March 20, 2025 • 32 mins
What do you do after founding a global fitness brand like Club Pilates? For Allison Beardsley, the next move is all about longevity, wellness, and the booming demand from adults over 50.
In this episode of The Optimal Aging Podcast, Allison joins Jay Croft to talk about her new venture — The Red Light Method — a boutique red light therapy franchise focused on healthy aging and recovery. She shares why this technology matters, what gym owners should know about it, and how red light therapy could be the next big thing in wellness services for older clients.
Whether you're a fitness entrepreneur, personal trainer, or looking to expand your service offerings, this episode is packed with insights on innovation, client retention, and what’s next in the fitness business for active agers.
⏱ Timestamps:
00:00 Meet Allison Beardsley, Club Pilates founder
03:20 Why she’s now focused on red light therapy
06:45 What red light does — and what the science says
10:30 The business model: The Red Light Method
13:50 Serving the over-50 market with recovery and wellness
17:00 Where she sees the fitness industry going next
20:10 Advice for gym owners looking to innovate
🔗 Learn more about The Red Light Method: [your link here]
🌐 Prime Fit Content: https://primefitcontent.com
📬 Contact Jay: jay@primefitcontent.com
#fitnessfranchise #redlighttherapy #clubpilates #over50fitness #fitpros #longevitybusiness #wellnessmarketing #redlight #fitover50 #wellnessmarketing #wellbeing
Connect with Allison Beardsley:
• On LinkedIn
• Red Light Method Website: www.redlightmethod.com
Connect with Jay Croft:
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/croftjay/
jay@primefitcontent.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
if you are doing everything right, like you're
doing your 10,000 steps or 8,000or whatever, and if you are
trying to eat healthy, thenadding red light method in as
like a rocket turbo boosteraccelerator to help you achieve
your goals faster.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi everybody, I'm Jay Croft and welcome to the
Optimal Aging Podcast, where wediscuss the business of exercise
, healthy living and well-beingfor people 50 and over.
Each week, we explore whathealthy living and well-being
for people 50 and over.
Each week, we explore whathealthy living means for
millions of people over age 50and what's coming next, with a
focus on communications, contentand making powerful connections
(00:35):
.
Well, hey, everybody, welcometo the show.
My guest today is Club Pilatesfounder Alison Beardsley, who's
now trying to do for red lighttherapy what she did for Pilates
, which is bring it to themasses, make it accessible, make
it affordable is bringing morepeople into the fitness world
(01:03):
with a low-impact, low-intensityactivity combined with red
light therapy in a warmenvironment.
That, she says, is veryappealing to a lot of people who
otherwise might not be findingaccess into fitness.
And for our demographics offolks over 50, it's particularly
appealing because Allison saysthat red light therapy is great
(01:26):
for relieving aches and painsand other issues commonly
related to aging.
She's actually found a biggergap in understanding about red
light therapy, not so much amongdifferent generations but among
people in different parts ofthe country, which presents its
own unique challenges forcommunications and marketing.
Right.
(01:46):
I was happy to meet Allison andto learn a little bit about red
light therapy and how it canhelp people in our demographic,
and I think you will be too.
So enjoy this conversation,allison.
Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I'm doing awesome.
How are you doing, Jay?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm great.
It's so nice to meet you.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
You as well.
Thanks for having me on yourpodcast.
I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, so am I.
I'm really excited to talkabout your new venture.
Well, it's not strictly new.
New and newish in that it'sgrowing and it's going to be
rolling out to a lot of newpeople Red Light Method and also
, I imagine you have someinteresting stories to tell
about Club Pilates, since youwere the founder of that as well
.
So we're going to get into it.
(02:28):
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Awesome, me too.
Yeah, I love talking shop.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, you know, what I like to talk about on the show
is the over 50 market.
Over 40 market whatever I don'tput too fine a point on it, the
idea being that in fitness andhealth and well-being, I believe
it's a large and underservedand lucrative market and a lot
of people need help connectingwith them, and so one of the
things I like about Red LightMethod is that you've identified
(02:54):
some appeal that your servicehas for people in this
demographic, so I think we'regoing to have some good things
to talk about.
So, before we get to all ofthat, tell me a little bit about
yourself and how you got tocreate Club Pilates and then how
you got to where you are nowwith Bread Light Method, and
then we'll get into that.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, so I started teaching Pilates in the year
2000 in San Diego and I wasteaching at multiple gyms.
This is before boutique fitnessreally existed.
Multiple gyms this is beforeboutique fitness really existed.
And then I was six monthspregnant with my firstborn son
when we started Club Pilates.
So it was December 2nd 2007,right before the 08 crash of the
(03:34):
economy.
So we opened up just like anyother Pilates studio and then,
once the economy tanked withClub Pilates in 08, my members
were like, oh, allison, I can'tafford $30 a group reformer
class anymore.
And I was like, well, keepcoming.
And we reduced it down to $10 aclass and people were losing
their houses and losing theircars and their jobs, but they're
like I won't lose my fitness.
(03:55):
And so we grew in that 08downed economy and we grew to 12
reformers, $10 classes andbefore you knew it, we were
seeing about 150 people a day.
Because it was so like ClubPilates.
The concept of it affordablePilates for everybody was
birthed out of necessity,because of a doubt economy, and
so we rapidly expanded acrossSan Diego County.
(04:16):
We would go replace studiosthat went out of business and
then we would pay a third ofwhat they paid in rent because
the commercial real estatevalues were so low.
It was just an awesome time oflots of growth and franchise.
That and I learned a tonbecause I knew nothing about
franchising when I franchisedClub Pilates.
It just all happened soorganically.
So, doing this red light method,I discovered the red light when
I turned 40 in 2020.
(04:37):
And I just started using it for,like my skin, because I'm all
natural and hippie andeverything.
And then in 2021, I was doingbusiness consulting for a group
out of the Bay Area that had aweight loss clinic and they
mailed me these red light wrapsthe full body medical grade
wraps and in two weeks I wentfrom suffering from long COVID
to where I had so much fatigueand just was having a hard time
(04:58):
getting back to normal.
I went from feeling like I was80 to feeling like I was 20, and
I lost 11 pounds in two weeksand I was like this is the best
thing since sliced bread, like Iwas so excited, so it
essentially brought me out ofretirement.
I was like I need to do thesame thing I did with Club
Pilates make these affordableand accessible, because the
device we use is normally $200,$300 a treatment.
(05:18):
It's a $40,000 medical gradesystem, and so we're doing the
same thing.
We're making it affordable,available and accessible and it
really helps cellular health.
So that's kind of the backdrop,with me and Club Pilates and
Red Light Method.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Wonderful.
You're no longer at the helm ofClub Pilates, right?
You sold that.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, I sold the franchise company.
I sold 75% in 2015, and then Isold the remaining 25% in 2016.
And then I was a franchisee inthe Reno market and I sold all
three of my locations in Reno in2018.
So I've been out of Clipilates,but I'm very happy to see how
successful it is.
There's over 1,200 locations inthe United States and it's
(05:56):
international and it's doing alot of good out there.
So I'm very happy that my firstfitness baby was a big love for
lots of people in the world.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So yeah, that's right .
Wow, well, good for you, that'swonderful, congratulations.
So, red Light Method, how manyare there now and how many will
there be shortly, in a year orso?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, so we started franchising late March of 2024.
So it's been.
We're approaching one year.
We have 58 locations signedwith area development agreements
and so far we have three openand about five more getting
ready.
So it takes about 10 months tobirth a studio, so not all 58
are going to open at the sametime.
I always explain to people it'sgoing to be.
(06:39):
Those 58 will roll out overyears.
But meanwhile we're stillsigning new ones.
