Inside Bali’s massive new one-stop fitness centre

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, young people came to Bali mainly for its vibrant party scene, with more beach clubs and late-night bars than there are days in a year. But in recent years, tourism on the island has seen a tectonic shift towards sports and fitness, with gyms popping up like mushrooms in the rice fields. “I don’t know of anywhere else in the world that has an obsession with exercise and the level of fitness facilities that Bali has,” says Henry Hitchcox, an expat from the UK.

“The boom’s gone mad.” The proliferation of venues has introduced a quandary: with so many functional gyms, Pilates studios, yoga schools, medi-spas, health retreats, padel courts, lap pools and martial arts academies, how do visitors choose? Henry and his partners claim they have solved the problem with a massive new venue in Cemagi on the fringes of the tourist precinct of Canggu that combines many of these elements, along with a co-working space and science-driven preventative medicine services. It’s called Omni Social Wellness Club, and it’s already proven a hit. Less than a month after opening, it has chalked up more than 700 active members and hundreds more casual visitors. Walking into the reception area at Omni, a large circular space with a soaring ceiling and dangling greenery, is like walking into the lobby of a five-star hotel. Past the turnstiles is a large green lawn pockmarked with beanbags, a 25m pool and a fire pit for social events. Behind the pool are a series of saunas, jacuzzis and ice baths of differing temperatures, and a large health food restaurant. The first few rooms inside the main building are cut straight out of a modern medical centre where you can do blood work, genetic testing, gut microbiome testing, intravenous vitamin treatments, and buy health supplements. “We look at 200 different data points and then apply our algorithms and experts to look at your body’s weak points and figure out what you can do to improve with personalised exercise and diet plans,” Henry says. Then come the bathrooms, elevated to the level of a first-class lounge, and the first of many gym rooms, the first dedicated entirely to legs. A flight of stairs leads to the second level, home to an open-air callisthenics gym with pull-up bars and ropes, and an air-conditioned gym the size of an aircraft hangar with more than 100 workout stations. The third floor holds an open-air yoga deck, also used for classes like meditation and breathwork. There’s also a modern co-working space, and plans to build an adjoining boutique hotel. “Bali already has good gyms, recovery and rehabilitation centres,” Henry says. “But the one-stop-shop service we offer and the level we have taken it to with in-house laboratories and functional medicine experts is new — not only on the island, but maybe globally.” Day passes to Omni start at $33 per day, $99 per week or $184 per month.