Ellen Latham, co-founder of Orangetheory Fitness, forecasts the business returning to its pre-pandemic performance benchmarks by the end of 2023.
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…”