SIRO One Za’abeel: Elevating Dubai’s Wellness Tech in First Fitness Hotel

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Entering the Future of Wellness with SIRO’s “Recovery Lab”

Imagine walking into a spa that feels more like a space station. This is exactly the experience at SIRO’s “recovery lab”, equipped with cryogenic chambers and touchless vibroacoustic therapy beds. Even the infrared capsules resemble something out of a clinical space rather than a calming retreat.

“The industry is evolving,” says Desmond Cawley, hotel manager at SIRO, One Za’abeel. This establishment positions itself as Dubai’s “first fitness hotel,” tailoring its services to professional athletes and others who prioritize fitness in their lifestyles. The hotel was designed in collaboration with AC Milan football club, Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, and boxer Ramla Ali.

State-of-the-Art Fitness Facilities at SIRO, One Za’abeel

SIRO, One Za’abeel offers a 2,000-square-foot gym filled with cutting-edge equipment designed to track, analyze performance. Offering smart scales, body composition analysis tools, and an app to help guests customize their stay from nutrition to training. Room features include alarm clocks synced to the guest’s circadian rhythm, anti-gravity rocking chairs, and a recovery lab focused on muscle recovery rather than relaxation.

“Cryotherapy is a great example – it’s beneficial for reducing inflammation and jump-starting your metabolism,” explains Cawley. However, he advises that guests should have prior experience with ice baths before trying the cryo-chamber, which is cooled to an icy minus 85°C (minus 121 Fahrenheit).

The MLX i3Dome, a unique piece of futuristic technology, uses far infrared technology to alleviate muscle soreness. This light therapy treatment can be traced back to NASA’s experiments with red light therapy in the 1990s, designed to promote plant growth in space and heal astronaut wounds. It has since been explored for a variety of uses, including skincare.

The Intersection of Wellness and Boutique Clinics

These specialized therapies are rarely found outside of boutique clinics, let alone hotels. Even five-star hotels have often treated health and fitness as an ”afterthought,” according to Cawley.

But wellness has evolved into a global multi-trillion-dollar industry. Brands like SIRO (and its parent company Kerzner International) are incorporating wellness into their core hospitality concepts. The Dubai location is just the beginning, with SIRO, Boka Place in Montenegro opening later this year and three more locations already planned.

“Everyone has unique physiology, wellness goals, and aspirations,” says Cawley. “Our aim is to optimize performance, reduce recovery times, and help individuals get back to doing what they love, be it on the football pitch, tennis court, or at the gym.”

The Tech-Centric Shift to Wellness

The tech-centric approach to wellness is a departure from the “Goopy decade” of yoga, crystals, and green juice detoxes, according to Beth McGroarty, research director at the Global Wellness Institute. The emerging “hard care” trend is characterized by “super medical, very high-tech, very complex” routines and treatments. Known as “biohacking,” the trend includes longevity clinics and weight loss drugs like Ozempic aimed at reducing biological age.

The pandemic has been a key driver of this trend, necessitating “touchless” treatments and sparking a demand for more scientific health solutions. However, high-tech doesn’t always equal scientific. McGroarty notes that some treatments, like nutrient-boost IV drips, have very little evidence of their efficacy outside a doctor-prescribed hospital setting.

Health Tech in the Hospitality Industry

SIRO is not the only one targeting athletic travelers with high-tech therapies. Fitness club group Equinox launched its high-tech flagship hotel in New York City in 2019 and plans to open 33 properties over the next decade. Medical-wellness retreats like SHA Wellness and Clinique La Prairie are both expanding, with the latter opening an “urban longevity hub” at One&Only One Za’abeel, just a few floors above SIRO in Dubai.

Wellness Tech at Home

While everyday people may not use cryogenic chambers, data-driven wellness is becoming the norm. Most smartwatches can gather medical-grade information about heart rate, sleep patterns, and blood oxygen levels. These wearables continue to become more sophisticated, like the Oura ring, a discreet tracker that resembles jewelry, says McGroarty.

With the increased accessibility of generative artificial intelligence, McGroarty sees even more potential for smart diagnostics — but there’s a need to create boundaries and evaluate where it’s useful. “We underestimate the stress and anxiety of being constantly connected — to work, to news, to bad information, to social media,” she adds.

Is High-Tech Wellness for Everyone?

Despite the growing popularity of high-tech wellness, not everyone is on board. While “hard care” has been growing, “soft care” has also seen an increase in popularity. This approach prioritizes social experiences and emotional well-being, such as “bed rotting” and “hot girl walks“.

“People are maxed out spending on wellness and they want radical simplicity,” she adds.

Even at SIRO, with its cutting-edge technology, there’s a surge of interest in mindfulness activities like meditation. “Historically, on group exercise timetables, there was a lot more strength or cardiovascular conditioning classes. Now you see more mindfulness classes, like yoga and sound healing,” says Cawley.

At SIRO, there’s a high-tech alternative to this with the “vibroacoustic therapy,” which is like a sci-fi gong bath. Lying on a massage table with a waterbed in the center, guests wear noise-canceling headphones and listen to carefully orchestrated sounds. The waterbed vibrates with the sound, supposedly releasing stress in the body. This therapy is designed for those experiencing sleep problems, stress, depression, or anxiety.

While it may seem excessive to use technology to disconnect, SIRO sees the integration of health data as the future of wellness, offering guests a data-driven, personalized wellness program.

“We want to utilize technology as an enabler, as opposed to a distraction,” says Cawley.