Future of Fitness

Thinking about adding HYROX to your gym? HYROX's Head of Affiliates for the Americas on the biggest mistake owners make, and how one event can pay for your affiliation.

Bring the official HYROX competition equipment to your gym with Centr: https://commercial.centr.com/

Eric Malzone sits down with Eric O'Neil, Head of Affiliates for the Americas at HYROX, to break down how gyms actually get into HYROX and make money from it. HYROX now has about 17,000 affiliate gyms worldwide, nearly 5,000 in North America, and signs up an average of eight new gyms every day. Eric explains why the biggest misconception is thinking HYROX is all or nothing, what you get for the $130 monthly affiliation fee, and the difference between an HTC and an HTCx built around Centr's race-day equipment. He also walks through the 13-week HYROX season playbook he would run himself, where a $50-a-head simulation event can cover the affiliation fee on day one and lead into training bundles, nutrition, personal training, and merch. Plus, what separates the affiliates making five figures a month from the ones who bought a sled and stopped there.

0:00 What separates the gyms making real money

0:37 Welcome Eric O'Neil

2:05 How many HYROX affiliates are there?

2:35 Why an established gym should add HYROX

5:04 The biggest misconception gym owners have

6:28 From special operations to Nike to HYROX

10:04 A crawl, walk, run plan for new affiliates

13:34 How HYROX supports its affiliates

16:12 How to become a HYROX affiliate

18:01 What affiliates get for $130 a month

20:24 HTC vs HTCx explained

22:39 How the Centr partnership works

26:15 Why training on race-day equipment matters

28:09 Testing the official sled and turf

30:43 How gyms make money with HYROX

31:25 A 13-week HYROX season playbook

35:32 Plan your dive, dive your plan

38:28 Why accessibility matters for gyms

41:33 In-gym events as an entry point

42:20 Where to learn more

This is episode 2 of the HYROX Authority Series, presented by Centr.
Episode 1, Why HYROX Is the Best Business Opportunity in Fitness Right Now, with Andrew Sugerman: https://youtu.be/1m1r9LAvQaE

Questions answered in this episode:

How much does it cost to become a HYROX affiliate? $130 a month through HYROX365, HYROX's affiliate program, with a five-week onboarding playbook included.

Do you need special equipment to become a HYROX gym? No. Very few gyms have all nine HYROX elements at scale, and good coaches can adapt movements. Start with the space and equipment you already have.

What do HYROX affiliates get? Official programming with 750+ workouts, the right to market as a HYROX gym, the right to run in-gym HYROX events, and coaching education and certification.

What is the difference between an HTC and an HTCx? An HTC (HYROX Training Club) is the standard tier, which 99% of affiliates are. An HTCx adds a standardized HYROX Training Zone designed with Centr, featuring the official race-day equipment.

How do gyms make money with HYROX? Simulation events, HYROX training bundles, personal training, nutrition, and merch, built around the race calendar.

Eric O'Neil is Head of Affiliates for the Americas at HYROX, based in Chicago. He is a former MARSOC special operations team leader with an MBA from the University of Chicago, previously worked at Nike, and races HYROX and marathons himself.

This is episode 2 of the HYROX Authority Series, presented by Centr.

Connect with Centr

Equip your facility with Centr commercial equipment and the HYROX Training Zone: https://commercial.centr.com/

Shop the Centr x HYROX Official Competition Equipment: https://shop.centr.com/collections/hyrox

Learn more about Centr: https://centr.com/

► Get the State of Fitness quarterly report: https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/

► Partner with Future of Fitness: https://futureoffitness.co/contact

► Follow Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-malzone-8b452a3/

This Future of Fitness interview with HYROX Head of Affiliates Eric O'Neil covers HYROX affiliation costs, HTC vs HTCx, Centr race-day equipment, and in-gym event revenue, with practical takeaways for gym owners considering HYROX.

#HYROX #FutureOfFitness #GymOwner #Centr #FitnessBusiness

David Harry Stewart is 67, sits at 11.4% body fat, and is putting 960 athletes through the first Super Age Games. His most powerful longevity tool costs nothing.

