Forget About a Gym. These People Pay Thousands for Personalized Workouts.

“Now it’s an option,” he said. “They’re willing to pay a premium for me to come to their home.”

For his retainer, Mr. Rakofsky is managing his clients’ full fitness and diet plans and spends up to two hours a day with them, either in person or virtually. He also still maintains a roster of clients who pay his hourly rate of $300.

Both groups, he said, are more prepared for a winter of indoor, socially distanced exercise. “They’ve ordered the equipment and have the online platforms,” he said. “They’ve taken the necessary steps to be prepared.”

The cost of that equipment is substantial. People have flocked to expensive at-home fitness products with a recorded or livestream component. Peloton, the company that sells a $2,000-plus spin bike and charges $39 a month for classes, may be the best known of them. It has reportedly doubled its sales during the pandemic.

But it wasn’t alone. Liteboxer, which is to boxing what Peloton is to spinning, sped up completion of a boxing machine that uses 250 LED lights to direct a user through a boxing workout. The machine costs $1,495, in addition to a $29 monthly subscription fee for coaching.

Seth Medalie, an avid golfer who owns a financial services firm, has generally worked out of his suburban Boston home since the pandemic. He bought a Liteboxer three months ago and has been using it to burn off stress at the end of most days.

“Pre-pandemic, I worked out three times a week in my home gym,” Mr. Medalie said. “During the pandemic, since I’m at home and working out every day, I started to get bored with my workouts.”

Now, he said, he looks forward to boxing after work. “When you get to dance around and punch something in the privacy of your own home, that’s kind of fun,” he said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/your-money/gyms-personal-workouts.html