Personalized bodywork, now provided by robot massage tables. Access Aescape at the Spa at Equinox.
Picture this: You’re lying on a cushy table, receiving a massage with your ideal level of knot-relieving pressure, all while soothing nature sounds play to settle your anxious mind. The catch? The massage therapist responsible for melting your tension away isn’t a human — but a robot.
That experience might sound like it's straight out of a science-fiction novel, but machine-driven bodywork sessions are a reality for Equinox members. Aescape’s massage tables — equipped with two robotic arms — are available at the Spa at Equinox, helping you unlock personalized recovery.
Here’s how it works: You’ll book your appointment on the Aescape app and, upon arrival, change into a provided spandex long-sleeved shirt and leggings, rather than fully stripping down. Once you’re settled on the table, the machine will rapidly take a scan of your body so that its robotic arms can give you a massage catered to your needs.
“We scan the body and create a 3D model from over 1.1 million data points on the body that then empowers us to create a treatment that’s hyper-personalized to the person on the table,” says Aescape founder Eric Litman. “We're not just poking in space; we're very specifically targeting the treatment to their body. The arms themselves have very sensitive sensors inside of them that allow them to feel and adapt to you as you're breathing and adjusting and living in the moment of your treatment.”
Behind the Scenes with Aescape
The bodywork protocols are each designed by licensed massage therapists (LMTs) and informed by user feedback, says Gabe Cuomo, a senior producer at Aescape. The process involves some motion capture magic, adds Aescape LMT Brogan Wikarek.
First, the team uses a device that records an LMT’s movements on a real-life tester, including how much force they’re applying and in what direction. “We're getting live feedback from a person, making sure it's placing well,” says Wikarek. “Then there's a lot of technical magic that I don't understand, that translates that information we've captured into something the arms do.”
Every movement is tested — and retested — to ensure it doesn’t cause pain or discomfort, adds Cuomo. The team then develops specific massage protocols using both new and previously recorded strokes from an extensive library, says Wikarek. (These entire protocols are tested for safety, too.) Over the years, Aescape has introduced new, more complex techniques, like cross-fiber kneading, slow stripping (aka fascia release), and decompression, to make for a “therapeutically efficient” bodywork session, says Cuomo.
The Aescape Experience
On the table, you’re in control.
You get to select the specific muscle groups you want to focus on, or you can go all-in with a full-body (30 minutes) or total-body (60 minutes) session. In the latter treatments, you can personalize with an “extra focus” — a quick add-on targeted to one muscle group, like the hamstrings, traps, glutes, or calves. Equinox members also have exclusive access to bodywork programs designed to be used in tandem with Precision Run classes.
Throughout your treatment, you can choose different music options and adjust the level of pressure to your liking. Your preferences and previous settings are stored on your profile, so the next time you come in for a session, you can get right down to business.
New programs and techniques are constantly being tested and added to the catalog. “We have something that's coming out in the next month or two, where the user will actually be able to build their own session, so they can input their activity levels, their stress, and the muscle groups they want to target, and we will automatically generate a session that's tailored to them,” says John Hauer, Aescape’s vice president of growth.
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The bodywork experience can be peaceful in more ways than one.
According to Litman, many people are comfortable with the thought of receiving an Aescape massage but not a human-led one. “We've done a lot of research on this and found that for 20 to 25 percent of the population, massages are an absolute no-go,” says Matthew Moran, the former director of product research at Aescape. “People don’t always have accessibility to their preferred gendered masseuse. They may feel uncomfortable stripping down in front of a total stranger or may not feel comfortable speaking up during a session to provide feedback.”
Plus, Aescape is designed to provide a more efficient bodywork session than is feasible for a sentient massage therapist. “We have two arms that can apply equal force and equal pressure to the body simultaneously, and they don't have to lighten up,” says Litman. “So they can press really firmly in one direction, really firmly in the other if that's what you're looking for, delivering at least twice the amount of work in an equivalent period of time.”
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There’s a convenience factor, too. “There are times when clients want to do something self-guided and quick to address a certain area but [still] want or need something more than using a massage gun on their own,” says James Gu, the senior director of Spa at Equinox.
Not sure which experience to choose for your first session? “I definitely would recommend the full-body experience for most people right now to start off,” says Cuomo. “I think that's a really good sampler of all of our material and shows the improvements that we've made over the past six, seven months really, really well.”
Images courtesy of Aescape.