FREE REPORT: Get the Future of Fitness quarterly industry report → https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info

Eric Malzone sits down with David Harry Stewart (founder of AGEIST and Super Age, and a former fashion and advertising photographer) to separate real longevity science from the noise. Inside: the eight trials of the Super Age Games at Manhattan's Armory Track, including a horizontal 40-foot cargo net and a balance beam walked with a half-filled water tube. David explains why your number of friends can matter more than your LDL, and why a $150K-a-year longevity setup misses the basics. Plus how Super Age keeps AI slop out of a newsletter with a 50% open rate, and his one rule for anyone using peptides.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
• Why social connection may predict healthspan better than some blood markers
• How the Super Age Games turn healthspan markers into eight testable trials
• What 50+ members want from your gym, and why lowering the bar backfires
• Why plyometrics and stick holds belong in a program built for resilience
• The safe way to use peptides: licensed pharmacy, physician oversight, monitored labs

"Sleep is free. Most powerful thing you can do."
(David Harry Stewart)

"Cool is ageless. I'm sorry, Laird Hamilton is cool."
(David Harry Stewart)

CHAPTERS
0:00 "Sleep is free": the $0 longevity stack
0:50 Something is very wrong with longevity science
1:39 From fashion photographer to AGEIST founder
7:18 Fitness has never claimed its health role
7:58 "The number one longevity drug is fitness"
10:16 A 78-year-old hacked the ticket site
13:53 Is "longevity" even the right word?
15:23 Inside the trials: Inferno, Net, Tightrope
19:39 How do you measure friendship?
20:38 Wearables as "well-ertainment"
22:54 Longevity isn't just for rich guys
23:54 Why Brian Johnson fails the ROI test
27:06 Is this just a standard training plan?
28:06 Training for resilience, not looking hot
31:46 How Super Age avoids AI slop
33:48 The tells that give AI writing away
34:33 Where gyms miss the 50+ member
35:53 "Cool is ageless": stop dumbing it down
41:42 Mountain towns and raising your game
42:47 Fitness, medicine and a peptide warning

GUESTS
David Harry Stewart, Founder (AGEIST and Super Age)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-harry-stewart-0127466/

Thanks to Our Sponsors
EGYM: Connecting smart strength equipment across the fitness floor with personalized, AI-powered training experiences: https://engage.egym.com/6GTrUv7
Perfect Gym: A leading fitness club management platform, part of Sport Alliance, now expanding across the U.S. market: https://www.perfectgym.com/en

► Get the State of Fitness quarterly report: https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info
► Partner with Future of Fitness:https://futureoffitness.co/contact
► Follow Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-malzone-8b452a3/

ABOUT FUTURE OF FITNESS
Future of Fitness is the business podcast for gym owners, franchise operators, health-tech executives and wellness entrepreneurs, hosted by Eric Malzone. Subscribe for conversations with the people building the business of fitness.

#FutureOfFitness #FitnessBusiness #Longevity

Karl Foster, Sport Alliance’s Head of AI, shares early results from AI-timed member messages that brought more lapsed members back to the gym. He also explains why staff adoption, not the software, decides whether any of it pays off.

Get Eric’s free Q2 State of Fitness Report: → https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/

Karl Foster returns to Future of Fitness to explain how Sport Alliance, parent company of Perfect Gym, is building AI for three types of operators: high value low cost, mid-market big box, and boutique. In a pilot of Perfect AI Engage covering about 14,000 members, 44% of dormant members who got a message came back, compared with 34% of the control group. A trigger for members whose attendance was dropping raised their visit frequency by roughly 25%. Karl also covers a new MCP server that connects Perfect Gym to tools like Claude Desktop, group exercise analytics that can spot “anchor” classes worth keeping, and why AI projects stall when operators skip change management and follow-up training.

Karl Foster is Head of Artificial Intelligence at Sport Alliance. He started out as a personal trainer and later served as Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at GymNation before leading AI work across Perfect Gym’s 12,000+ club network.

Thanks to Our Sponsors
EGYM: Connecting smart strength equipment across the fitness floor with personalized, AI-powered training experiences:
https://engage.egym.com/6GTrUv7
Perfect Gym: A leading fitness club management platform, part of Sport Alliance, now expanding across the U.S. market:
https://www.perfectgym.com/en

► Get the State of Fitness quarterly report: https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/
► Partner with Future of Fitness: https://futureoffitness.co/contact
► Follow Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-malzone-8b452a3/

Connect with Karl Foster
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlfosterdxb/

Every check-in at your gym is a research data point, and most operators are sitting on it. Spencer Tatum of TCU’s Roach Institute of Athlete Engineering explains how gyms, health clubs and performance centers can turn the data they already collect into grant funding and better member outcomes.

Get Eric’s free Q2 State of Fitness Report: → https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/

Eric Malzone welcomes back Spencer Tatum, Chief Athlete Liaison at TCU’s Roach Institute of Athlete Engineering, for his third appearance on the show. Spencer explains how a shipyard’s workers’ comp problem turned out to be a heat problem, which they solved with a sensor built into earbuds workers already wore. He also covers how markerless biomechanics took a pitcher from 89 to 93 mph just by speeding up his pelvis, and why some athletes now stop wearing their wearables during competition. Spencer also lays out how off-the-shelf cameras are bringing research-grade biomechanics to any facility, and where digital twins are headed for performance and healthcare.