I just signed Oklahoma Cityjust this morning.
They're doing three in OklahomaCity Great demographics there.
And then Tulsa, oklahoma aswell, three more going in.
So we have Detroit.
We have Atlanta, tennessee,huntsville, alabama, san Diego,
(06:59):
houston, dallas, fort Worth,tucson's getting ready Houston,
dallas, fort Worth, tucson'sgetting ready.
I'm developing for NorthernNevada in the Reno Carson City
markets.
It's been amazing.
Tampa.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
You're everywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
We're going to be popping up.
Just three are open, but allthree have opened in the black.
So Reno just opened two Mondaysago, february 17th 2025.
We opened up with 315 membersand we're already at 350 in our
first two weeks, which is crazy.
Tucson's poised to open inApril and she's at about 230
members.
(07:33):
And Fayetteville, arkansasopened up about five weeks ago
and they're over 200 membersright now.
So that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And what's the ideal number of members for a location
?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
A mature studio can hold between four and 600
members.
We have a bigger capacity, likeclub Pilates, basically.
I mean, a club Pilates can hold500 members and they see 12
people an hour.
But at 500 members theirattrition goes up because you
can only see 12 people an hour.
So with us, if we have ninetreatment rooms, we can see 18
people an hour, so we can hold50% more capacity than Club
(08:05):
Pilates.
Or if we have like 10 treatmentrooms, we can see 20 an hour,
so we can hold a lot morecapacity than a Club Pilates,
which is great.
So we don't need as many ofthem, so we're not clustering
them so close together and wetry to get bigger radiuses so
they don't cannibalize eachother.
Because I know right now a lotof club Pilates, they can only
market with a two mile radiusaround their location, which is
(08:26):
kind of sucks for the franchiseebecause they're spending more
marketing dollars and gettingless of an effective reach
because they have to have such asmall radius with their digital
marketing.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Okay, Tell us what happens at a red light method.
I know, obviously, but I wantto hear it from you and tell the
folks out there, because youknow we hear red light.
It's sort of a buzzy thing inthe last few years, kind of like
cold plunges, or you know a lotof things that have just come
up in the last few years or cometo public awareness in the last
few years, but I'm not sureeveryone knows exactly what red
(08:57):
light is.
So tell us about that.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
So red light method is super unique.
First of all, we can absorb redand near-infrared lights at the
rising sun, but we need tobasically be in our birthday
suit if we want to absorb thatwith the rising sun, with no
sunscreen, no sunglasses, no hatand most people today are
light-starved.
And so the red near-infraredlight helps to really energize
(09:21):
the cells at a mitochondriallevel.
Same thing with grounding andearthing.
Most of us don't have our feetconnected to like the energy of
the earth, which is why you'reseeing all these PEMF things
coming out and stuff.
But red near infrared light, sogood for cellular health, helps
the mitochondria at thecellular level.
But red light method is veryunique as we're like kind of a
hybrid spa fitness concept.
(09:42):
So we have treatment rooms orindividual treatment rooms and
in each room there's a massagetable and a black sheet and we
have our medical grade.
It's a class two device of rednear infrared light and this
device is proven for bodycontouring or inches loss,
reduced pain and inflammationand an increased blood flow and
circulation.
It does many other things like.
It helps your skin, helps sleepand energy.
(10:04):
It does just tons of stuff.
It gets rid of arthritis painand we've seen miracles.
We even had a lady with maculardegeneration, have her eyesight
completely healed.
She was going into eye surgerywith an ophthalmologist and he's
like you don't even havemacular degeneration, what are
you doing?
And she's like, oh, I'm doingred light therapy and sure
enough, it's proven for that.
It also reduces blood sugar by28% as well, and there's actual
(10:27):
PubMed studies on this.
But anyways, let me go back towhat is red light method.
You go into a treatment roomand you undress down into your
knickers and you push a callbutton and our staff come in and
we wrap the entire body in 86degrees.
They're warm, red, nearinfrared lights, and so the
light is directly on the skin.
There's no distance.
The more you get distance away,like in a bed or with
(10:49):
two-dimensional box panels,you're losing the light energy.
So this is the most effectiveway to absorb it and it wraps
around, so you're getting underyour arm, You're getting all
three-dimensionally wrapped.
After their 25-minute treatment, they then moved to a 15-minute
digitally guided power plateclass, and so the power plate is
part of the clinical trialsthat were done with our system
(11:10):
that prove its efficacy, becausewe have to move the lymph and
so the lymph doesn't have a pump.
It's done through exercise ormassage or the power plate.
If anyone's ever been on it,it's an amazing vibrating
platform triples muscle fibersactivated so they move to 15
minutes of that and then theymoved to a 15 minute digitally
(11:31):
guided Pilates reformer session.
We keep our Pilates on thevanilla side, so we're not
standing, we're not planking,we're staying on our back doing
the basic footwork.
So we cater to 80% of people.
Obviously, if someone's verylike elite athlete, they're
going to want to do more on thereformer than what we can offer
because we don't haveinstructors.
I'd compare us to Ruth ChrisSteakhouse.
If you go to Ruth Chris you'reprobably going to order a steak.
(11:51):
You don't go and order chicken.
So red light method.
Our steak is the red lighttreatment, the Pilates is just
broccoli and then the powerplate is like parsley and so.
But our value is the red lighttreatment because our members
can like if they're on unlimitedin the Reno market they can
come 30 times a month for $1.99a month.
It's amazing.
So we're doing very affordable,whereas these treatments
(12:13):
normally costs like $1.99 forone single treatment or like
where we opened our prototype inArkansas there was a doctor who
offered these treatments andshe would be like oh, you can
get 20 for $2,000 for 20sessions.
So we're offering this hugevalue and we've just seen
beautiful miracles happen.
So it's almost like a ministryof loving our neighbors, ourself
and helping people.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
That's a lot.
So I want to know.
You mentioned a lot of benefitsof red light therapy or
treatment.
Does this replace traditionalexercise and dieting?
Can I just do whatever I want,but as long as I come into red
light method I'm going to beokay?
Or is this meant to be asupplement to dieting and
(12:54):
working out?
How does it fit into theoverall picture of fitness,
particularly for people who area little bit older?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah, so for the older folk, if you're spending
15 minutes on the power plate,that's equivalent to a 45 minute
workout without the power plate.
It's like a bio hack.
It's like, ok, I spent 15minutes here, 15 minutes here so
on Pilates.
So they're getting 30 minutesof exercise and movement in
within their hour long session,and then 25 minutes is of the
red lights.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
OK.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
What can replace.
But I always tell people it'snot a magic bullet.
It matters what you put in yourpie hole.
So the red lights work, but youcan't just keep putting stuff
in your pie hole.
Yeah, improving, so we'reeither always getting better on
our diet or we're declining, butthere's no such thing as
flatlining while we're alive.
So what we tell is if you aredoing everything right, like
(13:43):
you're doing your 10,000 stepsor 8,000 or whatever, and if you
are trying to eat healthy, thenadding red light method in as
like a rocket turbo boosteraccelerator to help you achieve
your goals faster.
Now if you're doing the redlights and then you're eating
pizza and drinking beer orwhatever, you're still going to
get cellular benefits, butyou're not going to see that
(14:03):
body contouring Like for me.
I'm good about what I put in mypie hole.
I don't eat sugar or anything,but I do like my daughter bakes
fresh sourdough bread and I havecrock pots of like corned beef
and taco stuff like right overthere.
So I eat a good, healthy dietand when I'm under the red
lights consistently I'm 20pounds lighter and I'm about six
(14:24):
feet tall.
So 20 pounds is different foron me than a five foot tall
person, but it keeps me at mygame weight and I'm still
enjoying life.
