Inside New York’s New Precision Wellness Club
Sound baths and hyperbaric oxygen therapy at Continuum Club.
When my friend Jennifer invited me to an event at Continuum Club, I was curious to check it out.
Continuum Club is a “precision wellness” social club that opened in Manhattan’s West Village in May. It’s part members-only club and part health and wellness center.
High-end wellness clubs like Continuum have been popping up in cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. These clubs present a vision of health that’s personalized and holistic, focused on the mind, body and spirit.
They’re exclusive and upscale. They offer white-glove service and an array of wellness treatments from personal training to massages, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, saunas and cold plunges. They’re designed for members willing to pay whatever it takes to look and feel forever young.
Membership fees are, you guessed it, astronomical. I’ll get to that later. But first, I want to tell you about my experience there.
The Vibe
Walking into Continuum Club feels like stepping into a luxurious med spa. The space is furnished with rustic oak tables and fabrics in soft neutral tones. A living wall made of plants. Scents of lavender and eucalyptus.
From the lush décor to the complimentary health tonics, the club feels like a warm, welcoming cocoon. A place for busy executives to unwind and bask in the comforting glow of wellness. You could imagine Succession’s Kendall Roy coming here for a float tank sesh after a long day battling Logan for control of Waystar Royco.
Continuum occupies a 25,000 square foot space in the historic Archive Building on Greenwich Street. The main floor houses a large gym with high-end fitness equipment. Downstairs are locker rooms, private treatment rooms and a large wellness lounge.
I attended two Continuum events in their plant-filled lounge area. Members were treated to an assortment of herbal teas and tonics, healthy snacks, sound bath meditations, and a scent demonstration by the creator of an aromatic lifestyle brand.
A Personalized Wellness Program
Continuum’s founding team includes a former Today show health correspondent and executives from Lululemon, GlowBar and City Fitness. Dr. Andy Galpin, a professor and scientist, is their Director of Human Performance.
A $10,000 monthly membership fee will give you access to one-on-one training sessions, state-of-the-art spa facilities, and a suite of amenities including float tanks, cold plunges, Himalayan salt saunas, IV stations, infrared light therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. There are also massage therapists (“our most popular member service,” I was told.)
New members undergo an intake assessment that includes body composition scans, blood panels, and sleep analysis. They’re given wearable devices and a companion app to track members’ data and create a personalized training program for them.
Continuum doesn’t have personal trainers, but rather “human-performance specialists.”
Natasha Wiscombe, head of marketing at Continuum, told me:
“Continuum is a place for high-performance New Yorkers to find reprieve from having to be "always on." A third space where they can come and outsource decision making to a seasoned and expert support system across human performance and luxury hospitality.
By merging integrative wellness with luxury hospitality in a way that's never been done before, we're witnessing remarkable transformations in the lives of our founding members. We have opened membership up and now offer memberships as low as $1,000 per month.”
The Clientele
Who joins a place like this? According to Continuum, it’s mostly finance types, athletes, celebrities, and artists.
On one hand, it’s easy to make fun of the people who frequent elite wellness clubs: The ultrarich who blow insane amounts of cash in their quest to stay young and live forever.
It’s no surprise these places are popping up in cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The kinds of places where you’d expect to find a client base willing to spend more than 30 times a monthly membership at Equinox.
Luxury wellness clubs appeal to the same customers who are happy to drop $35 on an Erewhon smoothie. It’s not quite the same as investing in your health. It’s more about investing in the feeling that you’re doing something good for your health.
Wellness has evolved far beyond a simple focus on health—it has become the ultimate luxury status symbol.
On the other hand, I wondered: What do clubs like Continuum tell us about the future of health and wellness? Will more people be using infrared light therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy to assist with recovery? Or is this all just a frivolous waste of money and time?
Hyperbaric Oxygen
Perhaps sensing that my wellness could use a boost, the team at Continuum Club offered me a complimentary treatment. I opted for the hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, which increases oxygen levels in the body’s tissues. The therapy is reported to have health benefits that include reduced inflammation, enhanced immune function, and mental clarity.