Spencer Tatum is Chief Athlete Liaison at TCU’s Roach Institute of Athlete Engineering, with a career that includes training NFL, MMA, pro tennis and pro golf athletes and running 80,000-square-foot health clubs.

Thanks to Our Sponsors

EGYM: Connecting smart strength equipment across the fitness floor with personalized, AI-powered training experiences:
https://engage.egym.com/6GTrUv7
Perfect Gym: A leading fitness club management platform, part of Sport Alliance, now expanding across the U.S. market:
https://www.perfectgym.com/en

► Get the State of Fitness quarterly report: https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/
► Partner with Future of Fitness: https://futureoffitness.co/contact
► Follow Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-malzone-8b452a3/

Connect with Spencer Tatum
Website: https://www.thp.fit/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencertatum/

Is HYROX just a fad? Centr CEO Andrew Sugerman says the data says no: across 100+ HYROX race cities, not one has shrunk. Here's why gym owners can't afford to wait.

Bring the official HYROX competition equipment to your gym with Centr: https://commercial.centr.com/?utm_source=futureoffitness&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=hyrox_authority_series&utm_content=ep01_andrew_sugerman_top

Eric Malzone sits down with Andrew Sugerman, CEO of Centr, the official equipment partner of HYROX, to make the business case for HYROX. HYROX has 1.5 million athletes and more than 100 races across 300+ race days in 2026, and HYROX New York alone grew from about 10,000 athletes to 25,000 to 50,000 in three years. Andrew expects it to be bigger than the New York City Marathon in 2027. He explains why Centr chose to become the infrastructure of the sport instead of just a sponsor, what early-mover gyms are seeing now (from retention flywheels to class waitlists), and what HYROX athletes actually want from a gym. They also get into why waiting on the sidelines is the real risk, how gyms are bringing HYROX in without betting the farm, and the pitch Andrew would give any gym owner on the fence.

0:00 Trend, yes. Fad, no.
1:17 Welcome Andrew Sugerman
2:47 From Disney to Centr
3:39 Why Centr bet on HYROX as infrastructure
6:28 Inside HYROX New York City
8:41 Bigger than the NYC Marathon by 2027?
9:53 Racing HYROX with his son
10:50 What early-mover gyms are seeing now
13:27 The HYROX retention flywheel
14:31 HYROX doubling its US cities
15:41 How Centr helps gyms bring HYROX in
17:31 Layout and build-out planning
18:49 Is HYROX a fad?
22:04 Why waiting on the sidelines is risky
22:27 Lessons from CrossFit's early days
23:43 How gyms have transformed with HYROX
25:38 Elite athletes and HYROX careers
28:05 Why race equipment creates an emotional connection
28:37 You can still be you within HYROX
29:35 The pitch to a gym owner on the fence
31:40 Wrap up

Questions answered in this episode:

• Is HYROX a fad? Andrew says it's a trend, not a fad. Of the more than 100 cities that host HYROX races, zero have shrunk.
• How fast is HYROX growing? HYROX New York grew from about 10,000 athletes to 50,000 in three years, and Andrew expects HYROX to double its US race cities from 10 to 20.
• What do HYROX athletes want from a gym? A like-minded community, a space built for HYROX training, equipment that replicates race day, and programming from coaches who know the sport.
• Do you have to convert your whole gym? No. Centr helps gyms design anything from a single HYROX corner to a full HYROX Training Zone, including layouts and class flow.
• What happens to gyms that get in early? Andrew has seen early movers grow membership steadily over 15 to 18 months, to the point of waitlists for classes.

Andrew Sugerman is the CEO of Centr, the health and fitness company founded by Chris Hemsworth and the official equipment partner of HYROX. Before Centr, he spent 12 years at The Walt Disney Company running global publishing and digital media. He races HYROX himself, completing three events in four months, including one with his son.

This is episode 1 of the HYROX Authority Series, presented by Centr.

Connect with Andrew
Follow Andrew Sugerman, CEO of Centr, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-sugerman/
Equip your facility with Centr commercial equipment and the HYROX Training Zone: https://commercial.centr.com/?utm_source=futureoffitness&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=hyrox_authority_series&utm_content=ep01_andrew_sugerman_connect
Shop the Centr x HYROX Official Competition Equipment: https://shop.centr.com/collections/hyrox?utm_source=futureoffitness&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=hyrox_authority_series&utm_content=ep01_andrew_sugerman_shop
Learn more about Centr: https://centr.com/?utm_source=futureoffitness&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=hyrox_authority_series&utm_content=ep01_andrew_sugerman_home

► Get the State of Fitness quarterly report: https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/
► Partner with Future of Fitness: https://futureoffitness.co/contact
► Follow Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-malzone-8b452a3/

This Future of Fitness interview with Centr CEO Andrew Sugerman covers HYROX growth, early-mover advantage for gyms, Centr's role as the official HYROX equipment partner, and how operators can bring HYROX into their facilities, with practical takeaways for gym owners on the fence.

