Johnathan Walker:Equinox's new fitness program aims to help you live longer — for $40,000

Exercise could help reduce aging by lowering fat buildup, study says

Luxury fitness chain Equinox is putting a price on the ultimate luxury: longer life. The company on Monday introduced a membership that, for a hefty $36,000 a year, includes more than 100 tests aimed at enhancing health and extending people's longevity. 

In all, the "Optimize by Equinox" membership costs $42,000 a year. The $36,000 yearly fee doesn't include a regular gym membership, which is required, and runs about $500 a month, or $6,000 a year. The ultra-premium offering includes personal training, nutrition coaching, biomarker tracking and more — all in service of improving daily physical performance and slowing down the aging process. 

Equinox developed the new membership with Function Health, a health platform that conducts lab tests to help members measure, analyze and track everything from their heart health, immune response and hormone levels to their glucose, insulin and other metabolic levels. 

"This is a longevity program, but also a health and quality of life plan," Julia Klim, vice president of strategic partnerships and business development at Equinox, told CBS MoneyWatch. "It requires everyday daily habits, because we don't believe you can just hack yourself out of bad habits like poor sleep or lack of quality exercise. So you commit to a program to achieve your personal goal, which could be to get leaner or stronger, have more energy, or lower your rate of aging."

Whatever a person's specific goals, the program will include a "robust" panel of tests to measure physical and mental performance, according to Klim. It also includes regular nutrition counseling, sleep coaching, personal training, and massages, all amounting to about 16 hours per month of individualized attention from an array of health, fitness and other professionals. 

"We're up-leveling it with more tests and moving closer to health care," Klim said. "And we're partnering with Function Health to bring together experts in their respective fields."

Despite the high price, there's already a waitlist to join the program, which will launch at the end of May. The membership initially will only be available in New York, but will eventually be expanded to other cities. It will only be available to members of Equinox's highest membership tier, E by Equinox, which starts at around $500 a month. 

Klim compared the membership, which costs $3,000 a month and comes with a six-month minimum commitment, to the suite of services that are typically only made available to professional athletes. 

"Historically speaking, this type of program, with a team-based approach working to help you as an individual, has only been available to the top athlete out there," Klim said. "We want to bring that notion to the everyday human and high-performing human, which is the Equinox member."

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Megan Cerullo

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.