Celebrity trainer
and nutritionist
Harley Pasternak
/ PHOTO: HARLEY PASTERNAK
The future of working out following the outbreak of coronavirus will be a hybrid of at-gym and in-home fitness, with an increasing focus on digital offerings, predicts celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak.
Pasternak is a personal trainer and nutritionist from Canada, who made his name working with celebrities including Halle Berry, Orlando Bloom and Rachel Weisz. He also has a fitness facility design business and works as global fitness advisor for Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
“I think fitness providers will be okay,” he says, talking to Health Club Management, the sister publication to Spa Business. “Things will come back to very close to what they were before the pandemic, but there will be more of a focus on hygiene, ventilation and private spaces to work out. More home fitness will exist than before, but people will come back to gyms for the social aspect and for pieces of equipment that it doesn’t make sense to have at home.”
His advice to spas and wellness hotels with fitness spaces is to “think about who’s going to be using your facility. How you cater for them, how you prioritise function over form, create different spaces for different people with different goals and comfort levels.
“With COVID-19, the idea of creating personal pods where people can exercise in a very hygienic and private way is a new area we haven’t looked at yet. And whenever you can create an outdoor amenity, that’s also very helpful.”
He also advises operators to increase their use of digital workout offerings. “It’s the future and present,” he says. “From a staffing and financial perspective it makes so much sense. You’re able to personalise things even more digitally than you are with one person in a class. A machine can keep track more and knows way more exercises.”
Digital fitness Digital workouts underpin Pasternak’s work with Four Seasons. In 2019, they teamed up to create a comprehensive video series which has been designed to give Four Seasons’ guests help with five of the most common fitness challenges experienced by travellers – from fighting jet lag and getting beach body ready to simply trying to maintain regular exercise away from home.
The series consists of five easy and effective routines and each one of those is accompanied by a helpful ‘how-to’ video where Pasternak demonstrates the step-by-step form and correct technique for exercises.
Guests can then access the videos via the Four Seasons App on their mobiles as well as the Four Seasons YouTube channel. This enables them to workout in a hotel gym if they want to, outdoors on-property, or even in the comfort of their hotel room.
“We’re all time starved, and finding time to work out and stay active is often a huge challenge – especially when travelling,” says Pasternak. “But travel can be the best time to get active and when our bodies need it most, whether we’re exploring a new destination or shaking off that jet lag.”
Other hotel chains are taking similar approaches. In 2017 industry figure Ryan Crabbe, then senior director of wellness at Hilton, developed Hilton’s Five Feet to Fitness concept. Hilton charges US$45 (€37, £32) extra for a Five Feet to Fitness room which features a Wattbike, Gym Rax functional training station and a touch-screen Fitness Kiosk where guests can get equipment tutorials and follow guided workout routines.
In October 2020, Accor announced a partnership between Pullman hotels and group fitness leader Les Mills (see p34). Pullman Power Fitness will see more than 1,000 Les Mills On Demand and Virtual workouts available for 24/7 use in guestrooms, fitness studios or even back at home in some cases. The aim is to introduce the concept to 50 select Pullman properties throughout 2021.
Attracting new customers With COVID-19 acting as an incentive for many to lose weight, Pasternak advises spas and wellness hotels with gyms to become more welcoming for people at the start of their fitness journey. Something that’s now particularly pertinent as spas are looking to engage more with local customers.
“Keep it simple,” he says. “Not all workouts have to be an hour and half long with 20 exercises. Having someone just feeling comfortable walking into the gym is important. Maybe giving them two simple moves to start with. I think people should start on free weights rather than machines – if machines are people’s first exposure to resistance exercise, they can actually create bad habits, but as they become more advanced, they can be great tools for variation and isolation.”
Forme Life Pasternak is behind the design and development of several pieces of widely-used strength equipment, and is always on the lookout for the next big thing in fitness, he says. When he was asked to be chief fitness adviser for recently-launched Forme Life he was instantly keen. Forme Life is a smart mirror with a weight training system built into it for the home market. The full length mirror was designed by Yves Behar and users can access a wide range of live and on demand workouts via an embedded touch screen.
“When Trent Ward, the founder of Forme Life, approached me as they were developing this product, I thought, yes! I’m hitching my wagon to this horse,” he says. “It’s going to be a revolutionary product.”
Forme Life comes in two models: Full Studio and Screen-Only Studio. When turned off, it becomes a sleek full length mirror to blend into the surroundings.
“If the Mirror is an audio cassette and Tonal is a CD, Forme Life is today’s modern digital music,” he explains. “This is what I’ve been telling my clients to hold out for.”
Looking ahead, Pasternak’s gym design company has a range of new openings underway, including several for Four Seasons, and an updated version of his bestselling The Body Reset Diet book is due to come out early in early 2021.