Months after announcing the EGYM and Playlist merger, Fritz Lanman and Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer explain why their first rule was not to break each other's business, and why a GLP-1 clinical study could be their way into employer health budgets.

Get Eric's free Q2 State of Fitness Report: → https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/

Recorded at Playlist Summit 2026 in Boulder, Eric Malzone sits down with Fritz Lanman, CEO and Co-Founder of Playlist, and Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer, CEO of EGYM and Co-Founder of Playlist, for their first joint conversation since the deal closed in March. They walk through how the combined company, with roughly 135,000 businesses across its networks, is pairing ClassPass with EGYM Wellpass to grow corporate fitness in both the U.S. and Europe. Philipp breaks down a GLP-1 clinical study funded with $3 million from EGYM and another $5 million in research grants, built to test whether GLP-1 users can keep their muscle through targeted strength training. They also get into how each side is rolling out AI internally, how two founders settle disagreements, and which will hit the industry harder over the next three years: GLP-1s or AI.

Fritz Lanman leads Playlist, the parent company of Mindbody, Booker, ClassPass and EGYM, after previously serving as CEO of both ClassPass and Mindbody, while Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer founded EGYM 16 years ago and now runs it as CEO and Co-Chairman of Playlist.

Thanks to Our Sponsor:

EGYM: Connecting smart strength equipment across the fitness floor with personalized, AI-powered training experiences:
https://engage.egym.com/6GTrUv7?utm_source=futureoffitness&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=egym&utm_content=show_notes

► Get the State of Fitness quarterly report: https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/
► Partner with Future of Fitness: https://futureoffitness.co/contact
► Follow Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-malzone-8b452a3/

Connect with Fritz Lanman
Website: https://www.playlist.com/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/fritzlanman/

Connect with Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer
Website: https://egym.com/us
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipp-roesch-schlanderer-bb33137/

Eight Sleep's Dr. Nicole Moyen has data from millions of nights of sleep, and it shows menopausal and pregnant women want the coldest beds of anyone. So why has almost no research looked at temperature and sleep in women?

Get Eric's free Q2 State of Fitness Report: → https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/

Dr. Nicole Moyen, Senior Director of Science and Clinical Research at Eight Sleep, joins Eric to break down what close to 200,000 members and millions of nights of data say about temperature and sleep. In a study of nearly 100 peri- and postmenopausal women, the Pod cut hot flashes by 56% on average, whether or not they were on hormone replacement therapy. Her team has also followed more than 100 pregnancies from three months before conception to six months postpartum, and biometrics still hadn't returned to baseline at the six month mark. She also explains why sleep regularity is now a better predictor of all-cause mortality than total sleep time, and how trainers can start bringing sleep into client conversations.

Dr. Nicole Moyen holds a PhD from Stanford, played Division 1 soccer, and worked in research at Fitbit and WHOOP before joining Eight Sleep, where she has spent four and a half years studying how to improve sleep through temperature.

Thanks to Our Sponsor:

Perfect Gym: A leading fitness club management platform, part of Sport Alliance, now expanding across the U.S. market:
https://www.perfectgym.com/en?utm_source=futureoffitness&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=perfectgym&utm_content=show_notes

► Get the State of Fitness quarterly report: https://q2-report.future-of-fitness.info/
► Partner with Future of Fitness: https://futureoffitness.co/contact
► Follow Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-malzone-8b452a3/

Connect with Dr. Nicole Moyen
Website: https://www.eightsleep.com
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolemoyen/?isSelfProfile=false

Adam Shane spent 13 years helping scale Barry's. Now he's putting his own money behind Yoga Joint, a Florida infrared fitness brand that fills suburban classes with 55-plus people, and he's taking it straight into Manhattan.

Adam Shane, Franchise Owner and Managing Director of Yoga Joint New York, joins Eric Malzone to explain why he's flipping the usual boutique playbook and proving a suburban model in the city. He breaks down Yoga Joint's split between 60-minute Flow and 45-minute FIIT classes in 95-degree infrared rooms. He also explains why he's hunting for 3,500 to 5,000 square foot spaces when most of the industry is building 1,500 to 2,500. Adam shares his read on a boutique market that feels frothy, and he describes how details like elevators and stairwells quietly shape the member experience before anyone steps into class.