So but if I were to like bevery strict and like cut out all
the carbs and do and like nothave wine or something like that
, I could probably be evenlighter, but I'm content.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And you enjoy having a glass of wine once in a while.
Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I'm like some cream in my coffee, so absolutely Okay
.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So let me be Mr Skeptic here, cause I'm sure you
get this sometimes.
I'm not going to say anything.
You haven't been asked before.
But come on, you point a redlight at my skin and suddenly I
lose weight and I feel betterand everything's hunky-dory with
me.
Really.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, we have hundreds, hundreds of members
who've lost over 100 pounds intwo and a half years.
At our prototype in Bentonville, Arkansas, we would have people
limp in and then they have nomore pain.
Their arthritis pain completelygoes away.
One of our members, tracy Ilove her to pieces.
She was accused by her friendsof having a facelift.
(15:30):
Now Tracy is an esthetician andshe takes very good care of her
skin.
But once she added in all thered lights, her friends didn't
see her for a few months andthey're like girl, you got a
facelift.
And she's like no, I didn't geta facelift.
And me, I'm 45.
45, I'm natural.
I don't do Botox or filler andI use castor oil and water.
That's all I do with.
(15:50):
I'm pretty granola, but myskin's better now at 45 than it
was when I was 35, like actually10 years ago.
I looked 10 years older backthen than I look today and I'm
older, so it's really cool.
But it does get rid of all theaches and pains.
It's amazing what it does.
And and yeah, we're lightstarved.
We spend 90% of our timeindoors.
We're not getting sunshine.
(16:10):
That's why so many people don'thave the proper levels of
vitamin D and I think with theindoor comforts of air
conditioning and blackoutcurtains and our little devices,
we are all light starved and wealso need to do more stuff like
grounding and stuff like thatas well.
But yeah, it really works.
It's usually the husbands of ourmembers who are very skeptical.
(16:31):
And so we have one gentleman.
He wants to open a red lightmethod now, but him and his wife
drug him in and he's he'll sayit and he's got the cutest
southern twang.
He's like oh, I don't knowabout this, I can't even do a
southern twang, but anyways, sosweet.
And he was a runner his wholelife and he had such bad
arthritis in his shoulders hecouldn't lift his arm up.
(16:52):
He has full range of motion inhis shoulders and he had a heart
arrhythmia.
That's completely healed.
His heart arrhythmia is gone.
He has no pain and he is like afirm believer.
But two of our staff have hadtheir eyesight improved.
So they go in for their annualcheckup and they're like oh,
your vision's actually better,which.
How often does that happen to40 plus people, that their
vision's actually improvingversus declining as they get
(17:16):
older.
So that's been pretty cool.
And I told you about themacular degeneration lady.
But we've had about 30 peoplecome off of disability from
autoimmune conditions like lupus.
So it's amazing.
People in tears like I have mylife back, I'm able to work
again, I can get out of bed.
Another story we have a membernamed Emily and she was in a bad
car accident and gained about75 pounds and she's my age, mid
(17:39):
forties, and she's tall also.
But she lost so much within ayear and she's totally pain-free
and she's back in great shape.
She just recently, on Facebook,got rid of all of her extra
larges because now she's like amedium.
It's awesome.
So we've seen just tons ofsuccess stories.
I think the biggest thing isthat people have to commit and
(18:00):
do it.
What I noticed in Arkansas wehad to do a lot of educational
campaigning on what is red lighttherapy, but with our one we
just opened in Reno.
When I talk to people I'm like,do you know about red light
therapy?
They're like, oh, yeah, I knowall about it.
Like everyone knows about ithere in our demographic more to
the West we're just a few hoursfrom San Francisco and
everything.
But yeah, people out here likethat's why Reno opened with 315
(18:21):
members.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to
grow your business with peopleover 50?
If you are, then you need toknow how to communicate with
them, how to market to them andhow to get them to trust you
with their fitness, well-beingand money.
We're talking about millions ofpeople who are a little older
than the typical market that thefitness industry usually
pursues.
They have more money, more timeand better motivation to make
(18:46):
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(19:07):
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Back to the show.
Tell me about that market andI'm curious if you started this
intentionally for older folks,or if that was something that
you discovered by accident, orif it's now a main focus.
How did that present itself asbeing an important part of your
(19:30):
business?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
It kind of happened organically because I think that
the younger crowds, they prefermore the high intensity
training.
But what we're finding is with80% of the population being
categorized as overweight andobese.
But doing the high intensityspikes your cortisol levels, it
fatigues the adrenals, like it'shard on most people.
Most people are not highintensity folks.
(19:52):
And then as we get older andpeople have had surgeries and
aches and pains and they'recarrying 40 extra pounds around,
they need something gentle thatcan meet them where they're at,
to bring them back into feelinggood and being healthy.
And I think that that's wherered light method has really
appealed to people over the ageof 40.
We still have young folks, wehave people bring their
(20:13):
teenagers in and we see benefitwith like eczema and skin and
conditions and stuff like that.
So we do see the younger crowdthat are.
Definitely we cater moretowards an older demographic,
but I think that they appreciatethat time of like.
During the 25 minute treatmentyour body's wrapped, you're
laying on a massage table, youhave noise canceling headphones
(20:33):
on, you're listening to like ameditation or relaxing spa music
and then we put a face pieceover.
There's glasses are optional,like goggles and then we put the
face piece that gets the face,neck, chest and decollete, and
so it's like 25 minutes offorced relaxation time and I
know we all need that for sure,because we're like a go-go-go
society.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
so well, great I'll be.
I'll be right there, because ifyou can get me to just sit down
and be still for 25 minutes,that's a good thing, because we
don't allow that, do we?
We don't encourage it, and it'salmost like you feel guilty if
you take a few minutes to justbe still with your thoughts and
you want to grab your phone andmake sure nobody's sending you a
text message that you've got tolook at right now.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, no, the forced relaxation time is just
fantastic and people really loveit.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
What kind of challenges have you had in
communicating with the over 40market?
The over 50 market that maybeyou weren't expecting Anything.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I think that different demographics of the
country.
We've had different challenges,like Bentonville, arkansas,
where our prototype was.
Bentonville is very differentthan the West Coast where I'm
from.
It's just a different case oflife.
You have a lot of people, it'sthe Bible Belt.
There's a lot of farming.
It's just a different.
There's fast food is likeeveryone eats the fast food.
(21:50):
I'm like shocked how thedrive-through lines would like
go out onto the road and almostcause accidents in the Ozarks.
I was like whoa, because outWest you don't see that.
I mean, maybe In-N-Out Burgerhas a big line, but besides that
, no place really people aren'treally eating the fast food so
much.
So I think it was a little bitmore of an educational campaign
there of explaining the benefitsand having QR codes or articles
(22:14):
or sharing different studieswith people and educational
campaigns.
But yeah, it's interestingbecause out in Reno with our one
that just opened two weeks ago,there was no need to even do it
.
They were teaching me aboutstuff with red light.
I was like, oh, I didn't knowit did that.
Wow, it was really cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Do you find that people who are a little bit
older are more or less skeptical, more or less open-minded?
Are they really anxious to findsome relief, maybe arthritis,
pain or just a general malaisethat often hits any kind of
difference on that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I think that there's so much out there right now
about like just the way theworld's going in health and
nutrition and cellular healthand metabolic dysfunction, that
like red light method is poisedat such a good time where we
don't even really have toconvince people.
They know it and they startnoticing the improvements right
away.
Like people notice right awaythey slept better that night,
(23:11):
like maybe they woke up fivetimes a night.
Now they only woke up once.
They also notice improvedenergy and it really helps with
like mood and depression andlike happiness levels as well.
