Equinox’s latest Artist In Residence talks creative flow and house playlists.
It’s early afternoon when Luis Weber, Group Fitness Manager at Equinox Aventura, answers the phone. The area code registers as Florida, but his voice sounds unquestionably like New York, the rapid clip of a person who’s spent years walking between Manhattan’s skyscrapers and subway stations.
“I moved to New York, and I had this Florida number and I kept meaning to change it,” he says, “Then, I moved back [to Florida], and here I am in the right area code again, but sometimes I wish I’d changed it anyway. I could’ve brought a little more New York back with me.”
You can take the guy out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the guy.
Weber got his start with Equinox in New York over a decade ago, where he went on to win the Group Fitness Excellence Award for NYC in 2017. Last year, he won Equinox’s Group Fitness Brand Ambassador Award, and this year, Aventura is nominated for Group Fitness Turnaround Club of the Year.
Now, Weber is returning to the city that made him as Equinox’s Artist In Residence. The three-day itinerary (May 8-10) includes teaching the Signature Classes he’s known for making his own: Stronger, MetCon3, Tabata, and Athletic Conditioning with stops at Bond Street, Domino, Columbus Circle, Hudson Yards, and Greenwich.
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“I'm beyond excited — beyond excited,” he says, “I picked the locations to branch out to as many members as possible. But I also get to work at the locations where I started and to see some members who took my earliest classes. It feels like a homecoming.”
Striving for the Best
Weber’s career took a circuitous route with a clear throughline: his commitment to working with and helping people.
While living in Miami, he worked as a paramedic for FEMA through two hurricane deployments, saving lives and supporting communities as they recovered following the disasters. The work was equal parts fulfilling, heart-rending, and exhausting.
“With that kind of work, it completely takes over,” he says. “You go where you’re needed, and you’re out for a good four or five months at a time. And you take it home with you. I did, at least. I’d always wanted to help people, so I went into the medical field, but I could tell it was wearing me down. I still wanted to help people, but I wanted to find a way to do it that filled me up.”
Weber initially made a career pivot to open a local gym, then a second location, before realizing he needed more. “I said, ‘All right, well, I want to be the best,’ and I knew that being the best meant moving to New York,” he says. “So I took a leap of faith.”
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Shortly after his move in 2013, he joined Equinox Columbus Circle as a Coach, but quickly hopped over into group fitness. That’s where he found his sweet spot — and the inspiration to push himself further.
“Because of the timing, I got to learn from these very old school, amazing instructors who had so much knowledge, and my goal was always to be like them,” he says. “They filled the room. I've always been very competitive, so I didn’t just want to meet their standards, I wanted to exceed them. When your goal is to be the best, when you’ve moved to the biggest city to do that, you’re like, ‘Whatever I need to do, I will do it.’ Equinox was the place for that.”
A Welcome Challenge
When asked to describe his class style, Weber considers before ultimately landing on one word: welcoming. “More than anything, I want everyone to feel welcome. I'm a hard ass, and everyone knows that about me, but I’m also one of the friendliest and welcoming guys you’ll meet,” he says. “These are classes where everyone can have a good time. That’s a lot of what makes my classes what they are.”
And then there’s the playlist — another signature spin he puts on every class. What’s on it? “House,” he laughs. “I love house music, the operation of all genres in house music. But it’s also about how I use the music. I don’t just pick Top 20 and try to force it into a playlist. I think about my classes like a plot, there’s this rise, the climax, the come down — that's how I see every class, and the music is part of that. I like to get a little theatrical with it.”
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One thing’s for sure: This isn’t his first residency, and it won’t be his last.
“I've been doing this since Equinox started a residency program,” he says. "From the moment that I moved from New York back to Florida, I missed my members. I missed teaching in New York — the vibe and the energy. There's nothing like it. Once you have that ingrained in your system, you keep coming back. I get to New York, and a part of me just lights up."