Dodging rattlesnakes in the sauna and dining on grass-fed steaks and bone broth prepared by your personal chef – sound like an intense fitness retreat or a vacation resort? Believe it or not, these are just some of the over-the-top perks and unique experiences offered at Destination: EXO, an ultra-exclusive performance training gym located in Phoenix, Arizona that charges members an eye-watering $30,000 per year.
As a long-time gamer and virtual trainer, I’ve helped elite esports athletes enhance their physical and mental wellness to optimize in-game reactions and decision making. So I’m quite familiar with state-of-the-art training facilities designed for human performance. Let’s take an inside look at what exactly this premium gym membership provides, who joins these types of luxury fitness clubs, and whether the staggering price tag could ever actually be justified for passionate competitors like us.
Unparalleled Personalization and Expert Guidance
Far beyond your average commercial gym focused just on aesthetic muscle-building, Destination: EXO obsesses about targeted functional training for athleticism and skill development. The entire facility acts like a performance university singularly devoted to advancing members‘ abilities.
Expect one-on-one consultations, personalized programming, sports psychology, physical therapy, soft tissue and massage work, as well as meals and supplements designed specifically for your body and chosen training focus.
The coaches on staff have experience training professional and elite amateur athletes from sports like football, basketball, baseball, track and field, swimming and more. According to gym owner Matt Pridgen in an interview with CNBC, he structures his staff similar to a pro team, surrounding members with a diverse array of experts including strength coaches, movement specialists, physical therapists, masseuses and sports psychologists. It‘s an environment perfectly suited for driven competitors looking to shatter through plateaus holding back their peak game play.
As a virtual trainer for esports pros, I utilize advanced data analytics to identify strengths and weaknesses influencing performance. The staff at Destination: EXO takes a similar approach – leveraging science and tech like force plates, heart rate variability tracking, blood analysis, and reaction time tests to inform highly personalized plans. Their state-of-the-art equipment like antimicrobial flooring, infrared saunas, and ice bath cryotherapy work in concert to facilitate both training gains and focused recovery.
World champion gamers live together in elite gaming houses to foster motivation, skill development, and stress relief amongst peers striving for the same lofty goals. Destination: EXO seems to have replicated a similar atmosphere and cutting-edge amenities for its accomplished athletic members. Except rather than grinding away in virtual lands, they’re conquering intense physical challenges in the blistering Arizona heat.
Strength and Conditioning for the Stars
In line with the gym‘s focus on expert-level guidance, the training itself centers around serious strength and functional conditioning work. We‘re talking pushing weighted sleds, kettlebell circuits, battling ropes, tire flips, and high-intensity treadmill intervals – not your typical fixed machine routine.
Quotes from Destination: EXO clients reinforce that it‘s not a facility catering to vanity metrics:
"I don‘t care about losing 20 lbs or fitting into some new clothes. I want to go from running a 5.1 second 40-yard-dash to a 4.3. I want to jump 38 inches not 28. Those numbers are hard facts – the results from training with elite coaches and tech I can‘t find anywhere else."
And remember those frequent rattlesnake cameos in the sauna? That‘s because Pridgen purpose-built Destination: EXO‘s impressive facilities out in the harsh Arizona desert for optimal training regardless of the extreme climate. We see NFL stars and other elite athletes braving intense heat during sprint workouts on the turf field and then promptly submerging into below-freezing cryotherapy chambers afterward.
Pro gamers similarly expose themselves to challenging environments like icy temperatures to boost mental stamina and decision-making under physical duress. When a virtual opponent surprises you mid game, staying cool under pressure can save a competition. This state-of-the-art performance training and recovery technology combined with the brutal yet tailored programming attracts some genetically gifted athletes chasing greatness.
According to Pridgen, they‘ve trained multiple NFL first round draft picks and Olympics hopefuls, including a hockey player on track to break records with his insane displays of speed, power and agility. These aren‘t average gym rats just going through the motions. Every member has tremendous potential to actualize with expert support.
Luxe Treatment for Serious Competitors
When they‘re not intensely training, EXO‘s clients enjoy 5-star hospitality and amenities better suited for a resort than a gym. Members have access to infrared saunas, personalized nutrition programs and daily chef-prepared meals using high-quality, nutrient-dense ingredients like grass-fed beef, free-range poultry, clarified butter and bone broth. Recovery smoothies feature exotic superfood add-ins like camu camu berry and maca powder.
Overnight guest rooms are also available if clients want to fully immerse themselves in training, which some members opt to do for weeks or months at a time. This full commitment reminds me of elite gamers grinding 12+ hours a day in training, fueled by healthy snacks and ergonomic gaming chairs supporting posture and joint health.
And even the yearly membership fee itself demonstrates luxury with a polished metal credit card used to gain exclusive entry into Destination: EXO, akin to the exclusive cosmetic skins that showcase veteran status inside video games.
Overall, the gym exudes an atmosphere of excellence, signaling that it‘s a place strictly for individuals highly devoted to their training and continuous self-improvement. Matt Pridgen confirms in interviews that he courts people he identifies as hard workers willing to push themselves to the limit for marginal gains. That mindset definitely resonates with the world-class gamers I work with too – obsessed with finding any advantage to rank higher on the leaderboards.
Justifying the Investment as a Passionate Gamer
Alright, let‘s directly address the elephant in the room now – a $30,000 gym membership clearly isn‘t accessible or practical for average gym-goers. However, upon closer examination for the right prospective member, it could actually prove to be a smart cost-effective investment, especially when compared to existing alternatives.
NFL players who need to stay in peak physical shape to keep their multi-million dollar sports careers can easily justify the price point. In fact, Pridgen himself notes pro athletes already spend far more than $30k per year hiring an entire team of personal coaches, nutritionists, physical therapists and massage experts.
EXO consolidates all those high-performance services in one destination for an all-inclusive rate. But it‘s not just rich celebrities and athletes funding this business model. Plenty of well-off gamers and tech executives have accumulated enough wealth to casually spend $30k annually pursuing their passions.
As a single guy with no kids, I drop about $3k per year on gaming gear including a VR headset, 4K monitor, custom PC, consoles, games, and subscriptions. Other hobbyists I know dedicate over $10k annually towards luxury golf club memberships, ski passes, photography equipment upgrades, or adventure travel. In that context, $30k for a state-of-the-art training facility with expert coaches helping you achieve fitness goals through challenging and fun “games” seems reasonable for people who can afford it.
Conclusion: Mindfulness Over Vanity for True Competitors
At the end of the day, Destination: EXO delivering truly personalized programming supervised by expert-level coaches paired with resort-style hospitality makes for an awesome, results-driven environment well worth the premium fees…for a select clientele, obviously!
For the average gym-goer focused just on aesthetics, plenty of budget chains like Planet Fitness cater to their modest needs. But the world’s most expensive gym stands in an entirely different category altogether – one focused on extreme human performance, not vanity metrics. The difference reminds me a bit of casual mobile gamers playing Candy Crush versus hardcore PC gamers dominating esports tournaments.
Both groups are happy…but they don’t share much in common.
With pro athletes already spending over $30k per year on training, financially secure stars should definitely consider Destination: EXO as an all-inclusive option. And for affluent hobbyists intensely focused on rankings and leaderboards in their real world “games” of choice, the gym could prove transformational too.
Just don‘t expect to bump into too many average gym rats taking casual strolls on the treadmills in between this facility‘s battle ropes courses, ice baths, and rattlesnake saunas! But now us everyday folks can enjoy living vicariously through the lucky few documenting their $500 daily workouts filled with cryotherapy, infrared saunas and bone broth meals!