Adam Shane is the Franchise Owner and Managing Director of Yoga Joint New York and the former Chief Development Officer and EVP of Operations at Barry's, where he spent more than 13 years scaling the brand after starting as its last domestic franchisee. Website: https://yogajoint.com | Instagram: @adamjshane

Get Eric's weekly industry newsletter: https://futureoffitness.co
Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@futureofofitnesspod

OUR SPONSORS:
🔗 Perfect Gym: https://www.perfectgym.com/en
🔗 EGYM: https://egym.com/

Dr. Heather McKee, PhD behavioral scientist and motivation science advisor at MyZone, joins Eric Malzone to explain why motivation is the wrong thing to chase first and what actually gets members to stick around past January.

Dr. McKee argues that action creates motivation, not the other way around, and that operators should design for a member's ordinary Tuesday rather than their idealized best day. She breaks down why six week challenges quietly fail most members, citing Eric's own experience retaining just 4 percent of a 50 person challenge cohort six months later, and introduces the concept of competence matching, or stage matching people to exercise based on their actual confidence level rather than their ambition. The conversation also covers how AI can extend a trainer's reach from a few hours a week into dozens of touchpoints without replacing the human relationship.

Dr. Heather McKee is a PhD behavioral scientist, motivation science advisor at MyZone, and Europe-based habit formation specialist who has consulted for lululemon, Starbucks, Unilever, and HSBC. Website: https://www.drheathermckee.co.uk/ | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drheathermckee

Get Eric's weekly industry newsletter: https://futureoffitness.co/
Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@futureofofitnesspod

OUR SPONSORS:
🔗 Perfect Gym: https://www.perfectgym.com/en
🔗 EGYM: https://egym.com/

What if the next major shift in fitness and health isn't another wearable or blood panel, but knowing which of your organs is aging fastest, and whether the things you're doing to improve your health are actually working?

Paul Coletta is Co-Founder and CEO of Vero Bioscience, a predictive health company commercializing Stanford research in proteomic organ aging.

Before Vero, Paul spent decades building consumer businesses and brands across Disney, MTV, Hewlett-Packard, Jamba Juice and Urban Remedy. He isn't an MD or a PhD. Three years ago, he says he didn't even know what proteomics was.

Then he became one of the first people to take what would become Vero's assay.

The result showed that his kidney was aging significantly faster than his chronological age, even though the traditional markers he had been tracking, including creatinine and GFR, looked normal. Paul didn't believe the result, so he took it to his cardiologist. An ultrasound found a large renal cyst. It was benign, but the experience changed how he thought about what health data could tell us before traditional diagnostics flag a problem.

That story became part of a much bigger question: Can we move from measuring health after something has gone wrong to seeing where the body may be heading, then intervene early enough to change the trajectory?

Eric Malzone and Paul unpack the emerging science behind proteomics, the study of proteins and what they can reveal about the real-time function of the body. Paul explains why he thinks proteins offer a different layer of information than genetics, conventional bloodwork and whole-body biological age scores.

Vero's Proteomic OrganAge™ analyzes roughly 11,000 proteins from a blood sample and maps those signals across 11 organ systems. The underlying research has been validated across more than 45,000 people, with longitudinal data extending over 17 years. Rather than reducing someone to a single biological-age number, the goal is to identify which parts of the body may be aging differently from the rest.

As Paul puts it: "You're only as healthy as your oldest organ."

But the measurement itself is only part of the conversation.

Eric has talked for years about the industry's "now what" problem: consumers have more data than ever from wearables, bloodwork, sleep trackers and other diagnostics, but getting another score doesn't necessarily tell someone what to do next.

Paul argues that the real opportunity is creating a closed-loop health system: measure what is happening, connect that insight to a targeted intervention, retest, and measure how the biology responds.

This leads to a broader conversation about the longevity industry itself.

As those categories continue to converge, the opportunity may be bigger than collecting more health data. It may be building systems that can turn that data into direction and give both consumers and clinicians a clearer picture of where to act next.

CONNECT WITH PAUL + VERO
Learn more about Vero Bioscience / join the waitlist →
https://www.verobioscience.com/?utm_source=future_of_fitness&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=podcast_collective&utm_content=paul_coletta
Paul Coletta on LinkedIn →
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcoletta/
Vero Bioscience on LinkedIn →
https://www.linkedin.com/company/vero-bioscience-inc/home/

Jon Ward left the influencer playbook behind at Plunge to build something with no media, no selling, and an NDA at the door — and he's already turned away over a hundred applicants to protect it.

Jon Ward, Founder and CEO of The Assembly, joins Eric to unpack why he's betting on trust over reach in an industry drowning in pitches. Jon breaks down how GLP-1s are splitting the gym-going population in half, why brands like Evolve went from zero to over $100 million in under a year, and why he thinks "health" needs to stop being treated as an industry and start being treated as culture. He also gets into how The Assembly vets its members, what its Chatham House rules actually protect, and why he sees fitness as the best-positioned industry to own the next decade of health.