It's just that like if ourevery single cell in our body
has mitochondria, which are thelittle batteries, and so we're
basking the mitochondria andenergizing them in light, then
everything it's's like there'sso many studies proving the
(23:35):
mitochondrial improvement ofcellular health and I think
cellular health is like allwhat's going on right now,
because we're learning thateverything's a metabolic disease
, like most cancers, mosteverything it's.
Our cells are not functioningproperly and so it's so cool
that a non-invasive, likehealthy treatment is showing
such vast improvements.
(23:55):
But I really think that thewave of the next like 20 plus
years ago boutique fitnessdidn't exist and people thought
I was crazy.
A lot is, and then club pilateskind of almost started the
boutique fitness craze and itwas or it was at that time that
the boutique fitness craze wentoff.
I think right now we're in asimilar time, but it's a hybrid
(24:22):
of gentle fitness that you canactually do and feel good and
not beat yourself up and getinjuries.
So I think gentle fitness andthen biohacking modalities of
wellness and fusing the two.
I'm a little bit nervous aboutthe cold plunge sauna places
because they don't have afitness component and so and
they're like 400 bucks a month.
So once we see like a downturnin the economy like I mentioned,
club Pilates was built right atthat recession Once you see
(24:44):
that, I think that we're goingto see those $400 a month things
that were a million dollarbuild out for them to do I think
we're going to see those startto fizzle away.
And I think we're also going tosee the boutique fitness fizzle
away because people are goingto be like, oh, for that same
price I can go to Red LightMethod and get my wellness
modality, because it literallyis like a massage, facial, body
(25:10):
contouring workout all in anhour for the price of like a
regular boutique fitness place.
So it's not the $400 a monthcryo membership and it's not
just the fitness.
Now they might keep bothanother fitness thing for their
more high intensity things,because we're definitely not a
high intensity market, we'redefinitely more on the gentle
side and nourishing the body andloving it.
I like to think back to 2000years ago in Jesus days.
(25:31):
Jesus was not doing highintensity workouts, he was
walking for like hours, that lowintensity.
So unless like likehistorically as humans came
about throughout the ages, weweren't doing high intensity
things where we're spiking.
We only did that in the lifeand death situation.
It's like oh, here comes asaber tooth, like take it out.
That was the high intensity.
(25:52):
But other than that, we'remostly physiologically slow
twitch muscle fibers Like ourtype two slow twitch muscle
fibers is like 80% of our body.
Unless you're like this eliteathlete who can sprint super
fast, then you might have like40%.
You might be a slightlydifferent, but most of us are
80% slow twitch and so we beatourselves up and have to have
(26:12):
joint replacements.
Combining that with our poorcellular health and like seed
oils and all the inflammatorythings in our food, that's not
even really food.
But when you combine that withhigh intensity we have people
like getting hurt and sick andthen they are so hungry and
depleted they don't have all theminerals, they're like
overeating a pizza.
I know like when I do highintensity I get grumpy and then
(26:34):
like want to eat a pizza.
So right now yeah, like rightnow that I become and all of a
sudden I'm irritable and I'mlike like I think it's because
I'm so intense already in mylife and the way I do everything
that I prefer, personally,gentle exercise, but like my
husband's very different.
He was a Marine.
He does 24 hour mountain bikeraces, he's like runs five
(26:56):
minute miles and does 30pull-ups, like, but he's like a
warrior.
So he's very different than me.
So, and I think most of us aremore in the 80% bucket, not the
10% warrior bucket.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
So, yeah, I think that that concept of gentle
exercise is interesting andcould apply to this large and
growing over 50 demographic,because you know, when we were
growing up, the idea was thatyou had to really no pain, no
gain and you had to sweat reallyhard, and the more challenging
it was the better it was.
(27:27):
And if you're just going to begentle, stay home and do nothing
.
But now, no, it's emerging thatwe, as long as you're moving
your body and doing somethingand getting your heart rate up a
little and engaging in somestrength training, you don't
have to be a warrior.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yes, you don't have to do this killer like oh I'm so
crushed the next four days,kind of thing.
You could do more of a gentle,lifelong style exercise,
something that you could do tillyou're 80.
And I used to always comparebecause I club pilates like in
the olden days I would comparepilates to swimming, because
swimming is one of those thingsyou could pretty much do over
the span of your life surepilates, especially classical
(28:05):
pilates.
So now I'm gonna date myself,because 25 years ago people did
not think I was a classicalpilates instructor.
They're like, oh, club pilates,it's so fringe, and's so fringe
and so crazy.
Well, now me looking 25 yearslater, I'm looking at all the
Pilates studios and I'm likethis isn't even Pilates.
You guys.
I teach more of a classicalvanilla Pilates class and
everyone's favorite ice creamflavor is vanilla.
(28:28):
So I think that most people forthe majority would agree that
they love the classical pilatesmore than the crazy circus like
high intensity pilates.
That really looks nothing likewhat joseph pilates taught.
But I'm now I'm.
I'm now I'm the old personlooking at all the studios yeah
because they all thought I wascrazy back then.
(28:48):
But I was actually like I didn'treally deviate from the
original exercises.
I might have added somedumbbells in with footwork, but
besides that I didn't do a lotof the stuff I see now and I'm
like that's Pilates, like oh mygosh.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, it's all changed a lot.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Well, that's something I'm hearing in Reno is
that I have a lot of ladieswho've been doing Pilates for 40
years and they're like this islike baby Pilates.
I'm like it's the classical,like it's neutral pelvis, it's
the fundamentals, it's gettinginto the type two slow twitch
muscle fibers, which a lot ofthese people want to go fast and
hard and that's fine.
They can do that as well.
We have more challengingclasses, but being that we are
(29:22):
not live with instructors andthat they're digitally taught
and they're all on their back onthe reformer, we have to keep
things at a certain safety leveland start slow, because if I
have a person who's never donePilates and I'm putting them on
a reformer and teaching themwith a tablet, I'm going to
progress them very slowly tomake sure that they're checking
their form, that they're doingeverything proper, that they're
(29:44):
doing it correctly.
We throw in like anatomicalimages explaining things on our
digitally taught reformerclasses, but it works really
great.
But one thing we can't do is wecan't have people like doing
standing Russian splits on thereformer without an instructor,
because that's why gyms don'tjust have reformers out, because
it could be very dangerous.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
So Sure, okay, well, listen, I would like you to tell
the folks listening how theycan learn more about red light
method, either as an investmentopportunity or as a consumer, if
they want to keep an eye outfor one in their community.
Where should people go to learnmore?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Website, redlightmethodcom, has lots of
information, or you could followus on Facebook or Instagram.
Each of our locations have somekind of web access and where
they can reach out to people.
But yeah, we are really excited.
We have 58 locations indevelopment.
Currently, just three areopening, but we've only been
franchising for not quite a yearyet, so we're very new, but we
(30:43):
have many more open.
By the end of 2025, we shouldhave about 15 to 20 locations
open all throughout the UnitedStates, from San Diego to Tampa
to Cincinnati to Detroit, theReno market and just all over.
Tucson Arizona is opening soon,so we have Oklahoma City and
then Tulsa, oklahoma just signed.
(31:03):
So we have lots of developmenthappening and I'm excited for
people to experience it becauseit really is such a blessing.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Well, and I'm going to experience it myself, I'm
going to go to the uh locationhere that provides some of your
services.
It's not quite a full-blown redlight method studio, but they
have some of your offerings.
I'm going to go check it out formyself I'm excited to hear what
you think about it, jay I willlet you know absolutely, and
I'll try to do that before Ipublish this, this episode, so I
(31:31):
can uh add that to it.
