This is part 2 of a 3 part series kicked off by Adam Saks, where he discussed the positive impacts of community on our health.
The data is in, as Adam broke down, that being around other people should be a pillar of everyone's daily life.
I’ve found a few amazing fitness communities that bring together people in truly honest and meaningful ways, most notably, The Athletic Clubs.
This is just one example, but the blend of community, accountability, movement, and incentives, bundled into a single gym is unlike anything else I’ve been around before.
Last June as I navigated the health tech and consumer health job landscape, I messaged Dane McCarthy, founder of the AC’s on Instagram. Mostly to show appreciation for what he had built, and loosely trying to gauge his interest for expansion.
I lived in Manhattan for 3 years right around when the AC’s started to gain traction. I never joined due to the distance between my apartment and the West Village, but I kept hearing rumblings of this part gym/social club/coffee meetup - I was intrigued to say the least.
Dane dialed in on something no other gym in New York had considered since COVID struck: people were incredibly lonely and wanted more than to just plug in their headphones in and zone out for a 45 minute workout. They wanted to connect and engage with likeminded people.
So what is it?
The AC’s are private member fitness clubs that pride themselves on “squad training”. Think of squads as workout groups, each group typically consisting of 8-14 people.
The workouts themselves are high intensity circuits that include a combination of ski ergs, weights, bodyweight movements, and no shortage of meters on the rower.
The unique component here is that your squad and trainer remains consistent week in and week out.
By training twice a week with your squad, you start to form genuine connections and your trainer becomes more familiar with your athletic abilities, making it possible for them to more productively coach you, and push your limits over time. A key tenet of the AC’s coaches is being “specific and personal”, a mantra they have continued to uphold. From pre-class banter, to in-class motivation, to post-class coffee, the lines between coach & member are blurred, and an authentic ecosystem based in community is born.
The fitness landscape historically has been dominated by big box gyms where the mindset is “sign up as many people as possible and hope they all don’t show up at once” Oh yeah, and make it impossible to quit.
The AC’s selectively curate members who truly care about community, and most importantly want to pour sweat - these workouts are no joke.
Inspired by the mission and vision, and now living in the Bay Area, arguably a more health-conscious city than Manhattan, I saw a real opportunity for the expansion of something like this - Dane agreed.
To jump to the end of this story, we went on a 4 month hunt for a the AC’s first gym location outside of NY, and although we weren’t successful due to a variety of factors, we did end up running a trial workout to see if one location we did find was sufficiently sound proof.
I brought together 10 (mostly strangers) on a Thursday morning and we went through a sample AC workout.
Even within the workouts themselves there’s a flavor of community. The 10 of us split into two groups of five, following the same workout, but subtlety competing with the people we just met — small differentiators like this are what make the AC’s the AC’s.
At the end of the hour, when the workout was up, and pools of sweat filled the floor, it was evident we had just accomplished a few things none of which included securing a location for a gym.
What we did do was instantly form relationships with people we hadn't known 60 minutes prior, and created a micro-community, even for a moment, of people we know would push ourselves and hold each other accountable.
This reaffirmed:
1) people bond through very hard things
2) it is possible to make fitness more community focused, and that small nudges to your daily routine such as working out with others combats the pervasive loneliness we see.
With every successful community comes some level of accountability and in my opinion, the brilliance of the AC’s is in the unspoken accountability.
You’re a lot less likely to snooze that 5 am alarm if you know the 9 other people who are going to be at the gym waiting for you and questioning you if you don't show up.
This blend of competition and connectiveness is something I believe to be rare. The transactional nature of gyms will always have some level of demand, but its exciting to see people acknowledge the importance of IRL connection and not avoiding the scary reality that we can still be wildly alone while physically surrounded by others.