Hero's Journey, a fitness studio built on members' data, opens in Al Quoz in November
The 20,000 sq ft studio in Al Quoz Industrial Area 1 tests each member on arrival and every eight weeks, and plans their classes from the results. Founding memberships are open.
Warehouse No. 9, 7B Street, Al Quoz Industrial Area 1, Dubai
A new kind of gym opens in Al Quoz next month. Hero's Journey, a fitness brand founded by Iliyas Issatayev, is opening its first studio outside its home market in a 20,000 sq ft warehouse in Al Quoz Industrial Area 1, and says it will open in November. The company announced the Dubai studio in a press release at the end of September, and What's On reported on its plans on 28 October.
The idea behind it is that members follow a plan built from their own numbers rather than walking in and choosing machines. Everyone starts in what the studio calls its Assessment Centre, with a body composition scan, a VO2 max test and strength benchmarks. Those tests are repeated every eight weeks, and the studio says its coaches and software then set each member's weights, intensity and timetable from the results and keep a record of progress.
Classes fall under four headings. Strength covers upper body and legs and glutes sessions. Bootcamp is high-intensity interval training with treadmill runs, free weights and bodyweight work. Metcon is functional conditioning built around movement, power and endurance. Reform is slow, controlled work on the studio's own reformer machines, closer to Pilates. "Dubai is a natural first international chapter," Issatayev said in the release.
The Dubai studio is run by his brother, Miras Ibraimov, who holds the franchise for the UAE. Al Quoz has become one of the city's busiest districts for boutique fitness in recent years, with warehouses turned into studios and climbing walls, and the opening lands just as the Dubai Fitness Challenge starts on 31 October and runs for 30 days.
The studio is at Warehouse No. 9, 7B Street, Al Quoz Industrial Area 1. It has not announced an exact opening date, its membership prices or its class timetable yet. Founding memberships are already open and there is a waiting list, and the company says the first studio sessions will be announced before the doors open. If you are thinking of joining, ask what the founding rate includes, how often the assessment is repeated on your plan, and whether there is a trial session first.