But I think it's exciting andyou know, your track record
speaks for itself and I want tothank you for making the time to
talk to me today.
It's been a real pleasure.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, thank you, jay.
It's been awesome getting toknow you, and thanks for having
me on your show.
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Same to you.
Have a good day.
Thank you for listening to theOptimal Aging Podcast.
I'm your host, jay Croft ofPrime Fit Content.
I hope you enjoyed it and Ihope you'll subscribe, review
and tell a friend.
All of that helps me grow myaudience.
I hope you'll share anycomments you have with me,
including suggestions aboutpeople I should interview and
topics I should cover.
(32:09):
You can learn more about mynewsletter and content business
at primefitcontentcom and writeme at jay J-A-Y at
primefitcontentcom.
Again, thanks for listening.
Join me next time.
if you are doing everything right, like you're
doing your 10,000 steps or 8,000or whatever, and if you are
trying to eat healthy, thenadding red light method in as
like a rocket turbo boosteraccelerator to help you achieve
your goals faster.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi everybody, I'm Jay Croft and welcome to the
Optimal Aging Podcast, where wediscuss the business of exercise
, healthy living and well-beingfor people 50 and over.
Each week, we explore whathealthy living and well-being
for people 50 and over.
Each week, we explore whathealthy living means for
millions of people over age 50and what's coming next, with a
focus on communications, contentand making powerful connections
(00:35):
.
Well, hey, everybody, welcometo the show.
My guest today is Club Pilatesfounder Alison Beardsley, who's
now trying to do for red lighttherapy what she did for Pilates
, which is bring it to themasses, make it accessible, make
it affordable is bringing morepeople into the fitness world
(01:03):
with a low-impact, low-intensityactivity combined with red
light therapy in a warmenvironment.
That, she says, is veryappealing to a lot of people who
otherwise might not be findingaccess into fitness.
And for our demographics offolks over 50, it's particularly
appealing because Allison saysthat red light therapy is great
(01:26):
for relieving aches and painsand other issues commonly
related to aging.
She's actually found a biggergap in understanding about red
light therapy, not so much amongdifferent generations but among
people in different parts ofthe country, which presents its
own unique challenges forcommunications and marketing.
Right.
(01:46):
I was happy to meet Allison andto learn a little bit about red
light therapy and how it canhelp people in our demographic,
and I think you will be too.
So enjoy this conversation,allison.
Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I'm doing awesome.
How are you doing, Jay?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm great.
It's so nice to meet you.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
You as well.
Thanks for having me on yourpodcast.
I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, so am I.
I'm really excited to talkabout your new venture.
Well, it's not strictly new.
New and newish in that it'sgrowing and it's going to be
rolling out to a lot of newpeople Red Light Method and also
, I imagine you have someinteresting stories to tell
about Club Pilates, since youwere the founder of that as well
.
So we're going to get into it.
(02:28):
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Awesome, me too.
Yeah, I love talking shop.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, you know, what I like to talk about on the show
is the over 50 market.
Over 40 market whatever I don'tput too fine a point on it, the
idea being that in fitness andhealth and well-being, I believe
it's a large and underservedand lucrative market and a lot
of people need help connectingwith them, and so one of the
things I like about Red LightMethod is that you've identified
(02:54):
some appeal that your servicehas for people in this
demographic, so I think we'regoing to have some good things
to talk about.
So, before we get to all ofthat, tell me a little bit about
yourself and how you got tocreate Club Pilates and then how
you got to where you are nowwith Bread Light Method, and
then we'll get into that.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, so I started teaching Pilates in the year
2000 in San Diego and I wasteaching at multiple gyms.
This is before boutique fitnessreally existed.
Multiple gyms this is beforeboutique fitness really existed.
And then I was six monthspregnant with my firstborn son
when we started Club Pilates.
So it was December 2nd 2007,right before the 08 crash of the
(03:34):
economy.
So we opened up just like anyother Pilates studio and then,
once the economy tanked withClub Pilates in 08, my members
were like, oh, allison, I can'tafford $30 a group reformer
class anymore.
And I was like, well, keepcoming.
And we reduced it down to $10 aclass and people were losing
their houses and losing theircars and their jobs, but they're
like I won't lose my fitness.
(03:55):
And so we grew in that 08downed economy and we grew to 12
reformers, $10 classes andbefore you knew it, we were
seeing about 150 people a day.
Because it was so like ClubPilates.
The concept of it affordablePilates for everybody was
birthed out of necessity,because of a doubt economy, and
so we rapidly expanded acrossSan Diego County.
(04:16):
We would go replace studiosthat went out of business and
then we would pay a third ofwhat they paid in rent because
the commercial real estatevalues were so low.
It was just an awesome time oflots of growth and franchise.
That and I learned a tonbecause I knew nothing about
franchising when I franchisedClub Pilates.
It just all happened soorganically.
So, doing this red light method,I discovered the red light when
I turned 40 in 2020.
(04:37):
And I just started using it for,like my skin, because I'm all
natural and hippie andeverything.
And then in 2021, I was doingbusiness consulting for a group
out of the Bay Area that had aweight loss clinic and they
mailed me these red light wrapsthe full body medical grade
wraps and in two weeks I wentfrom suffering from long COVID
to where I had so much fatigueand just was having a hard time
(04:58):
getting back to normal.
I went from feeling like I was80 to feeling like I was 20, and
I lost 11 pounds in two weeksand I was like this is the best
thing since sliced bread, like Iwas so excited, so it
essentially brought me out ofretirement.
I was like I need to do thesame thing I did with Club
Pilates make these affordableand accessible, because the
device we use is normally $200,$300 a treatment.
(05:18):
It's a $40,000 medical gradesystem, and so we're doing the
same thing.
We're making it affordable,available and accessible and it
really helps cellular health.
So that's kind of the backdrop,with me and Club Pilates and
Red Light Method.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Wonderful.
You're no longer at the helm ofClub Pilates, right?
You sold that.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, I sold the franchise company.
I sold 75% in 2015, and then Isold the remaining 25% in 2016.
And then I was a franchisee inthe Reno market and I sold all
three of my locations in Reno in2018.
So I've been out of Clipilates,but I'm very happy to see how
successful it is.
There's over 1,200 locations inthe United States and it's
(05:56):
international and it's doing alot of good out there.
So I'm very happy that my firstfitness baby was a big love for
lots of people in the world.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So yeah, that's right .
Wow, well, good for you, that'swonderful, congratulations.
So, red Light Method, how manyare there now and how many will
there be shortly, in a year orso?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, so we started franchising late March of 2024.
So it's been.
We're approaching one year.
We have 58 locations signedwith area development agreements
and so far we have three openand about five more getting
ready.
So it takes about 10 months tobirth a studio, so not all 58
are going to open at the sametime.
I always explain to people it'sgoing to be.
(06:39):
Those 58 will roll out overyears.
But meanwhile we're stillsigning new ones.
I just signed Oklahoma Cityjust this morning.
They're doing three in OklahomaCity Great demographics there.
And then Tulsa, oklahoma aswell, three more going in.
So we have Detroit.
We have Atlanta, tennessee,huntsville, alabama, san Diego,
(06:59):
houston, dallas, fort Worth,tucson's getting ready Houston,
dallas, fort Worth, tucson'sgetting ready.
I'm developing for NorthernNevada in the Reno Carson City
markets.
It's been amazing.
Tampa.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
You're everywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
We're going to be popping up.
Just three are open, but allthree have opened in the black.
So Reno just opened two Mondaysago, february 17th 2025.
We opened up with 315 membersand we're already at 350 in our
first two weeks, which is crazy.
Tucson's poised to open inApril and she's at about 230
members.
