Justin Drummond of Planet Fitness invites Nestor to the newest upgraded location in Reisterstown gym to enjoy spa and Black Card privileges as the kids go back to school. Start a new routine of good health today!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
planet fitness, spa, week, gym, clubs, give, school, workout, sports, work, year, baltimore, wn, great, talking, little bit, cryo, relax, ravens, cold
SPEAKERS
Justin Drummond, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
W n s t, Towson Baltimore. Baltimore positive. We’re celebrating 25 years on the air here. As of August we’re going to be doing 25 weeks of memories. It is our wn S T 25 stories of glory. We’re only 25 to jump on it as our signs are famous get nasty signs and everything from the dump trumping the spank the Yanks in the bag the Jags and I don’t know what the sign would be. This week for the Houston Texans. Certainly for the Bengals, we never had to worry about making signs for them back in the day. All of that is up at Baltimore positive as we count down next week, it’s going to be our purple live shows and our history at the barn that we had. I counted up 11 Hall of Famers out at the barn over the course of time. So I will be talking about that a little bit more next week. One thing I never stopped talking about around here staying in shape kids going back to school. We lost Jimmy Buffett’s I was every time I say the kids are going back to school I think of when the coast is clear. But Planet Fitness. This is a great time to get involved here. And they’re taking me out. I don’t want to say I’m going to be a guinea pig as I’m in better shape than that. But they’re going to spa me up out Reisterstown they have new stuff going on. I always love having Justin Drummond on he is the CEO Oh, oh, he operates the Ohana. And every time I think of ohana, I think of Hawaii, and opening clubs and doing all sorts of things. But more than that, dude, you’re an Oriole, Raven guy, too. And it’s a sports week. How about this? Like we’re on fire as a sports community. This is fun, isn’t it?
Justin Drummond 01:28
No, it’s great. It’s great. It’s a good time to be from Baltimore, a Baltimore sports fan. And we got a lot of great things going on with the O’s. Hence my own shirt today. But then also we’re kicking off the football season with the Ravens coming up here too. So exciting times.
Nestor Aparicio 01:43
Well, for you being in the fitness industry, and I’ve had you on through good times, bad times. You guys it Lynn and Victor and Terry, Jerry, all the friends we’ve had all these years of Planet Fitness. But like the plague changed a lot of things. And I think it’s slowed down. Certainly companies like yourself that had to shut down. Part of your deal was being you you could distance and we did work in is not workouts but part of this is slowing down a business. And I know a lot about your business from the beginning when it came here is a new brand. It’s all over the world now very sports oriented. But these concepts of making it even better. Everything stops when you can’t open your clubs. And you’re rolling out different things. Not just black. But but part of sort of the super spa. I guess that’s what I’m expecting to see in Reisterstown next week, and I haven’t been there yet. So tell me about it. Yeah, so
Justin Drummond 02:35
I Reisterstown location and Reisterstown Maryland just recently underwent a renovation, where we did upgrade the spa. But in that spa, you’re going to see we added more of a hydro loungers, which is a great way to post workout to go relax for a little while, you can go in there, it has the warm hydro water jets that are shooting up at your back. I’ll give you a nice massage. But also another cool additional benefit to the black card spa that we added is a cryo lounger. So what people normally think about with cryo is you get into those huge tanks and you get undressed and you’re going in there, you’re below zero temperature and you’re freezing for a little bit of time. So it’s similar to that without you having to get undressed and be inside of a tank.
