Why Wellness Social Clubs Are On The Rise

NEW YORK, United States — Wellvyl, a New York City based social club for health, fitness, and all things wellness has announced the launch of a private membership program, as healthy hangouts continue to gain momentum across the globe.

One of a growing number of venues aiming to connect peers in the health and wellness space, professionally and socially, as well as cultivate an aspirational community of influencers and wellness enthusiasts, Wellvyl is meeting the demands of a generation who are “thinking healthier, eating healthier, and acting healthier,” says Founder and CEO Christopher Krietchman.

Explaining the impetus behind the club, which costs members $200 per month, Krietchman argues that a strong community of wellness-minded people has emerged. They go to gyms, classes and eateries surrounded by their peers, but within this emerging community, they still don’t seem to be getting what they really want out of these activities – social connection.

“People like to meet people who share their values and aspirations,” Krietchman explained, adding “we bring the yogi to the CrossFitter and the marathon runner and bodybuilder to the soccer player, where they all actually connect, meet, mingle and be well. We’re creating networks and influencing people to adopt a healthier way to socialise.”  

Like Wellvyl in New York, other cosmopolitan cities including Los Angeles and London are now home to similar concepts. The Wellscene in London (formerly known as Secret Urban Escape) offers fitness and yoga pop-up experiences at unique and unusual locations throughout the capital, including converted railway arches, old Victorian warehouses and rooftops.

Teaming up with fitness trainers and yoga teachers from around the world, The Wellscene aims to create a 360 experience around exercise classes in order to give health conscious and wellness loving Londoners a space that combines both sweating and socialising.

According to Amy Hopkinson, Digital Editor at Women’s Health UK, like her, a high percentage of millennials are choosing to spend their time and money on activities that make them feel good because ‘it’s the savvier option’, and when doing so they want to connect with like-minded people who share the same passions. Social wellness clubs celebrate and provide an outlet for this cultural shift.

Not confined to socialising, The South Kensington Club, an innovative, high-end members club, also in London, targets people who are looking for a healthy space in which they can conduct business as well as pleasure – all for the summly price of £3,500 per year.

Sweatworking, as the phenomenon is known, allows individuals to take business meetings, connect with clients and forge new relationships while focusing on wellbeing – a trend The South Kensington Club is buying into.

Offering boxing, yoga, reformer Pilates and barre classes, as well as complimentary therapies, meeting spaces and a healthy restaurant and bar, The South Kensington Club has taken all the best bits of traditional members’ clubs and injected them with a healthy dose of… wellness.

“Wellness and fitness are now a part of everyday life; people are seeking a place to get fit and be well but also a place to socialise,” says Founder, Luca Del Bono.

And when it comes to carrying out business, “it certainly helps to increase productivity. Energetic and fit employees lead to a happier and more fruitful business,” he says.

As health, fitness and wellbeing become increasingly integrated into every aspect of people’s lives, the need for these type of wellness venues will continue to grow.

From pop ups and secret societies to next generation health clubs and private members spaces, wellness experiences that facilitate social interactions as well as a sense of community allow individuals to target all aspects of wellness, without compromising on other aspects of their lives.

Engaging in wellness is becoming much more than healthy eating and fitness classes, clubs like Wellvyl redefine what it means to meet, mingle and be well, while highlighting just how much people are willing to invest in ‘well-thy’ living.