As Precision Run marks its 10th anniversary, learn about its major achievements over the last decade, straight from the founder.
David Siik was fresh out of college when he joined Equinox Columbus Circle around 2004. An obsessive runner and racer, he began training on treadmills for the first time, a vastly different experience from the pavement he was used to pounding.
To be blunt, he couldn’t stand the treadmill. And after glancing around the floor at the Club one day, he realized he wasn’t alone.
“I looked in front of me, and all of the members were having the treadmill blues,” Siik recalls. “I felt bad. I felt sad for the members because running is my whole life and I love it so much. And I thought to myself, if I could just make this experience better for people, they would get the benefits of running and they might love it a little bit — not as much as me,” he jokes.
Though the treadmill had been popularized for exercise around the 1960s, no one had developed a true indoor running program, he says. So Siik hit the books, learning the history of treadmills, how they’re built, what people like and dislike about them. He discovered that no one in the fitness industry fully understood how the unique combination of a treadmill’s variables — speed, incline, and workout duration — impacted a person’s physiological response to their run, he says. The precision of running, he says, was missing.
Over the next few years, Siik became a self-taught treadmill expert. He spoke with doctors and coaches, studied research articles, and did his own testing to learn that, for instance, a one percent bump in incline produces a similar metabolic effect as a 0.2 mph increase in speed. Soon enough, Siik combined all this newfound knowledge to create the BITE — Balanced Interval Training Experience — method, which became the foundation of every Precision Run workout.
In honor of Precision Run’s 10th anniversary, Siik is sharing its milestones over the last decade — and an inside look at the future ahead.
2014: Introducing Precision Run
Before Precision Run became an Equinox exclusive, Siik was testing, developing, and popularizing his programming at a basic treadmill class in West Hollywood, he says. Then, Equinox Vice President of Group Fitness Keith Irace experienced it for himself and was instantly sold on the methodology. So Siik and other Equinox team members began putting in the work — creating manuals and training coaches — to establish it as a signature format.
In 2014, Precision Run officially launched. It wasn’t an innovation but rather an invention, says Siik. “Equinox really was the first company in the world to ever have an indoor running program that had its own proprietary scientific method, and it still is the only scientific method for indoor running on the planet,” he adds.
2016: Breaking Ground on Precision Run Labs
Since its launch, Precision Run had become so beloved, nearly 600 classes were being held weekly at Clubs across the country. But Siik was determined to build a space that allowed members to feel the heart and soul of the programming.
Enter: the Precision Run Lab, a reimagining of the typical fitness studio that first opened in the Santa Monica Club and has since expanded to the Chestnut Hill and Plano locations. Each Lab is equipped with an oxygen enrichment system to provide peak air quality and a custom-created “black box” that syncs color-shifting lighting with the workout’s music and programming. Today, they also feature Precision Run’s proprietary dashboard and treadmills.
“My goal for Equinox was to have people walk into that room and not be like, ‘Oh, another nice studio,’ but to have them look around when it started and be like, ‘Whoa, this is different,’ and then get lost in it — to have it be an absolute home for running,” says Siik.
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2016: Presenting the Precision Run Dashboard
The member experience is just as important as the workout programming Precision Run offers, says Siik. That’s why Equinox worked hand-in-hand with a software company to create the Precision Run Dashboard, equipped with features never before seen on treadmills, including a smart function that auto-populates your last interval speed onto your screen.
One of the most impactful new components: a one-touch recovery button that quickly slows the treadmill.
“We uploaded it into the Precision Run Lab in Santa Monica, and I remember the first time members hit the recovery button on the screen,” Siik recalls. “The second members hit that blue button, there was a gasp in the room. Everyone was like, ‘You gotta be kidding me…I don't have to hit the down arrow 15 times or step off the treadmill and hit pause?’”
In the years since, the Precision Run Dashboard has been upgraded two times, but its key elements remain the same.
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2019: Reimagining the Treadmill
Though the Precision Run Lab and Dashboard changed the game for indoor running workouts, Siik knew members deserved more — including a better piece of equipment to run on. But in Siik’s eyes, the best treadmill didn’t exist yet.
“It's one of those cheesy stories where I drew it on a paper towel,” he says. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, if we're doing it, I have to change the shape of it.’ I looked at the architecture of our Clubs, and I thought, ‘Why can't a treadmill be sexy?’ So this was my goal. And this was my exact pitch to leadership: I said, ‘We have to be really provocative. What if we could design a treadmill that, one, is the best-performing treadmill…but what if it also has the same sense of style and storytelling that the rest of the Equinox experience has?’”
The result: a top-performing treadmill that’s so sleek, it looks like a piece of furniture. Custom-engineered by Woodway and proprietary to Equinox, the treadmill has been uniquely calibrated to decelerate faster than others on the market. Walnut wood covers the treadmill’s arms and rails for a look that pulls members onto the equipment from across the Club. “Even if you don't understand the performance [aspects] in the programming or the software, at least you're inspired to get on a treadmill,” says Siik.
2020: Creating On-Demand Precision Run Workouts and a Connected Tread
Equinox members crave convenience, so launching on-demand Precision Run workouts was a no-brainer. With programming available through the Equinox+ app and — more recently — directly on Club treadmills connected with the Precision Run Dashboard, members can take a virtual class on their own schedule. Today, 30 percent of Equinox members are utilizing on-demand workouts exclusively, says Siik.
Thanks to the virtual programming, the Precision Run experience is now fully immersive. “You can get on a treadmill at Equinox and have exclusive, on-demand Precision workouts, which are based on a formula and methodology exclusively at Equinox, [with] a software that was designed and is proprietary and exclusive at Equinox, on a treadmill that was designed, built, and engineered exclusively by Equinox,” says Siik. “All of those things — it’s just bananas.”
Launching Soon: Fully Vested Classes and Precision Run Personal Coaching
Precision Run has created a new standard for treadmill running over the last decade, but Siik and the many Equinox teams collaborating on its future aren’t slowing down. The founder is already optimizing the next generation of the treadmill. Plus, Precision Run recently launched Fully Vested, the first-ever treadmill class utilizing weighted vests for a hiking-like experience, says Siik. The class is currently available in two PR Labs and will be expanding to Clubs later this year. Also in 2024, members can expect Precision Run Personal Coaching, unlocking access to personalized race training programs and guidance from certified coaches every step of the way.
Moving forward, Siik and the rest of the Precision Run think tank will continue carrying out the mission they’ve had since Day 1: to imagine the unimaginable, then bring it into reality.
“Every company tries to anticipate their customers’ needs — we do that, too,” says Siik. “But what we do better than any other health and wellness company is we go beyond anticipation. We imagine for them. And that's our job as a category of one. If we can continue to imagine and dream of things that change the day-to-day moments of their life, we can make a lifetime of positive impact for them. And maybe, just maybe, haters can become runners. That's huge.”