Nestor Aparicio 03:22
Even after this with the Iceman. And you know, Tony Robbins is picking like, I see football players for recovery. All of my career totally threw me out, like watching players get in and out of that cold tub at the old Owingsville. I mean, I don’t love being cold. But like I know, there’s an incredible benefit to this. So now that my back’s a little better, and I feel a little stronger, just cold makes the bottom of my back kind of like yeah, get that feeling. But give everybody the benefit of this because I’m coming out. I’m not saying I’m getting in there because I don’t like being cold. But you could talk me into it. Well, yeah,
Justin Drummond 03:59
I mean, I think it’s something that’s very easy to operate. It’s something that you can get in again, you’re it’s simple, you slide in, it’s a chair similar to our lounges that you may have already been in, I think you’ve already been in one of those before the Hydra lounges, but it’s very similar you have are a portion of the back area that’s on the chair that gets cold, but so you’re not completely freezing because you don’t like to be cold. It has other ways of offsetting it with some heat as well. You can put them on some of those areas that are maybe a little inflamed because of the workout or just for recovery purposes. But that’s what he’s there for is to recover your body after a nice workout, get you a chance to relax and just kind of be there and be peaceful for a little while. And obviously it’ll help your body as well. So
Nestor Aparicio 04:43
well you know, I’m a yoga guy and I was injured a year and a half ago. I think last time I had you on by the way, shout out to Adam Jones was shouting me out every time I have you on Adam Jones watches the show. So hi, Adam. How are you? Congratulations. We’ll get you some flowers next week as we come in first place baseball is good enough for Adam Jones for me, but you know it’s for For me to come in and experience the new club, because I’ve been in a million in your clubs forever and ever, I don’t want to say they didn’t change much, but it’s a champion. You know, I don’t, I mean, you work out. And then there’s the the the extra things that you guys have always tried to do to be more inclusive to everybody that it wasn’t like you had to lift a certain amount to get in, or you had to look a certain way that was part of the base ideology of Planet Fitness. But this next level of black car and trying to do something, I always joke with you I was a member holiday spa in 1983. And it was this and that and had a pool. That’s all that now that I get older and I know other clubs have gone that they’re more Gucci more expensive. You guys have bragged about the price point forever. But there is a point where in Reisterstown, right now you have a place that I’m going to go experience that’s going to be the next level of what you do. And not all the places are going to have that run me through what my experience is going to look like an ideal experience. If I’m a new customer, pretend I’ve never been there, pretend I didn’t even belong in the holiday spa 40 years ago, even though I did. If I come in, what’s the cost of doing something that is a little better than basic that if I want that kind of experience at this point in my life, because all this sounds good to me, like I don’t want to down and dirty sweat. I like that cooldown period, I’m not in a hurry after I take time to do it. I’m not in between things, I want to do it the right way. And if I join a club like that I experiencing all of it’s the reason I’m paying for it kind of sort of
Justin Drummond 06:26
right, and you’re 100% right. So first and foremost, when you walk into the club, doors, you’re going to see our, our staff, our staff are gonna be welcoming, inviting. And again, the premise behind Planet Fitness is the fact that we are a judgment free zone, we want everyone to feel comfortable, feel not intimidated feel like they are welcome to be a part of what we have going on inside of Planet Fitness. That’s whether you’re a $10 a month member, or whether you’re a black card member, which is going to get you those added benefits in the spa that we’ve been talking about. So with that, you’re going to get a workout. And now what’s been happening post pandemic has been more of a mindset around not just the physical fitness, but to mental well being as well in the all around general health and wellness. And so that’s where Planet Fitness is really really trying to showcase the the offerings that the club has. So you have your fitness equipment, but we also have this spa area that is more of a recovery, relaxing zone relaxation zone for you to come in. And post workout or pre workout or even if you want to come in and just de stress, you have the environment which you can do so so we have the spa music that’s going on, we have the dim lights that are in there to make you feel a little bit more relaxed. Some people may even fall asleep because they get that comfortable in these hydro beds and massage chairs. So we have that type of environment in there that’s going to make you feel like hey, I can really enjoy this I can take my time and when I get out of here, I’m walking out fresh and renewed and ready to take on the rest of the day, whatever that may look like for you. But again, it’s more than just the physical fitness. It’s about the mental well being of someone and that whole holistic approach to just your wellness.
Nestor Aparicio 08:03
Just the gentleman is here he is the Chief Operating Officer, the CEO of ohana partners and our friends at Planet Fitness. I keep my my coups around here, fill it up with water, make sure that I’m hydrating. I think it’s one of the most important things certainly this time of year. It’s hot right now. So make sure you’re staying hydrated out there. I haven’t broken the news to my wife and I’m having a spa day next Tuesday. So I haven’t told her yet. She’s gonna be here engineering and working and doing all the stuff she’s doing. But I’m going to have a spa day. Next week. I’m going to need that after all these points. The ravens are gonna start scrolling, right just Yeah,
Justin Drummond 08:36
absolutely. I think so.
