Assertion Not checkable as stated
Latham: 20 minutes of high-intensity cardio matches 90 minutes of jogging
“Because what you can do in 12 to 20 minutes of getting your heart rate over 80%, you would have to go jog at just a steady state pace for an hour and a half.”
Insight
Latham: Shift momentum during setbacks by focusing on what is working
“So there's a sports psychologist theory called momentum shifting, and you can momentum shift up positively or down negatively. So, you know, your team's losing, your players are not performing. Instead of focusing on what's not going right, Focus on what they …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Latham: Certifying bodies discouraged group reformer Pilates when she pioneered it
“No one was doing Pilates with 10 machines. Absolutely not at that time. No one, a matter of fact, when I went for certification, they kind of poo-pooed doing in a group. There's no way you can do this in a group, you gotta correct people too much”
Assertion Partly supported
Latham: 12 to 20 minutes at 80% max heart rate boosts metabolism
“If you do at least 12 to 20 minutes of that in your workout, your body has to repay that debt. So over the next 12, 24 hours, the human cells, your body is working harder to bring it back to that homeostatic state. So that is what is changing your metabolism, …”
Insight
Latham: Scaling boutique fitness requires depersonalizing the operating model
“You know, if you're going to duplicate this, you have to find ways that you're going to be able to do it and it not be about Ellen. So interestingly enough, in the early days, they basically said, just so you know, you can't coach here. You can't show up a lot…”
Insight
Latham: Orangetheory prioritizes beating personal records over peer leaderboards
“Our emphasis is competing against your last best performance. You know, you're only going to have so many people that are always on that leaderboard. We offer that. We put that on there for some people who like that, but our emphasis is working against yoursel…”
Opinion
Latham: Jazzercise and early dance aerobics were unscientific fads
“Then they started to get a little bit more organized when Jazzercise started pulling together kind of dance aerobics in more of a structured format, but nothing ever based on science. You know, it really was this kind of trendy fad type of stuff, particularly …”
Disclosure
Orangetheory rejected 'boot camp' branding to avoid drill-sergeant fitness culture
“When we created Orange Theory, I told the guys, please, let's not have boot camp in our name, because I did not like that.”
Assertion Contradicted
Latham claims she brought indoor spinning to Florida in the 1990s
“I literally brought spinning to Florida.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Latham: Orangetheory Fitness's oldest member is 95 years old
“Our oldest member is 95 years old in Colorado, and, you know, people can do the workout.”
Assertion Supported
Latham: The name 'Orangetheory' refers to the anaerobic heart rate zone
“I think it was Dave who came up with orange theory, because of course the theory is you need to get your heart rate. In that anaerobic zone, 12 to 20 minutes, and that's how the name came about.”
Disclosure
Latham: Orangetheory temporarily halted franchising to refine its internal processes
“We stopped franchising. We worked on our processes. We worked on the program, the training, this type of thing, and then we reopened the franchising concept, and that really worked well for us.”
Disclosure
Latham: Orangetheory split leadership across workout design, management, and franchise expansion
“So I consider myself like the artist. So the artist is the one I created, right? The art of the workout. Then we see like Dave Long as the manager. He manages the business. He's the CEO, and Jerome is without a doubt an entrepreneur a thousand percent. His con…”
Assertion Partly supported
Latham: All 1,500 Orangetheory studios closed during the COVID-19 pandemic
“We had 1500 studios open and 1500 studios closed.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Latham: Orangetheory has increased its member base by 51% since 2021
“We have found that since 2021, we've increased our member base by 51%.”
Prediction Not publicly verifiable
Latham predicted Orangetheory would return to pre-COVID levels by late 2023
“And we just feel by the end of this year, you know, We'll be back pre-COVID.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Latham: The fitness industry operated without scientific basis for decades
“There was no science to fitness for many, many decades, but women, they came in, they joined that membership, and it gave me my first job in the fitness industry.”
Disclosure
Latham used heart-rate training with spa clients in the late 1980s
“So when the clients came in, I would do like sub max cardio testing, that type of thing on a bike usually to see where they're at. I then gave them some information of what they should train at heart rate wise. So I was doing this way back and then give them a…”
Insight
Latham: The vast majority of people do not naturally enjoy exercising
“Fitness and exercise isn't something that people skip through the tulips and want to do, at least not the masses. You know, you've got some that are innately love exercise, but it's not like a massage.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Latham repaid a $38,000 Pilates equipment loan within four months
“I think the whole thing cost about 38,000 dollars that he loaned me. And I bought them right out, and I put them in there... And it exploded. And I paid Nick back in four months.”
Assertion Supported
Latham: Co-founder Jerome Kern previously owned a region of Massage Envy franchises
“They were big in the Massage MV world. He owned, you know, a whole region of Massage MV.”