(07:33):
And Fayetteville, arkansasopened up about five weeks ago
and they're over 200 membersright now.
So that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And what's the ideal number of members for a location
?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
A mature studio can hold between four and 600
members.
We have a bigger capacity, likeclub Pilates, basically.
I mean, a club Pilates can hold500 members and they see 12
people an hour.
But at 500 members theirattrition goes up because you
can only see 12 people an hour.
So with us, if we have ninetreatment rooms, we can see 18
people an hour, so we can hold50% more capacity than Club
(08:05):
Pilates.
Or if we have like 10 treatmentrooms, we can see 20 an hour,
so we can hold a lot morecapacity than a Club Pilates,
which is great.
So we don't need as many ofthem, so we're not clustering
them so close together and wetry to get bigger radiuses so
they don't cannibalize eachother.
Because I know right now a lotof club Pilates, they can only
market with a two mile radiusaround their location, which is
(08:26):
kind of sucks for the franchiseebecause they're spending more
marketing dollars and gettingless of an effective reach
because they have to have such asmall radius with their digital
marketing.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Okay, Tell us what happens at a red light method.
I know, obviously, but I wantto hear it from you and tell the
folks out there, because youknow we hear red light.
It's sort of a buzzy thing inthe last few years, kind of like
cold plunges, or you know a lotof things that have just come
up in the last few years or cometo public awareness in the last
few years, but I'm not sureeveryone knows exactly what red
(08:57):
light is.
So tell us about that.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
So red light method is super unique.
First of all, we can absorb redand near-infrared lights at the
rising sun, but we need tobasically be in our birthday
suit if we want to absorb thatwith the rising sun, with no
sunscreen, no sunglasses, no hatand most people today are
light-starved.
And so the red near-infraredlight helps to really energize
(09:21):
the cells at a mitochondriallevel.
Same thing with grounding andearthing.
Most of us don't have our feetconnected to like the energy of
the earth, which is why you'reseeing all these PEMF things
coming out and stuff.
But red near infrared light, sogood for cellular health, helps
the mitochondria at thecellular level.
But red light method is veryunique as we're like kind of a
hybrid spa fitness concept.
(09:42):
So we have treatment rooms orindividual treatment rooms and
in each room there's a massagetable and a black sheet and we
have our medical grade.
It's a class two device of rednear infrared light and this
device is proven for bodycontouring or inches loss,
reduced pain and inflammationand an increased blood flow and
circulation.
It does many other things like.
It helps your skin, helps sleepand energy.
(10:04):
It does just tons of stuff.
It gets rid of arthritis painand we've seen miracles.
We even had a lady with maculardegeneration, have her eyesight
completely healed.
She was going into eye surgerywith an ophthalmologist and he's
like you don't even havemacular degeneration, what are
you doing?
And she's like, oh, I'm doingred light therapy and sure
enough, it's proven for that.
It also reduces blood sugar by28% as well, and there's actual
(10:27):
PubMed studies on this.
But anyways, let me go back towhat is red light method.
You go into a treatment roomand you undress down into your
knickers and you push a callbutton and our staff come in and
we wrap the entire body in 86degrees.
They're warm, red, nearinfrared lights, and so the
light is directly on the skin.
There's no distance.
The more you get distance away,like in a bed or with
(10:49):
two-dimensional box panels,you're losing the light energy.
So this is the most effectiveway to absorb it and it wraps
around, so you're getting underyour arm, You're getting all
three-dimensionally wrapped.
After their 25-minute treatment, they then moved to a 15-minute
digitally guided power plateclass, and so the power plate is
part of the clinical trialsthat were done with our system
(11:10):
that prove its efficacy, becausewe have to move the lymph and
so the lymph doesn't have a pump.
It's done through exercise ormassage or the power plate.
If anyone's ever been on it,it's an amazing vibrating
platform triples muscle fibersactivated so they move to 15
minutes of that and then theymoved to a 15 minute digitally
(11:31):
guided Pilates reformer session.
We keep our Pilates on thevanilla side, so we're not
standing, we're not planking,we're staying on our back doing
the basic footwork.
So we cater to 80% of people.
Obviously, if someone's verylike elite athlete, they're
going to want to do more on thereformer than what we can offer
because we don't haveinstructors.
I'd compare us to Ruth ChrisSteakhouse.
If you go to Ruth Chris you'reprobably going to order a steak.
(11:51):
You don't go and order chicken.
So red light method.
Our steak is the red lighttreatment, the Pilates is just
broccoli and then the powerplate is like parsley and so.
But our value is the red lighttreatment because our members
can like if they're on unlimitedin the Reno market they can
come 30 times a month for $1.99a month.
It's amazing.
So we're doing very affordable,whereas these treatments
(12:13):
normally costs like $1.99 forone single treatment or like
where we opened our prototype inArkansas there was a doctor who
offered these treatments andshe would be like oh, you can
get 20 for $2,000 for 20sessions.
So we're offering this hugevalue and we've just seen
beautiful miracles happen.
So it's almost like a ministryof loving our neighbors, ourself
and helping people.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
That's a lot.
So I want to know.
You mentioned a lot of benefitsof red light therapy or
treatment.
Does this replace traditionalexercise and dieting?
Can I just do whatever I want,but as long as I come into red
light method I'm going to beokay?
Or is this meant to be asupplement to dieting and
(12:54):
working out?
How does it fit into theoverall picture of fitness,
particularly for people who area little bit older?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah, so for the older folk, if you're spending
15 minutes on the power plate,that's equivalent to a 45 minute
workout without the power plate.
It's like a bio hack.
It's like, ok, I spent 15minutes here, 15 minutes here so
on Pilates.
So they're getting 30 minutesof exercise and movement in
within their hour long session,and then 25 minutes is of the
red lights.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
OK.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
What can replace.
But I always tell people it'snot a magic bullet.
It matters what you put in yourpie hole.
So the red lights work, but youcan't just keep putting stuff
in your pie hole.
Yeah, improving, so we'reeither always getting better on
our diet or we're declining, butthere's no such thing as
flatlining while we're alive.
So what we tell is if you aredoing everything right, like
(13:43):
you're doing your 10,000 stepsor 8,000 or whatever, and if you
are trying to eat healthy, thenadding red light method in as
like a rocket turbo boosteraccelerator to help you achieve
your goals faster.
Now if you're doing the redlights and then you're eating
pizza and drinking beer orwhatever, you're still going to
get cellular benefits, butyou're not going to see that
(14:03):
body contouring Like for me.
I'm good about what I put in mypie hole.
I don't eat sugar or anything,but I do like my daughter bakes
fresh sourdough bread and I havecrock pots of like corned beef
and taco stuff like right overthere.
So I eat a good, healthy dietand when I'm under the red
lights consistently I'm 20pounds lighter and I'm about six
(14:24):
feet tall.
So 20 pounds is different foron me than a five foot tall
person, but it keeps me at mygame weight and I'm still
enjoying life.
So but if I were to like bevery strict and like cut out all
the carbs and do and like nothave wine or something like that
, I could probably be evenlighter, but I'm content.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And you enjoy having a glass of wine once in a while.
Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I'm like some cream in my coffee, so absolutely Okay
.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So let me be Mr Skeptic here, cause I'm sure you
get this sometimes.
I'm not going to say anything.
You haven't been asked before.
But come on, you point a redlight at my skin and suddenly I
lose weight and I feel betterand everything's hunky-dory with
me.
Really.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, we have hundreds, hundreds of members
who've lost over 100 pounds intwo and a half years.
At our prototype in Bentonville, Arkansas, we would have people
limp in and then they have nomore pain.
Their arthritis pain completelygoes away.
One of our members, tracy Ilove her to pieces.