Nestor Aparicio 08:38
I’m gonna need to relax a little bit. Tell me about the black card and about Georgia because the one thing I would say is the last time I had you guys on beginning of summer, it was free for all the kids. I know the kids are back to school. I have this vibe that it’s a little bit it may be like New Year’s where people make a resolution on January 2 at 8am. Everybody’s in the gym. I would think this week. They after Labor Day everybody’s going off to school. I know I had some conversations with some parents I know that had five kids that they’re finally sending their five year old off. They’re like Man, we are having a spa day 9:15am Tuesday morning the kids are out we’re done being a morning breakfast facility here. We’re gonna go have a day. Did you are your gyms gonna fill up a little bit more like I would say midday because you probably have a lot of parents that had kids around that are shipping them off now and like Alright, I gotta get my workout in between now and two o’clock a little bit.
Justin Drummond 09:30
Yeah, so this time of year is when exactly what you’re talking about. Families are getting back into their regular routines or regiments that they had because school is back in session. And though we did have a pretty busy summer period because we had the high school summer PASS program going on again for the teenagers in which it was free. Great turnout there again for another summer. But yes, we have parents we have people who are even teachers or administrators who may be able to now get their workout routine back in because it’s a regular flow of your day, whether that’s early morning before people get their kids off to school, or midday activity, and now what we’re looking at is probably going to be some increased activity after work. You have people who are dropping kids back off at extracurricular activity. So we are looking to see a little bit of an increase in the activity from our adult crowd. Now that the teens in the children are back in school.
Nestor Aparicio 10:25
I gotta give a plug to my friends at Pappas down in Glen Burnie I was down there doing the show last week, I had Leslie Shrieve on she has come to call productive day and and trying to make executives like yourself more efficient with email inbox and management. But just more than anything, time, just finding time, right. And I thought it was so important to have Ron I hope everybody listens because I learned a lot in the segment as well. And I I actually because it’s my 25th anniversary, I broke out all of my old calendars from the from the 80s Literally 90s in the arts before we went digital with a Google Calendar maybe 15 years ago. And you know, going through all of that and thinking like planning your day, planning time for work, family, mental health and more than that staying fit. Brother, I don’t need to tell you, you guys shut your gyms down. My wife was in here doing workings on video. I wasn’t laughing at her. I was trying to rebuild my company Ballmer and I sat too much I screwed my back up. I went through all that during the plague were like being sedentary in my early 50s cost me a chunk of my mid 50s. Like literally, I turned 55 In a couple of weeks and staying in shape. I cannot I don’t can’t recommend it. Or endorse it I would almost demand it. If I love you and I love you enough I would tell you don’t feel like it’s not for you. It has to be for you. You have to get in shape. You have to at the very least get movement going. And so much of this was during the plague you’re like you got to move you got to i i did segments on I didn’t listen to you guys and I fell apart a little bit. So it is a cautionary tale that every time I have you guys on I know what would it feel felt like 24 months ago to not be able to walk not be able to go to ravens games, not be able to do the things that I wanted to do go to rolling so I miss Rolling Stones concerts, I miss things. Thankfully, I didn’t miss any Jimmy Buffet concerts, but for for you with telling people that it’s important and getting them in that first step, that first day where they give you 10 bucks. And they come and say, Hey, I’m a little overweight, I’m a little this I had this I get like you can take anybody and show them progress really quickly. Planet Fitness, I think for anybody because this is what you do, you know, you’re not there for Arnold Schwarzenegger to come in and say, fix me I’m already fixed, you’re trying to help people hear help them with the most important thing they have, which is their out. Yeah. And
Justin Drummond 12:46
so that’s the thing, we are a welcoming environment, we want anyone and everyone to come into one of our facilities and feel like they did the right thing. They did something today that’s putting them in the right position to continue to move forward. And it is it’s just a little bit of movement every day, whether it’s getting out and walking on a treadmill or getting in and just you know, doing some type of exercise of movement, that’s better than doing nothing right. So we’re taking steps every day to get better. One of the things that we talk about within our company is the the idea of kaizen. And that’s baby steps, that’s everlasting cost and improvement, right? So that means that you came to the doors of our gym to say I want to get better, and we have people that are going to help you do that. And whether that’s again, walking on a treadmill or working out with our fitness trainers and getting a design your own program that’s fit just for you based on what your needs are, what your goals are, that’s something that we can do. And we have you mentioned earlier, the time factor scheduling time for someone to come in to do these things. And we’re most of our gyms are 24/7 or open 24 hours a day. And again, that means that we have time we are investing into our communities that hope that they come in, to be able to give a little bit of their time to be better for themselves and the people that are around them. And what better place to do that then at Planet Fitness, relax in the spa all of those things is somewhere for you to come as a stop in your day.
