On a recent episode of the LIFTS Podcast, Matthew Januszek and Mo Iqbal welcomed Dr. Jonathan Leary—founder and CEO of Remedy Place—to explore some of the most talked-about and unconventional wellness trends reshaping the health and fitness landscape, from mouth taping to cold plunges to the idea that belonging itself is a health intervention.
The conversation covers the vision and philosophy behind Remedy Place, a first-of-its-kind social wellness club built on the premise that human connection is as critical to longevity as any physical protocol, alongside a frank discussion of where technology and artificial intelligence are headed in healthcare.
What This Episode Covers
Dr. Jonathan Leary is the founder and CEO of Remedy Place, which he describes as the world's first social wellness club—a concept that combines evidence-backed recovery modalities with intentional community design. Located in Los Angeles and New York, Remedy Place offers services including cold therapy, IV drips, infrared saunas, and breathwork in an environment explicitly designed to encourage members to experience these practices together rather than in isolation.
Leary trained as a chiropractor and built his practice around an integrative philosophy that draws on both conventional and alternative medicine. His clinical background informs the protocols offered at Remedy Place, where he has been particularly vocal about the evidence base for cold therapy and the underappreciated health consequences of chronic social disconnection.
Beyond the club model, Leary is a recognized voice in the broader wellness conversation—appearing at industry events and in media to advocate for holistic approaches that treat physical health, mental wellbeing, and community as inseparable variables in any serious longevity strategy.
Key Moments from the Conversation
- Dr. Leary opens by walking through some of his own unconventional daily practices—including mouth taping for improved sleep and breathing, and jawline exercises—framing them as low-cost, high-impact interventions backed by emerging research.
- On cold therapy, he outlines the proper approach to cold immersion, emphasizing gradual adaptation, breath control, and the distinction between productive discomfort and counterproductive shock to the system.
- The founding vision of Remedy Place is rooted in a specific observation: most wellness facilities treat recovery as a solitary activity, while the science of longevity consistently points to social connection as one of the most powerful variables in health outcomes.
- Leary makes a case that human connection—the experience of going through a challenging wellness practice alongside other people—amplifies the physiological benefits of those practices in ways that solo sessions do not.
- The conversation addresses the potential role of AI and advanced technology in healthcare, with Leary expressing measured optimism about diagnostic and personalization capabilities while emphasizing that technology cannot substitute for the relational dimension of healing.
- He advocates for a model of healthcare that treats traditional and alternative medicine as complementary rather than competing systems, arguing that the most effective practitioners draw from both without ideological rigidity.
- Throughout the discussion, Matthew Januszek and Mo Iqbal probe how the Remedy Place concept might scale and what lessons its model holds for the broader fitness and wellness industry.
Why This Conversation Matters
The LIFTS Podcast, co-hosted by Matthew Januszek of Escape Fitness USA and Mo Iqbal of SweatWorks, tracks the ideas that are moving the needle in the fitness and wellness business—and Remedy Place represents one of the most watched experiments in that space right now. The social wellness club model is being studied by gym operators, hotel groups, and wellness investors as a potential template for what comes after the traditional health club.
For fitness professionals listening to LIFTS, this episode offers both a conceptual framework—wellness as a community practice—and a practical window into how one founder built a business around that insight. Dr. Leary's willingness to engage with unconventional modalities while staying grounded in outcome data is the kind of nuanced thinking the industry needs more of.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Matthew Januszek
Matthew Januszek is the co-founder of Escape Fitness, the functional-training equipment brand he built from a UK startup into a global name supplying many of the world’s leading gyms, studios, and hotel fitness spaces. Following the separation of the UK and US businesses, Matthew’s focus today is Escape Fitness USA and the next chapter of the brand in North America. He hosted more than 300 episodes of the Escape Your Limits podcast and now co-hosts the LIFTS Podcast with SweatWorks founder Mohammed Iqbal, covering the business, science, and technology shaping the fitness industry. Explore more interviews and episodes on MatthewJanuszek.com.
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