She was accused by her friendsof having a facelift.
(15:30):
Now Tracy is an esthetician andshe takes very good care of her
skin.
But once she added in all thered lights, her friends didn't
see her for a few months andthey're like girl, you got a
facelift.
And she's like no, I didn't geta facelift.
And me, I'm 45.
45, I'm natural.
I don't do Botox or filler andI use castor oil and water.
That's all I do with.
(15:50):
I'm pretty granola, but myskin's better now at 45 than it
was when I was 35, like actually10 years ago.
I looked 10 years older backthen than I look today and I'm
older, so it's really cool.
But it does get rid of all theaches and pains.
It's amazing what it does.
And and yeah, we're lightstarved.
We spend 90% of our timeindoors.
We're not getting sunshine.
(16:10):
That's why so many people don'thave the proper levels of
vitamin D and I think with theindoor comforts of air
conditioning and blackoutcurtains and our little devices,
we are all light starved and wealso need to do more stuff like
grounding and stuff like thatas well.
But yeah, it really works.
It's usually the husbands of ourmembers who are very skeptical.
(16:31):
And so we have one gentleman.
He wants to open a red lightmethod now, but him and his wife
drug him in and he's he'll sayit and he's got the cutest
southern twang.
He's like oh, I don't knowabout this, I can't even do a
southern twang, but anyways, sosweet.
And he was a runner his wholelife and he had such bad
arthritis in his shoulders hecouldn't lift his arm up.
(16:52):
He has full range of motion inhis shoulders and he had a heart
arrhythmia.
That's completely healed.
His heart arrhythmia is gone.
He has no pain and he is like afirm believer.
But two of our staff have hadtheir eyesight improved.
So they go in for their annualcheckup and they're like oh,
your vision's actually better,which.
How often does that happen to40 plus people, that their
vision's actually improvingversus declining as they get
(17:16):
older.
So that's been pretty cool.
And I told you about themacular degeneration lady.
But we've had about 30 peoplecome off of disability from
autoimmune conditions like lupus.
So it's amazing.
People in tears like I have mylife back, I'm able to work
again, I can get out of bed.
Another story we have a membernamed Emily and she was in a bad
car accident and gained about75 pounds and she's my age, mid
(17:39):
forties, and she's tall also.
But she lost so much within ayear and she's totally pain-free
and she's back in great shape.
She just recently, on Facebook,got rid of all of her extra
larges because now she's like amedium.
It's awesome.
So we've seen just tons ofsuccess stories.
I think the biggest thing isthat people have to commit and
(18:00):
do it.
What I noticed in Arkansas wehad to do a lot of educational
campaigning on what is red lighttherapy, but with our one we
just opened in Reno.
When I talk to people I'm like,do you know about red light
therapy?
They're like, oh, yeah, I knowall about it.
Like everyone knows about ithere in our demographic more to
the West we're just a few hoursfrom San Francisco and
everything.
But yeah, people out here likethat's why Reno opened with 315
(18:21):
members.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to
grow your business with peopleover 50?
If you are, then you need toknow how to communicate with
them, how to market to them andhow to get them to trust you
with their fitness, well-beingand money.
We're talking about millions ofpeople who are a little older
than the typical market that thefitness industry usually
pursues.
They have more money, more timeand better motivation to make
(18:46):
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(19:07):
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That's prime, like prime ofyour life fitcontentcom.
Back to the show.
Tell me about that market andI'm curious if you started this
intentionally for older folks,or if that was something that
you discovered by accident, orif it's now a main focus.
How did that present itself asbeing an important part of your
(19:30):
business?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
It kind of happened organically because I think that
the younger crowds, they prefermore the high intensity
training.
But what we're finding is with80% of the population being
categorized as overweight andobese.
But doing the high intensityspikes your cortisol levels, it
fatigues the adrenals, like it'shard on most people.
Most people are not highintensity folks.
(19:52):
And then as we get older andpeople have had surgeries and
aches and pains and they'recarrying 40 extra pounds around,
they need something gentle thatcan meet them where they're at,
to bring them back into feelinggood and being healthy.
And I think that that's wherered light method has really
appealed to people over the ageof 40.
We still have young folks, wehave people bring their
(20:13):
teenagers in and we see benefitwith like eczema and skin and
conditions and stuff like that.
So we do see the younger crowdthat are.
Definitely we cater moretowards an older demographic,
but I think that they appreciatethat time of like.
During the 25 minute treatmentyour body's wrapped, you're
laying on a massage table, youhave noise canceling headphones
(20:33):
on, you're listening to like ameditation or relaxing spa music
and then we put a face pieceover.
There's glasses are optional,like goggles and then we put the
face piece that gets the face,neck, chest and decollete, and
so it's like 25 minutes offorced relaxation time and I
know we all need that for sure,because we're like a go-go-go
society.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
so well, great I'll be.
I'll be right there, because ifyou can get me to just sit down
and be still for 25 minutes,that's a good thing, because we
don't allow that, do we?
We don't encourage it, and it'salmost like you feel guilty if
you take a few minutes to justbe still with your thoughts and
you want to grab your phone andmake sure nobody's sending you a
text message that you've got tolook at right now.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, no, the forced relaxation time is just
fantastic and people really loveit.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
What kind of challenges have you had in
communicating with the over 40market?
The over 50 market that maybeyou weren't expecting Anything.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I think that different demographics of the
country.
We've had different challenges,like Bentonville, arkansas,
where our prototype was.
Bentonville is very differentthan the West Coast where I'm
from.
It's just a different case oflife.
You have a lot of people, it'sthe Bible Belt.
There's a lot of farming.
It's just a different.
There's fast food is likeeveryone eats the fast food.
(21:50):
I'm like shocked how thedrive-through lines would like
go out onto the road and almostcause accidents in the Ozarks.
I was like whoa, because outWest you don't see that.
I mean, maybe In-N-Out Burgerhas a big line, but besides that
, no place really people aren'treally eating the fast food so
much.
So I think it was a little bitmore of an educational campaign
there of explaining the benefitsand having QR codes or articles
(22:14):
or sharing different studieswith people and educational
campaigns.
But yeah, it's interestingbecause out in Reno with our one
that just opened two weeks ago,there was no need to even do it
.
They were teaching me aboutstuff with red light.
I was like, oh, I didn't knowit did that.
Wow, it was really cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Do you find that people who are a little bit
older are more or less skeptical, more or less open-minded?
Are they really anxious to findsome relief, maybe arthritis,
pain or just a general malaisethat often hits any kind of
difference on that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I think that there's so much out there right now
about like just the way theworld's going in health and
nutrition and cellular healthand metabolic dysfunction, that
like red light method is poisedat such a good time where we
don't even really have toconvince people.
They know it and they startnoticing the improvements right
away.
Like people notice right awaythey slept better that night,
(23:11):
like maybe they woke up fivetimes a night.
Now they only woke up once.
They also notice improvedenergy and it really helps with
like mood and depression andlike happiness levels as well.
It's just that like if ourevery single cell in our body
has mitochondria, which are thelittle batteries, and so we're
basking the mitochondria andenergizing them in light, then
everything it's's like there'sso many studies proving the
(23:35):
mitochondrial improvement ofcellular health and I think
cellular health is like allwhat's going on right now,
because we're learning thateverything's a metabolic disease
, like most cancers, mosteverything it's.
Our cells are not functioningproperly and so it's so cool
that a non-invasive, likehealthy treatment is showing
such vast improvements.
(23:55):
But I really think that thewave of the next like 20 plus
years ago boutique fitnessdidn't exist and people thought
I was crazy.
A lot is, and then club pilateskind of almost started the
boutique fitness craze and itwas or it was at that time that
the boutique fitness craze wentoff.