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2021 issue 1
Editor's letter: Healing the world
With the impact of COVID-19 affecting millions of people globally, spas have a special role to play in the recovery movement
Spa Programmes: On the menu
Healing heartache retreats at Chablé Mexico and Czech spas using mineral water to treat long COVID feature in our latest programming highlights
Programming: Kevin Kelly
Four Seasons’ Sensei retreat in Hawaii taps into wearable tech and biometric data
Programming: Jeremy McCarthy
Mandarin Oriental rolls out it Inner Strength Outer Strength mental wellness course to guests
Interview: Emlyn Brown
Accor’s global vice-president of wellbeing talks to Katie Barnes about business strategies following COVID
Everyone’s talking about: Local markets
How are spas adapting their business model to attract locals? And what happens when international tourists return? Spa Business magazine reports
Trends: Spa Foresight™ 20/21
Touch hunger, lung health, resilience and COVID cool spots all feature in future predictions from the Spa Business team
Sponsored: G.M. COLLIN: New partnerships
Skincare brand GM Collin is
re-energising its sales network and looking
for new distributors from across the globe
to drive its business network
Insight: Hindsight 2020
Mia Kyricos looks at the harsh lessons that spas can learn from the last year
Analysis: On your marks
Analyst Jan Freitag suggests a timescale for global hotel recovery and hotel spas
Research: Eyes on Ireland
An Irish Spa Association snapshot survey shows the impact of COVID on spas across country
Promotion: Artofcryo.com: Chill factor
Artofcryo.com provides evidence-based whole body cryotherapy solutions,
offering effective solutions for guests and an attractive ROI for investors
Fitness: Harley Pasternak
The celebrity trainer and nutritionist shares his vision of fitness and health in the age of coronavirus
Promotion: Iyashi Dôme: Optimal solution
Iyashi Dôme Japanese saunas offer a versatile treatment solution for spas searching for quality touchless treatments backed by science and Japanese technology
Finishing touch: Watch out
UK researchers launch a new study to explore how digital nature experiences can be good for us
Celebrity trainer
and nutritionist
Harley Pasternak
/ PHOTO: HARLEY PASTERNAK
The future of working out following the outbreak of coronavirus will be a hybrid of at-gym and in-home fitness, with an increasing focus on digital offerings, predicts celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak.
Pasternak is a personal trainer and nutritionist from Canada, who made his name working with celebrities including Halle Berry, Orlando Bloom and Rachel Weisz. He also has a fitness facility design business and works as global fitness advisor for Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
“I think fitness providers will be okay,” he says, talking to Health Club Management, the sister publication to Spa Business. “Things will come back to very close to what they were before the pandemic, but there will be more of a focus on hygiene, ventilation and private spaces to work out. More home fitness will exist than before, but people will come back to gyms for the social aspect and for pieces of equipment that it doesn’t make sense to have at home.”
His advice to spas and wellness hotels with fitness spaces is to “think about who’s going to be using your facility. How you cater for them, how you prioritise function over form, create different spaces for different people with different goals and comfort levels.
“With COVID-19, the idea of creating personal pods where people can exercise in a very hygienic and private way is a new area we haven’t looked at yet. And whenever you can create an outdoor amenity, that’s also very helpful.”
He also advises operators to increase their use of digital workout offerings. “It’s the future and present,” he says. “From a staffing and financial perspective it makes so much sense. You’re able to personalise things even more digitally than you are with one person in a class. A machine can keep track more and knows way more exercises.”
Digital fitness Digital workouts underpin Pasternak’s work with Four Seasons. In 2019, they teamed up to create a comprehensive video series which has been designed to give Four Seasons’ guests help with five of the most common fitness challenges experienced by travellers – from fighting jet lag and getting beach body ready to simply trying to maintain regular exercise away from home.
The series consists of five easy and effective routines and each one of those is accompanied by a helpful ‘how-to’ video where Pasternak demonstrates the step-by-step form and correct technique for exercises.
Guests can then access the videos via the Four Seasons App on their mobiles as well as the Four Seasons YouTube channel. This enables them to workout in a hotel gym if they want to, outdoors on-property, or even in the comfort of their hotel room.
“We’re all time starved, and finding time to work out and stay active is often a huge challenge – especially when travelling,” says Pasternak. “But travel can be the best time to get active and when our bodies need it most, whether we’re exploring a new destination or shaking off that jet lag.”
Other hotel chains are taking similar approaches. In 2017 industry figure Ryan Crabbe, then senior director of wellness at Hilton, developed Hilton’s Five Feet to Fitness concept. Hilton charges US$45 (€37, £32) extra for a Five Feet to Fitness room which features a Wattbike, Gym Rax functional training station and a touch-screen Fitness Kiosk where guests can get equipment tutorials and follow guided workout routines.
In October 2020, Accor announced a partnership between Pullman hotels and group fitness leader Les Mills (see p34). Pullman Power Fitness will see more than 1,000 Les Mills On Demand and Virtual workouts available for 24/7 use in guestrooms, fitness studios or even back at home in some cases. The aim is to introduce the concept to 50 select Pullman properties throughout 2021.
Attracting new customers With COVID-19 acting as an incentive for many to lose weight, Pasternak advises spas and wellness hotels with gyms to become more welcoming for people at the start of their fitness journey. Something that’s now particularly pertinent as spas are looking to engage more with local customers.