Jon Ward is the Founder and CEO of The Assembly, an invite-only network connecting founders, executives, and investors across health, wellness, and longevity, and previously worked in brand growth at cold-plunge company Plunge. Website: https://theassembly.health | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonward007

Get Eric's weekly industry newsletter: https://futureoffitness.co
Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@futureofofitnesspod

James Hurlock went from professional rugby to founding Fitura Brands, the multi-concept franchise platform behind Padel SWT, Core Precinct, and ContrasTheory. He explains why he's betting on three categories at once — and why he's deliberately taking the slow, expensive route to franchising.

James Hurlock is the Founder and CEO of Fitura Brands, a Utah-based wellness holding company that launched in 2026 at a $20 million pre-money valuation. Before founding Fitura, Hurlock served as founding CEO of FS8, Chief Partnerships Officer at F45 Training, and Chief Brand Officer at The Picklr, where he helped grow the indoor pickleball franchise to roughly 70 locations across the US and abroad. In this conversation, he breaks down Fitura's three concepts — Padel SWT (big-box indoor padel), Core Precinct (hybrid reformer Pilates), and ContrasTheory (guided contrast recovery) — and shares why Fitura spent 12 months building infrastructure before selling a single franchise.

James Hurlock, Founder and CEO of Fitura Brands, previously held leadership roles at F45 Training, FS8, and The Picklr, and played professional rugby for Northampton Saints Academy and London Saracens before captaining England Schoolboys.

Get Eric's weekly industry newsletter: https://futureoffitness.co
Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@futureofofitnesspod

Jon Canarick has spent 25 years investing in gyms, and he's still trying to explain why doctors won't write a prescription for exercise. As Managing Partner at North Castle Partners, he helped build Equinox, turned around Curves, and backed Barry's long before boutique fitness was a category.

Canarick walks through what actually changed in fitness private equity since he joined North Castle in 2001, from the corporate franchise wave that built 24 Hour Fitness and LA Fitness to Planet Fitness's pricing model, which he credits with pulling more Americans into gym memberships than anything else in the last quarter century. He details the failed attempt to combine Curves with Jenny Craig and a Cleveland Clinic nutrition program, a bet he calls a real failure despite the medical credibility behind it. Canarick also breaks down why GLP-1 drugs are reshaping the industry at the premium end through brands like Monarch and Miora, and why an LEK study showing 30% of big box gym members also pay for boutique fitness complicates the usual story about a shrinking middle class of gyms.

Jon Canarick is Managing Partner at North Castle Partners, a private equity firm focused exclusively on healthy, active, and sustainable living businesses, where he has sat on the boards of Equinox, Curves, Barry's, Therabody, and SLT. Website: https://northcastlepartners.com | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jon-canarick-4340362

Get Eric's weekly industry newsletter: https://futureoffitness.co
Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@futureofofitnesspod

OUR SPONSORS:
🔗 Perfect Gym: https://www.perfectgym.com/en
🔗 EGYM: https://egym.com/

Garmin Health's Andy Beckman joins hosts Eric Malzone, Juliet Starrett, and Alex Alimanestianu for the quarterly roundtable, talking wearables and the Training Peaks acquisition before the group digs into a full quarter of fitness industry earnings.

Andy Beckman explains what Garmin Health actually does, from employee wellness and insurance underwriting to military fatigue tracking and the pilot study that flagged COVID cases 48 hours before symptoms appeared. Juliet Starrett and Alex Alimanestianu then break down the numbers: Garmin posted a record quarter with revenue up 11% to $2 billion and its fitness segment growing 25% to $757 million, Lifetime grew revenue 13.7% to $866 million while deliberately shrinking its membership base toward higher-paying clients, and Peloton logged its first full year of net profitability even as subscriptions fell 9%. Xponential Fitness comes up as the quarter's cautionary tale, with a new leadership team and a debt-to-EBITDA ratio the hosts call unsustainable. The episode closes on Procter & Gamble's acquisition of supplement brand Thorn, New York City's new click-to-cancel law, and a widely shared article questioning the accuracy of Blue Zones longevity data.

Andy Beckman leads Garmin Health, the division that connects Garmin's wearables to partners in corporate wellness, insurance, clinical research, and remote patient monitoring, after joining the company in 2008. Website: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/health/ | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/beckmanandy

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Your gut lining rebuilds itself every five days — faster than any other tissue in your body — and that turnover rate is either your best defense or your biggest vulnerability, depending on what you're doing to it. In the final episode of this series with stem cell scientist and STEMREGEN founder Christian Drapeau, Eric Malzone digs into why the intestinal lining is "the most fragile and vulnerable part of your body," how estrogen withdrawal at menopause quietly wrecks gut repair, and why Christian believes the real story of aging isn't inflammation or free radicals — it's a failure of the body's own repair system. They also get into a jaw-dropping 1940s case study on gut bacteria and psychosis, the specific bacteria linked to autoimmune disease and diabetes, and why Christian thinks "stem cells bring cure" is the hardest sentence in modern medicine.

