Venice’s recently opened Hume wellness club features a compact hyperbaric chamber that circulates pure oxygen at air pressure rates approximately three times the normal amount. These high-end training tools are far from the outdated chain gym accommodations elsewhere. The new members-only club also boasts a gym with indoor/outdoor spaces overlooking the beachside enclave and offers services including Reiki, acupuncture, and lymphatic drainage massage. It also features a rooftop smoothie bar, steam rooms, and cold plunges, elevating the gym experience and reflecting a marked trend in LA.
Wellness Clubs
Though Hume revolves around the wellness space, it does not feel like a traditional gym. The wavy sitting benches inside the workout spaces are crafted from polished concrete, which blends with the downtempo electronic music emanating from pipes inside the winding, three-story club. The recovery area’s focal piece is the buttery couch, where guests can prop their feet up and use one of the always-charged massage guns to work out any sore muscles.
Hume features a floral scent wafting in and out of the club courtesy of a local French perfumer. Members can also purchase the smell at the front desk and take it home.
Membership
Unlike traditional gyms and wellness clubs, where members might be squeezing in a quick workout around the rest of their hectic lives, Hume aims for its patrons to “lose the sense of time” while at the wellness center. Co-founder and creative director Sandy Bole says, “There are no TVs anywhere. There are no clocks anywhere.”
This dissociation from time will cost members in other ways, however. Membership runs $395 per month, plus a $500 initiation fee and an application that may be rejected.
Hume aims to sell an aesthetically pleasing communal experience. Bole adds, “All the walls are hard-troweled, so you get this human, artisanal feel.” The creative director mentions that Hume has a waitlist with hundreds of hopefuls, but it is currently at capacity. However, outsiders are invited to Saturday socials if they come with a member.
Other Upscale Clubs
Hume is not the only upscale fitness club in the area. Remedy Place, which considers itself “the world’s first social wellness club,” opened in West Hollywood in 2019 and now boasts New York and Boston locations. The US has other socially focused wellness club initiatives, including Othership, SAA, and Continuum. The clubs have surged in popularity recently because they cater to a crowd that craves experiential activities, preferably in a beautiful location where they can break a sweat.
Some initiatives have LA roots, but they are becoming a nationwide trend. Unsurprisingly, the popularity surge comes when the lines of work-life balance have blurred, and social media dramatically influences many life decisions.
As individualized self-care becomes the balm against the instability of the early pandemic era, the wellness industry has bloomed beyond what was predicted. Pair this with an almost insatiable appetite for more experiential fare and active forms of entertainment, and you have the reason for the growing number of high-end wellness clubs, particularly in the LA area.