The chamber looked like a pod in a spaceship. I felt like an astronaut preparing to be cryogenically frozen before being blasted off into deep space.
The treatment would last 45 minutes. Before it began, I was asked a series of questions. Did I have any inner ear issues? Did I ever get claustrophobic in confined spaces?
The technician offered me a massage gun to bring with me into the chamber. I declined. I felt being inside the pressurized chamber would be enough, without the added stimulation of the massage gun.
I stepped into the pod and lied down, resting my head on a pillow and covering myself with a blanket. The pod had a large window so I could see the room outside.
Inside the pod was a small console. There was a button I could push to activate an intercom and speak to the technician if I had any issues. There was a tube labeled oxygen breathing unit. And a pressure gauge.
It felt like I was alone in a tiny one-man submarine, sinking down to the bottom of the ocean. I thought of Jules Verne, Captain Nemo in the Nautilus, going twenty thousand leagues under the sea.
They closed the pod and sealed me inside. Gas started to fill the chamber.
Within a few minutes I felt my ears popping. The feeling you get driving up a steep mountain road. It was a bit uncomfortable for the next 5-10 minutes as my inner ear pressure adjusted. But the feeling soon passed, and I settled into the experience.
I looked around the pod. I thought of all the oxygen saturating my body tissue. Was I feeling extra mental clarity? It was hard to say.
I felt like a character in a science-fiction movie. I made a list of them in my head: Iron Man. Avatar. Total Recall. I wondered if I’d emerge from the pod with any superhuman abilities.
With 10 minutes left, the technician flipped a switch and let the pressure slowly return to normal levels. He said the pressure would change gradually so my inner ear could adjust.
Once again, I felt my ears pop. After a few minutes, the door opened and I stepped out.
What are the Health Benefits?
I asked the technician, what do people get out of hyperbaric oxygen treatment?
He said Continuum members use HBOT up to three times a week for muscle relaxation, enhanced blood flow, and mental clarity. It can help with recovery after a workout. Members who travel often like using it after a flight to help their bodies adjust to the change in air pressure.
“Some people say they sleep really well after doing it,” the staffer told me. “Some members take meetings in there.”
I pictured a Goldman Sachs director advising his client on a big M&A deal inside the pod as his body tissue was suffused with oxygen. What better place than a pressurized chamber for a high-stakes zoom call?
Walking out after my HBOT session, I felt a warm gentle glow. A bit like the feeling you have after 20 minutes in a sauna, but less pronounced.
I took the subway to visit friends in Williamsburg. I wondered if they would notice my newfound mental clarity. Would they be dazzled by my verbal dexterity, my memorable quips?
Sadly, the answer was no. If anyone noticed my oxygen-enhanced cognitive function, they didn’t mention it.
I went for a walk in Hudson River Park and watched the sunset over New Jersey. After all that high-pressure oxygen, I needed to decompress. I walked by runners, cyclists, and tennis players. I walked onto a pier and sat down in the grass. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air.
I realized: I’m not someone who can spend $10,000 a month on a precision wellness club. And I’m ok with that.
I enjoy trying things like red light therapy, cold plunges and personalized scent experiences. I’d love to go back to Continuum and try their float tank, filled with magnesium salts that “makes you feel like you’re floating in the Dead Sea.”
All these things are fun and harmless. I’m happy if they work for some people. But the best things we can do for our health — sleep, exercise, nature, time with friends — are the ones that don’t cost a dime.
Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Vitamin Z.
Until next time,
By Daniel Zahler
Hi there and thanks for reading. I created Vitamin Z to share my research on health and wellness, longevity and healthy aging, and ways to optimize cognitive, physical and emotional health. I serve as an advisor to Noom, a leading digital health company, and work with the world’s top healthcare and life sciences companies to develop innovative new solutions to improve health globally. I was trained as a research scientist at Harvard, and I serve as a GLG council member, where I advise global business leaders on healthcare and technology innovation.
Enjoyed your reading experience?
Great read! I got to check out Continuum too, but didn't try out any of the treatments!