Key Takeaways

• 🔄 Your gut lining fully renews every 5 days — versus 30 days for skin
• 📏 Unfolded, your intestinal lining covers roughly the surface area of a tennis court, packed into ~10-13 feet of tube
• 🧫 That lining is one cell thick — the only barrier between your bloodstream and everything in your gut
• 🌸 Estrogen withdrawal at menopause reduces stem cell proliferation and strips away its anti-inflammatory protection, weakening gut repair
• 🦠 The "estrobolome" — a distinct, estrogen-linked gut microbiome that shifts dramatically after menopause
• 🧠 A 1940s-50s study fed institutionalized psychosis/seizure patients ~700 billion microorganisms/day via fermented yogurt — many normalized within two weeks
• 💊 Christian's core thesis: failure of endogenous repair, not inflammation or free radicals alone, is the fundamental cause of aging and disease
• 🩺 25 years of research shows that simply increasing circulating stem cells can produce results Christian calls "phenomenal" — including an ongoing Parkinson's study

CONNECT WITH CHRISTIAN DRAPEAU

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stemcellchristian

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stemcellchristian/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STEMREGENOfficial/

Paul Lunter didn't start out trying to build a wellness empire — he was in construction, watched someone in pain step in and out of the shower for relief, and built a machine instead. Thirty-seven years later, that machine (HydroMassage) has grown into WellnessSpace Brands: five product lines, 400 million sessions delivered, and installations in 50+ countries at Planet Fitness, Life Time, Gold's Gym, and beyond. Lunter walks Eric Malzone through the company's medical-market origins, the R&D behind machines like the PolarWave Dry Plunge and the company's newest RedZone sauna which uses no wood, and why he thinks recovery is a permanent industry shift rather than another fitness fad.

Key Takeaways

🛠️ Paul Lunter built the first HydroMassage machine in 1989 after watching someone step in and out of the shower for pain relief multiple times a day — before recovery was even a category

🏥 The brand started as "Aquamed" selling into chiropractors, physical therapy, and pain management clinics — Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic are both longtime customers

📊 WellnessSpace Brands has delivered over 400 million sessions across 50+ countries and sold roughly 30,000 machines in the last eight years

❄️ Lunter built the first dry cold plunge prototype in 1992 — decades before cold plunging became mainstream

💰 When a Snap Fitness location raised membership dues by $10 after adding Wellness Space products, it lost only 2 members while 210 signed up for the add-on — a case study in pricing power

🏋️ Some Life Time locations run their equipment roughly 5,000 hours a year, out of a possible 8,000 — near-constant usage

🧖 The company's newest sauna uses no wood (to avoid bacteria and odor), circulates air for even heat, and layers in red light therapy at 630 and 850 nanometer wavelengths

💼 WellnessSpace Brands was self-funded until 2006, brought in private equity (Ilarion Partners), and has partnered with North Castle Partners since 2016 — now hiring aggressively after growing headcount by 60 this year

Jeff Byers, CEO of Momentous, returns to Future of Fitness for his third appearance to unpack how the brand grew revenue over 1,000% in three years while landing partnerships with all 32 NFL teams and 10+ Department of Defense contracts. Byers breaks down why Momentous walked away from a $500,000-profit product line over a science and brand-integrity call — literally scrapping $400,000 in inventory rather than sell it through — how the company is approaching its first-ever retail launch with Vitamin Shop, and why a $500,000 commitment to women's health research with Dr. Stacey Sims fits into a bigger 20-year brand strategy. From Arnold Schwarzenegger's endorsement to what AI search optimization means for consumer trust, this conversation is a masterclass in building a supplement brand built to outlast any single quarter.

Key Takeaways

📈 Momentous has grown revenue over 1,000% in the past three years and just landed its third consecutive Inc. 5000 appearance

🏈 The brand works with all 32 NFL teams and holds 10+ active Department of Defense contracts

💰 In 2024, Momentous discontinued FedOja — a $500,000 profit (not revenue) product — after deciding the science no longer supported it, scrapping $400,000 of existing inventory rather than sell through it

🏋️ The company began in 2018 as a DOD-funded biotech venture (Amp Human) before pivoting into consumer supplements when COVID hit

🎯 Momentous's roster of authoritative partners includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Andrew Huberman, Tim Ferriss, Rich Roll, and Dr. Stacey Sims

🛒 Momentous launched its first-ever retail partnership this year with Vitamin Shop, using a "velocity over doors" strategy instead of chasing broad distribution

🧬 Momentous has committed $500,000 to women's health research alongside Dr. Stacey Sims

🤖 Byers explains why Momentous is intentionally avoiding a branded consumer AI chatbot — betting instead on showing up authentically inside tools like Claude and ChatGPT

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Why do women lose bone density so fast after menopause — and what actually reverses it? Neurophysiologist and stem cell researcher Christian Drapeau (founder of STEMREGEN®) breaks down the biology behind bone and muscle aging, why strength training is the single most powerful lever for reversing the damage, and what most people get wrong about protein and collagen intake.

