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

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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.

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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

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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

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/

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

Our Sponsor:

https://www.perfectgym.com/

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

OUR SPONSORS:

🔗 Perfect Gym: https://www.perfectgym.com/en

🔗 EGYM: https://egym.com/

Connect with JJ Creegan:
🌐 JJCreegan.com
📸 Instagram
💼 LinkedIn

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

OUR SPONSOR:

🔗 Perfect Gym: https://www.perfectgym.com/en

Global expansion, jiu-jitsu black belts, and Dana White's secret philanthropy — Adam Sedlack, CEO of UFC GYM, is back on The Future of Fitness after a five-year hiatus, and the growth story is staggering. From surviving pandemic-era bankruptcies to opening a new location every single week across 46+ countries, Sedlack breaks down the pricing overhaul that fueled 25% member growth and record profit margins, why "the consumer always has the answer," and how UFC GYM built a scalable system for teaching high-skill disciplines like BJJ and Muay Thai across 180+ locations without sacrificing quality. He also opens up about the Mark Mastrov coaching tree that shaped his career, what Dana White is really like behind the cameras, UFC GYM's cautious-but-committed AI strategy, and his bold five-year vision to hit 50+ countries by 2030. Whether you're a gym operator, franchise investor, or just fascinated by the business of fitness, this episode is packed with hard-won lessons on pricing psychology, scaling culture, and riding the wave of combat sports going mainstream.

Key Takeaways:

🥋 UFC GYM opened 180+ locations across 46 countries in 2025 — debuting in Pakistan, Ecuador, France, and Morocco — averaging one new gym per week

💰 A 2023 pricing overhaul (entry-level access priced to local market rates, add-ons for BJJ, recovery, med spas) drove 25% member growth and all-time-high profit margins

🧠 "The consumer always has the answer" — Sedlack ditched ego-driven pricing once data showed people join gyms for two reasons: location and price

🥊 UFC GYM built an internal university, certifications, and modality-specific head coaches to keep quality consistent across 180+ locations teaching jiu-jitsu, boxing, and MMA

🎬 Dana White's off-camera generosity — supporting law enforcement, military, and staff through COVID — gets a rare behind-the-scenes spotlight

🌳 The "Mark Mastrov coaching tree" connects UFC GYM, Crunch, and dozens of fitness leaders — and Sedlack shares the janitor-and-wet-floors story that shaped his leadership style

🤖 UFC GYM's AI approach: empower the team to experiment now, stay patient on enterprise-wide integration, and learn from best practices as they emerge

🌍 The 2030 vision: 50+ countries, 3-5 new gym openings per week, and positioning UFC GYM as a destination for stress, sleep, and nutrition — not just fitness

Connect with Adam Sedlack:
📸 Instagram: @CEOUFCGYM
💼 LinkedIn: Adam Sedlack

OUR SPONSORS:

🔗 Perfect Gym: https://www.perfectgym.com/en

🔗 EGYM: https://egym.com/