I think right now we're in asimilar time, but it's a hybrid
(24:22):
of gentle fitness that you canactually do and feel good and
not beat yourself up and getinjuries.
So I think gentle fitness andthen biohacking modalities of
wellness and fusing the two.
I'm a little bit nervous aboutthe cold plunge sauna places
because they don't have afitness component and so and
they're like 400 bucks a month.
So once we see like a downturnin the economy like I mentioned,
club Pilates was built right atthat recession Once you see
(24:44):
that, I think that we're goingto see those $400 a month things
that were a million dollarbuild out for them to do I think
we're going to see those startto fizzle away.
And I think we're also going tosee the boutique fitness fizzle
away because people are goingto be like, oh, for that same
price I can go to Red LightMethod and get my wellness
modality, because it literallyis like a massage, facial, body
(25:10):
contouring workout all in anhour for the price of like a
regular boutique fitness place.
So it's not the $400 a monthcryo membership and it's not
just the fitness.
Now they might keep bothanother fitness thing for their
more high intensity things,because we're definitely not a
high intensity market, we'redefinitely more on the gentle
side and nourishing the body andloving it.
I like to think back to 2000years ago in Jesus days.
(25:31):
Jesus was not doing highintensity workouts, he was
walking for like hours, that lowintensity.
So unless like likehistorically as humans came
about throughout the ages, weweren't doing high intensity
things where we're spiking.
We only did that in the lifeand death situation.
It's like oh, here comes asaber tooth, like take it out.
That was the high intensity.
(25:52):
But other than that, we'remostly physiologically slow
twitch muscle fibers Like ourtype two slow twitch muscle
fibers is like 80% of our body.
Unless you're like this eliteathlete who can sprint super
fast, then you might have like40%.
You might be a slightlydifferent, but most of us are
80% slow twitch and so we beatourselves up and have to have
(26:12):
joint replacements.
Combining that with our poorcellular health and like seed
oils and all the inflammatorythings in our food, that's not
even really food.
But when you combine that withhigh intensity we have people
like getting hurt and sick andthen they are so hungry and
depleted they don't have all theminerals, they're like
overeating a pizza.
I know like when I do highintensity I get grumpy and then
(26:34):
like want to eat a pizza.
So right now yeah, like rightnow that I become and all of a
sudden I'm irritable and I'mlike like I think it's because
I'm so intense already in mylife and the way I do everything
that I prefer, personally,gentle exercise, but like my
husband's very different.
He was a Marine.
He does 24 hour mountain bikeraces, he's like runs five
(26:56):
minute miles and does 30pull-ups, like, but he's like a
warrior.
So he's very different than me.
So, and I think most of us aremore in the 80% bucket, not the
10% warrior bucket.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
So, yeah, I think that that concept of gentle
exercise is interesting andcould apply to this large and
growing over 50 demographic,because you know, when we were
growing up, the idea was thatyou had to really no pain, no
gain and you had to sweat reallyhard, and the more challenging
it was the better it was.
(27:27):
And if you're just going to begentle, stay home and do nothing
.
But now, no, it's emerging thatwe, as long as you're moving
your body and doing somethingand getting your heart rate up a
little and engaging in somestrength training, you don't
have to be a warrior.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yes, you don't have to do this killer like oh I'm so
crushed the next four days,kind of thing.
You could do more of a gentle,lifelong style exercise,
something that you could do tillyou're 80.
And I used to always comparebecause I club pilates like in
the olden days I would comparepilates to swimming, because
swimming is one of those thingsyou could pretty much do over
the span of your life surepilates, especially classical
(28:05):
pilates.
So now I'm gonna date myself,because 25 years ago people did
not think I was a classicalpilates instructor.
They're like, oh, club pilates,it's so fringe, and's so fringe
and so crazy.
Well, now me looking 25 yearslater, I'm looking at all the
Pilates studios and I'm likethis isn't even Pilates.
You guys.
I teach more of a classicalvanilla Pilates class and
everyone's favorite ice creamflavor is vanilla.
(28:28):
So I think that most people forthe majority would agree that
they love the classical pilatesmore than the crazy circus like
high intensity pilates.
That really looks nothing likewhat joseph pilates taught.
But I'm now I'm.
I'm now I'm the old personlooking at all the studios yeah
because they all thought I wascrazy back then.
(28:48):
But I was actually like I didn'treally deviate from the
original exercises.
I might have added somedumbbells in with footwork, but
besides that I didn't do a lotof the stuff I see now and I'm
like that's Pilates, like oh mygosh.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, it's all changed a lot.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Well, that's something I'm hearing in Reno is
that I have a lot of ladieswho've been doing Pilates for 40
years and they're like this islike baby Pilates.
I'm like it's the classical,like it's neutral pelvis, it's
the fundamentals, it's gettinginto the type two slow twitch
muscle fibers, which a lot ofthese people want to go fast and
hard and that's fine.
They can do that as well.
We have more challengingclasses, but being that we are
(29:22):
not live with instructors andthat they're digitally taught
and they're all on their back onthe reformer, we have to keep
things at a certain safety leveland start slow, because if I
have a person who's never donePilates and I'm putting them on
a reformer and teaching themwith a tablet, I'm going to
progress them very slowly tomake sure that they're checking
their form, that they're doingeverything proper, that they're
(29:44):
doing it correctly.
We throw in like anatomicalimages explaining things on our
digitally taught reformerclasses, but it works really
great.
But one thing we can't do is wecan't have people like doing
standing Russian splits on thereformer without an instructor,
because that's why gyms don'tjust have reformers out, because
it could be very dangerous.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
So Sure, okay, well, listen, I would like you to tell
the folks listening how theycan learn more about red light
method, either as an investmentopportunity or as a consumer, if
they want to keep an eye outfor one in their community.
Where should people go to learnmore?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Website, redlightmethodcom, has lots of
information, or you could followus on Facebook or Instagram.
Each of our locations have somekind of web access and where
they can reach out to people.
But yeah, we are really excited.
We have 58 locations indevelopment.
Currently, just three areopening, but we've only been
franchising for not quite a yearyet, so we're very new, but we
(30:43):
have many more open.
By the end of 2025, we shouldhave about 15 to 20 locations
open all throughout the UnitedStates, from San Diego to Tampa
to Cincinnati to Detroit, theReno market and just all over.
Tucson Arizona is opening soon,so we have Oklahoma City and
then Tulsa, oklahoma just signed.
(31:03):
So we have lots of developmenthappening and I'm excited for
people to experience it becauseit really is such a blessing.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Well, and I'm going to experience it myself, I'm
going to go to the uh locationhere that provides some of your
services.
It's not quite a full-blown redlight method studio, but they
have some of your offerings.
I'm going to go check it out formyself I'm excited to hear what
you think about it, jay I willlet you know absolutely, and
I'll try to do that before Ipublish this, this episode, so I
(31:31):
can uh add that to it.
But I think it's exciting andyou know, your track record
speaks for itself and I want tothank you for making the time to
talk to me today.
It's been a real pleasure.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, thank you, jay.
It's been awesome getting toknow you, and thanks for having
me on your show.
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Same to you.
Have a good day.
Thank you for listening to theOptimal Aging Podcast.
I'm your host, jay Croft ofPrime Fit Content.
I hope you enjoyed it and Ihope you'll subscribe, review
and tell a friend.
All of that helps me grow myaudience.
I hope you'll share anycomments you have with me,
including suggestions aboutpeople I should interview and
topics I should cover.
(32:09):
You can learn more about mynewsletter and content business
at primefitcontentcom and writeme at jay J-A-Y at
primefitcontentcom.
Again, thanks for listening.
Join me next time.
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