Key Takeaways:

• 🦴 Losing estrogen causes a "double hit" on bone: skeletal stem cells stop becoming bone-building osteoblasts while bone-degrading osteoclasts ramp up
• 🧈 Bone marrow can convert to fat tissue — some measurements put this as high as 15%, a major hidden driver of post-menopause bone loss
• 💪 Muscle growth is a stem cell process: satellite cells fuse into existing muscle fibers after training-induced micro-trauma to build new tissue
• 🏋️ Just 6–8 weeks of immobility measurably increases marrow fat in women — but resuming activity reverses it
• ✊ Grip strength is one of the single best predictors of long-term health and longevity
• 🧬 The body has "master" bone marrow stem cells (hematopoietic/mesenchymal) that migrate to different tissues and become bone, muscle, liver, or skin cells
• 🥩 Collagen peptides supply amino acids most diets are missing — critical for repairing connective tissue, not just "beauty"
• 🎯 Protein target discussed: roughly 1 gram per pound of body weight to support repair

CONNECT WITH CHRISTIAN DRAPEAU

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stemcellchristian
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stemcellchristian/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STEMREGENOfficial/

JJ Creegan has helped build three of the biggest names in fitness — Planet Fitness, UFIT, and Orange Theory — and now works as a fractional COO/CEO helping emerging brands scale. In this episode, he and Eric dig into the K-shaped fitness economy, why the industry is "data rich but knowledge poor," and the exact visit-frequency formula that predicts member retention. They also cover the state of boutique fitness, the Pilates consolidation wave coming, and why the walls between fitness, medicine, and wellness are finally coming down.

Key Takeaways:

• 📊 Only 25% of the U.S. population holds a fitness membership — 75% of adults aren't engaging in fitness at all
• 💰 JJ's retention rule from his time at UFIT: getting a member to 10 visits in their first 60 days increased year-long retention odds by 50%
• 🚫 "You can't ever save a cancellation. You can only prevent it."
• 🔥 "Loyalty is fake. It does not exist in today's world. It's about relevancy."
• 🧗 If JJ had a blank check, he'd open a rock-climbing gym that integrates recovery and wellness — not a traditional gym
• 🏋️ Jet Set Pilates just signed its 400th license agreement and is set to open 150+ units this year
• 🩸 JJ's personal fight to get proactive bloodwork (testosterone) despite pushback from his own doctor
• 😴 The single biggest health upgrade in his last 5 years: being in bed before 9:30 PM for 7–7.5 hours of sleep

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Connect with JJ Creegan:
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📸 Instagram
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Online coaching is a $28.9B industry racing toward $120B by 2031 — but 71% of people who start an online fitness program quit within 90 days. In this episode, Eric sits down with Cody McBroom, founder of Tailored Coaching Method, who's built a 7-figure, ad-free coaching business over the past nine years without ever accepting a pay-in-full client. Cody breaks down the "identity-based coaching" model that took his team's client retention from 3-4 months to 14 months, why AI is reshaping how people find (and vet) a coach, and his genuinely nuanced take on GLP-1 drugs and the fitness industry's future.

Key Takeaways:

• 💰 Cody built Tailored Coaching Method into a 7-figure/year business with zero paid ads and a strict no-pay-in-full policy
• 🧠 Identity-based coaching (built around self-control, self-discipline, self-belief, self-respect) took his coaches' average client retention from 3-4 months to 14 months
• 💍 The surprising reason divorce rates rise when only one partner in a couple loses significant weight
• 🤖 ChatGPT Health logged 230 million health-related inquiries per week the month it launched — and Cody gets new client applications weekly sourced straight from AI search
• 🔍 60-65% of Google searches are now "no-click" — Cody explains how coaches can get cited inside AI summaries via AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
• 💊 Cody's real position on GLP-1s/semaglutide: medically useful for extreme cases, but no substitute for the identity work required for lasting change
• 🥊 His mentor's blunt advice before going online: "train people for five years straight, and then you'll have the right to do that"
• 📈 Why he believes AI will "weed out" bad coaches rather than replace good ones

Connect with Cody McBroom:

• Website: tailoredcoachingmethod.com
• Instagram: @tailoredcoach (also searchable as Cody McBroom)
• Podcast: Choose Hard

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