemingly never-ending medical tests. His experiments have included taking blood-plasma donations from his teenage son and attempts to rejuvenate his penis with shockwave therapy, Rolling Stone reported. A book by Johnson titled “Don’t Die,” about “the future of being human,” was published in November.

Further Reading

Equinox launches $40,000 membership to help you live longer (CNBC)

Wealthy Americans will go to the extreme to live longer, from downloading their brains to taking risky drugs (Fortune)

Millionaire Biohacker Says Algorithm Runs His Life: ‘My Mind No Longer Decides’ (Rolling Stone)