Nestor Aparicio 14:10
I am I’m in real trouble. They’re giving me a tour of Planet Fitness. They’re going to spa me up hydrate me hydro me cryo me probably give me a cold refreshment while I’m there I’m going to be Reisterstown next week just to draw me to see your planet fitness has been part of our life for well over a decade supporting everything we’ve done over 25 years. I want to make sure that we’re supporting them every day I have friends giving each other grief you know breaking balls on the internet you get in the gym today you missed today you’re in there really is something about that peer pressure peer support, to say hey man, you come along be a buddy all of that spot me you know, like the old days. I’m sure you’re seeing a little bit of that and I think this time a year, maybe as much as January but I want to hear about these high school kids. Last time I had y’all on you were talking about summers and this is real Really, it’s, it’s become a key component of your company. And it’s not something you always did, which is give young people a place to hang out, that’s good for them in the summertime, that’s going to be, that’s going to put them in a better pathway to maybe stay in your gym this time of year.
Justin Drummond 15:14
Yeah. And so what’s great about it is you’re right, we hadn’t done it for forever with Planet Fitness. We did it before COVID, then obviously had to take the break when James was shut down. And as we started to reemerge from the pandemic, but the last two years is really where we dove in headfirst with this with the teens. And we saw the importance of making sure that that generation was active, they had access to what we were offering. And again, it’s the same thing that I’ve mentioned before, as far as just having a place to go and are amazing clubs, for them to one be social, because all their friends now can come. I mean, it’s free for the teenagers from May all the way to the end of August. But we’ve had over 3 million participants again this year, take part in our high school summer PASS program. And that’s exciting because they’re now getting a head start, or they’re understanding what it is to have a holistic approach to their well being and a lifestyle of working out being fit. And again, the benefits that physical fitness has on your mental fitness is tremendous. And we know that this generation of teens were the ones who were most impacted by COVID. Again, they were locked in and shut away from their friends and being social. So now these last two years, we really have been able to impact a lot of lives here and get them introduced to a healthy lifestyle, introduce them to Planet Fitness and everything that comes with it. And again, it’s a place for them to be social. You think about the summertime, they’re out of school. They’re away from gym classes, and all those other extracurricular activities that may have them moving. So again, this is an opportunity that’s going to serve them as a positive outlet and give them this experience and activity during the summer.
Nestor Aparicio 16:54
I how much it cost to do a black car. What’s a spa thing go set me back next week, just
Justin Drummond 17:01
so the black card membership was 2499 a month? Again? That’s Come on. You can afford that you can come in, you get a couple of benefits that I mentioned in the spa. But you just mentioned you got some of the peer pressure, right? Are people saying hey, come in the gym or have you been in the gym, you get a buddy to come with you for free every time so it isn’t just you he could bring a friend in with you guys have you have a spider right? You have someone that’s going to encourage you, you have that accountability partner, that they’re not just texting, it’s like, Hey, man, we’re going to show up at the gym today. Let’s go ahead and work out but you know, you get some added benefits with that. 2499
Nestor Aparicio 17:34
All right, well, everybody’s thinking like Carroll County out and Northwestern Baltimore County. Reiser’s town not going out there. All of a sudden you tell me that Harford County is getting one of these two right? Soon. Yeah, yeah.
