In this in‑person interview on the Human Upgrade podcast, Dave Asprey talks with Lavinia Erica, founder of Equinox and creator of MoveJoy, about the origins and evolution of modern fitness culture. Lavinia recounts her 1980s background as a dancer and aerobics instructor, recalling the iconic leg‑warmers and Jane Fonda aesthetic. After moving from Los Angeles to New York, she was struck by the dull, cramped gym environment on the Upper West Side – men in black socks, underground rooms with no windows, and a lack of integrated workout experiences. Together with her brothers, she decided to open a boutique gym that combined high‑end equipment, diverse classes, and a clean, vibrant vibe. Their first location was a 7,000‑square‑foot space, which quickly became an “instant success” thanks to timing, location, and a differentiated offering. Lavinia reflects on how Equinox grew from that modest start to flagship clubs of 40,000 square feet, and she touches on the challenges and perspectives of scaling a fitness empire as a woman entrepreneur, linking these themes to broader ideas of biohacking, spirituality, and self‑management.
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You're listening to the Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey. Formerly. You're listening to the Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey. This is an in person interview here in my studios in Austin, which makes it way more fun. And today we're going to talk about the birth of the modern fitness movements with Lavinia Erica, who is the founder of Equinox and doing something new called MoveJoy. I'm interested in how companies and movements form and clearly I started the biohacking movement, so I've practiced this. But I like talking with people who've created something big and something that lasts to see what I can learn and to see what you can learn from it as well. So let's figure out why we're all working out the way we are with one of the people who made it happen. And also look at what's next, because it's probably not what you think it's going to be. Lavinia, welcome.
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
We're also going to talk about spirituality and biohacking and what it takes to be an entrepreneur at scale like that and the self management that's a part of it. And also, how do you do it when you're a woman? Because maybe it's different than doing it as a man. Maybe, maybe not. We're going to go deep on that. All right, Lavinia, let's go back to the foundations of equinox. It's the 80s and you're at a bar late at night. Okay. I don't know, but what was going on? Tell me how this worked.
First of all, I had lived in California first and I was in LA and I was actually teaching aerobics.
And did you have like a jazzer sized leotard in like the leg warmers and all that?
Something a little close to that, yeah. With the. Yeah, yeah. I was definitely full in that look. I kind of think of it as like the Jane Fonda look.
It was totally a look of the 80s. I don't know why we had the leg warmers, but they were kind of cool at the time.
No, they looked great.
Yeah, they kind of did. Almost like fur leggings.
I was a dancer before, so we always wore leg warmers. It was this part of the. The uniform and the culture, so I was very comfortable wearing them. So when I moved back to New York, I was actually shocked that the workout community there was like dull. It just wasn't great. I mean, I remember walking into a health and racquet club and like the men were walking around with, like, their black socks on from their suits and barefoot, and it was just like, wow. Like, this is so antiquated. Like, somebody needs to be something here in the city. And there were a couple of, like, great studios, but there wasn't something that had it all. Like, there wasn't something that had great bodybuilding, great working out, great classes, great vibe, you know, clean. And I mean, I was working out in, like, the dirty, dingy workout gym, you know, underground with no windows.
Yeah, that really good air.
Yeah, it was just really like, oof. It's not your way that you want to start at 7:00 in the morning or 6:00 in the morning. So, you know, and my brothers and I lived on the Upper west side, and we were kind of complaining a lot. Or maybe I was the one complaining, like, someone needs to open a gym. Someone needs to open a gym. And then finally, at one point, we sort of looked at each other, and I feel like, at least this is my recollection, it was like, well, maybe we should do this. And we were gonna keep our daytime jobs. We were just gonna open up a little gym on the Upper west side that we could work out with, our friends could work out with, and that was gonna be it. And all of a sudden, we're pre sailing, and it was just like, it was amazing. I don't think we even expected how successful it was gonna be. You know, we knew that we wanted it, but we weren't sure. And then we opened up our first gym. It was 7,000 square feet.
That is so huge, small. My Upgrade lab's like 2,600. So I'm like, we're using.
I mean, now they're like at 40,000, the equinoxes. But our first one was a small.
Gym, A lot of square footage to me.
And we opened up and it was like, it really was an instant success. It was really about timing and location. And I do believe we put in something that was different. Like, you know, we had our biggest competition. When you joked at a bar, our biggest.