“Keep it simple,” he says. “Not all workouts have to be an hour and half long with 20 exercises. Having someone just feeling comfortable walking into the gym is important. Maybe giving them two simple moves to start with. I think people should start on free weights rather than machines – if machines are people’s first exposure to resistance exercise, they can actually create bad habits, but as they become more advanced, they can be great tools for variation and isolation.”
Forme Life Pasternak is behind the design and development of several pieces of widely-used strength equipment, and is always on the lookout for the next big thing in fitness, he says. When he was asked to be chief fitness adviser for recently-launched Forme Life he was instantly keen. Forme Life is a smart mirror with a weight training system built into it for the home market. The full length mirror was designed by Yves Behar and users can access a wide range of live and on demand workouts via an embedded touch screen.
“When Trent Ward, the founder of Forme Life, approached me as they were developing this product, I thought, yes! I’m hitching my wagon to this horse,” he says. “It’s going to be a revolutionary product.”
Forme Life comes in two models: Full Studio and Screen-Only Studio. When turned off, it becomes a sleek full length mirror to blend into the surroundings.
“If the Mirror is an audio cassette and Tonal is a CD, Forme Life is today’s modern digital music,” he explains. “This is what I’ve been telling my clients to hold out for.”
Looking ahead, Pasternak’s gym design company has a range of new openings underway, including several for Four Seasons, and an updated version of his bestselling The Body Reset Diet book is due to come out early in early 2021.
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2021 issue 1
Editor's letter: Healing the world
With the impact of COVID-19 affecting millions of people globally, spas have a special role to play in the recovery movement
Spa Programmes: On the menu
Healing heartache retreats at Chablé Mexico and Czech spas using mineral water to treat long COVID feature in our latest programming highlights
Programming: Kevin Kelly
Four Seasons’ Sensei retreat in Hawaii taps into wearable tech and biometric data
Programming: Jeremy McCarthy
Mandarin Oriental rolls out it Inner Strength Outer Strength mental wellness course to guests
Interview: Emlyn Brown
Accor’s global vice-president of wellbeing talks to Katie Barnes about business strategies following COVID
Everyone’s talking about: Local markets
How are spas adapting their business model to attract locals? And what happens when international tourists return? Spa Business magazine reports
Trends: Spa Foresight™ 20/21
Touch hunger, lung health, resilience and COVID cool spots all feature in future predictions from the Spa Business team
Sponsored: G.M. COLLIN: New partnerships
Skincare brand GM Collin is
re-energising its sales network and looking
for new distributors from across the globe
to drive its business network
Insight: Hindsight 2020
Mia Kyricos looks at the harsh lessons that spas can learn from the last year
Analysis: On your marks
Analyst Jan Freitag suggests a timescale for global hotel recovery and hotel spas
Research: Eyes on Ireland
An Irish Spa Association snapshot survey shows the impact of COVID on spas across country
Promotion: Artofcryo.com: Chill factor
Artofcryo.com provides evidence-based whole body cryotherapy solutions,
offering effective solutions for guests and an attractive ROI for investors
Fitness: Harley Pasternak
The celebrity trainer and nutritionist shares his vision of fitness and health in the age of coronavirus
Promotion: Iyashi Dôme: Optimal solution
Iyashi Dôme Japanese saunas offer a versatile treatment solution for spas searching for quality touchless treatments backed by science and Japanese technology
Finishing touch: Watch out
UK researchers launch a new study to explore how digital nature experiences can be good for us
OMA has completed a major transformation of New York's New Museum, creating a larger
cultural campus that combines expanded exhibition spaces with learning, performance,
hospitality and public programming.
A US$50 million (£44.2 million, €51.2 million) transformation of Chicago's historic McCormick
Mansion has created a new destination that combines live magic, immersive theatre, dining and
private membership under one roof.
The Montana Historical Society has officially celebrated the opening of its new Montana
Heritage
Center, a US$107 million (£79 million, €92 million) destination that combines immersive
storytelling with cutting-edge audiovisual technology to bring the sta
San Antonio Zoo has reported a US$283 million economic impact for 2025, following a decade-
long transformation programme that has seen almost US$200 million invested into the Texas
attraction.
Plans for the AU$180 million redevelopment of Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville, Australia, are
progressing, with the project set to transform the attraction into a global centre for reef
education and conservation.
Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Mubadala Capital has made a binding, fully financed
€1 billion
offer to acquire Pierre and Vacances SA, the European holiday resort operator behind the
continental European Center Parcs business.
Disney has reaffirmed its commitment to investing US$30 billion in its US parks and cruise
business by 2033, using new America250 celebrations to underline the role its attractions play
in supporting jobs, tourism and economic growth.
Expo 2030 Riyadh is being planned as a permanent visitor destination, with organisers
confirming the six-million-square-metre site will become a Global Village after the event closes.
The owner of one of Australia's best-known waterparks has acquired a major competitor,
creating a new attractions business spanning two of the country's largest visitor destinations.
The Toverland theme park in the Netherlands has announced a €98m expansion programme
that will add a resort, new attractions and staff facilities as it pursues plans to become a multi-
day destination.
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