Justin Drummond 17:47
So we have a couple of gems out there in Harford County, one of them right now in our Forest Hill location. They’re currently under renovation as well. So everything that we’re talking about here, right, so it’s now you’re going to find that in Forest Hill once they reopened from their their renovation,
Nestor Aparicio 18:00
got a date on that.
Justin Drummond 18:02
It’s coming up soon, in less than a month, we’ll be back open again.
Nestor Aparicio 18:05
All right, so November. Justin Drummond here, he’s the CEO of a lot of partners and our friends at Planet Fitness. I encourage everybody to get in shape. I can’t recommend it enough of how much better my life has been. Since I started getting right and getting worked out. Make sure you take advantage of all the Planet Fitness. There’s one in your neighborhood, there’s one everywhere around town. All right, most importantly, how to raise it’s going to do here this year. And I know you’re friends with Adam Jones. Big night for him. Next week, we started this was sports. Boy, it’s a whole different clock when the baseball team is playing games that matter every night. And for a lot of people to get back into the vibe of this one thing. We don’t have to worry about the vibe football in this country. I think we’re all ready for Sunday. We’re all ready for every Sunday for the next 2526 27 weeks, maybe around here this summer. You know, you’re sort of in a sports business in the fitness business, they sort of rub up against each other but but this part of sports in our community right now. It’s about as good as it gets in regard to hope. And in regard to the relevance of daily sports. And I’ve been in this business 30 years.
Justin Drummond 19:09
Yeah, I mean, it’s a great time, you get up and you almost every day, you can see something happening on sports center. That’s talking about Baltimore and our sports teams. So that’s exciting to see. But the I think the energy around town is that we have two great teams right now. We’re excited for everything that the Orioles have accomplished thus far and anticipating how far they will go. But we also have the Ravens that have started up here too. And we with the new additions and Lamar B and back and all those things. It’s exciting. I’m really looking forward to this conversation the gyms for sure.
Nestor Aparicio 19:41
Said a baseball bat behind you, man. It looks like a baseball bat said Adam Jones is bad or no. It is alright it is she you’re just keeping bats around and make me think of baseball here because we you know, we used to just do nothing but sports. Now we could talk about gyms and spas just to dramatize here. I would encourage anybody got to play In a fitness and pF, around the corner from you check out what they have some of the newer clubs a little nicer than even I remember and I’m looking forward to coming out next. So So create you’re betting on me or against me to do the cryo thing. So is it a try it? I like it. I’m not going to get shell shocked by the cold.
Justin Drummond 20:17
Oh, no, no, no, no, I’m always betting on you. And I think you’re going to get on there and you will be a repeat customer on it too.
Nestor Aparicio 20:23
Well, I can’t wait to do this because I, I haven’t. There are things when it’s first time for me. I really enjoy that. So I as I get older, I’m much more about variety than embedd doing the same thing. So I will be out next week. I’ll share some social media. The good news is I think it’s going to be a relaxing time for me because the Ravens have already won. I think the Orioles are still going to be in first place before the rays get here. So it’s a little bit of a relaxation period for me before we we tackle the the AFC north and Cincinnati next week. Always appreciate my time with you. You’re always wealth of information. keep people healthy out there running a big company around here. I hope to see you for crabcakes somewhere down the road. All right. Yes, sir. Bring them out the path. This is what I’ll do. We were down in Glen Burnie last week. And a Rundle county executive Steuart Pittman did a couple of segments talking about all thanks transportation and Rhonda Kenny in the Bay Bridge in Annapolis. He concerts and the airport and all that good stuff going on down there. Leslie Shrieve. Our friend from productive day also joined us and Ray Bachman, our longtime executive producer, here to celebrate 25 years of this mess glorious mess. We call it wn St. and Baltimore positive also known as laufman from the E Street Band spent an hour with me earlier this week in John McClane getting us ready for Texans football this week and former Euler my first my very first hero football, the great Dante Passerini coming on, and it’s gonna be special because I have the number seven oiler jersey that I bought on the internet. I’m not going to tell him how much it was because you’ll feel discounted, but I love the jersey. I’m going to put that on Dan pastor he’s gonna be here this week celebrating football, fitness, fun baseball. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
