For Park City couple Logan Jones-Olson and Kristen Roscher, bringing an Upgrade Labs center to the Wasatch Back is their way of giving back to the community, bringing a resource from which they’ve both benefited.
Upgrade Labs is a “medical spa” — not as relaxing as a traditional spa, not as training-centered as a gym and not exactly a doctor’s office. Rather, it combines elements of all three using technology-focused approaches to physical health, strength and recovery.
“We think of it in three parts: recovery, performance, which is like exercise, and then cognitive enhancement,” Jones-Olson said.
Dave Asprey started the franchise. He’s the founder of Bulletproof Coffee, author of “Smarter Not Harder: The Biohacker’s Guide to Getting the Body and Mind You Want” and host of “The Human Upgrade” podcast. He’s called the “father of biohacking,” which a decal at the entrance to the new Upgrade Labs location defines as “the art and science of changing the environment around you and inside you so you have more control over your own biology.”
Asprey started upgrade labs in 2017, and Park City is its seventh location. Marketed as a “human upgrade center,” many of the facility’s treatments center around light and electromagnetic energies, which are designed to positively impact a person’s own energetic field, to “upload” a better version of oneself.
Jones-Olson, who has followed Asprey for a while, decided to visit the Upgrade Labs in Riverton and learn more about the brand and was sold when the experience helped him recover from a nerve injury that he’d long since given up on.
“Two summers ago, doing yard work with her, I had a pinched nerve. I went to all the doctors, did surgery and I couldn’t move my thumb,” he said. After a month of treatments in their pulsed electromagnetic field therapy machine, PEMF, it could move again.
With construction finishing up just in time for their soft opening on Saturday, all their equipment is now installed and ready for use. The treatments are set up in stations around the space in Kimball Junction, guided by trained staff for members to use based on their needs.
“What we like to start with is, first, you,” said Jones-Olson. “What’s going on with you? What are you working on? Any injuries? Are you trying to work on sleep, are you trying to work on working out more?”
They then conduct a cell health analysis scan using electrical sonar to measure the body for weight and composition. Based on these results, they recommend the treatments best suited for their needs and goals — recovering from injuries or chronic pain with tools like the red charger, a full-body red and infrared LED light therapy machine, or the big squeeze, a suit designed to drain the lymphatic system by inflating air from feet to head.
“The lymphatic system basically carries all the junk in and out, and if we’re not moving and detoxing, this can help people,” Jones-Olson said.
The PEMF machine is a favorite, he said. Essentially, two electric blankets are rigged to send electromagnetic currents to the body, charging it like a battery.
“Our bodies are made of energy with voltage levels, and when our voltage levels are at the right level, we feel good, our body does what it’s supposed to, it heals properly, etc. But as we age or get injuries, the voltage levels drop,” he said.
Laying in between the blankets, the 12-minute treatment is set to the person’s comfort level. It “charges” the body where needed, Roscher explained, so some people feel it in their feet or hips, others their stomach, or on the left or right sides. It’s especially beneficial for people with chronic pain or inflammation, she said.
“You’re going to feel like popcorn in a microwave, in a good way,” she said.
Performance options at Upgrade Labs incorporate AI into exercise programs, like their AI adaptive bike and AI cheat machine. These adapt to individual bodies to strengthen more evenly.
Their cryotherapy chamber is recommended for both recovery and performance, with sessions from 30 seconds to three-and-a-half minutes that can chill to 175 degrees below zero.
“Cryotherapy decreases inflammation, boosts metabolism and immune system function, turns on the body’s fat-burning mechanisms and significantly increases deep and REM sleep. It’ll also maximize endorphin rush — the body’s feel-good hormone,” their website says.
While both Jones-Olson and Roscher have nine-to-five jobs of their own — his in marketing, hers in real estate — the opportunity to work on something together has been rewarding, they said.
“So far so good. … You know how the ultimate test of a relationship is ‘Can you build Ikea furniture together?’” said Roscher. “We do pretty good,” Jones-Olson responds, and the two laugh.
As a one-stop-shop for efficient treatments, the couple said Upgrade Labs is actually cheaper for the access it provides, and they are excited to introduce it to the Park City area.
“For me to hear our members say, ‘I already do yoga, and I go to my doctor’s office that does something similar, and I have a red light panel at home.’ But they still want to come here because they think of it as an ‘and.’ It’s not ‘instead of,’ it’s an ‘and,’” said Roscher.
They will be open with discounted memberships starting Saturday, with a grand opening event on Oct. 11-12. The weekend will include a ribbon cutting, tours of the new center, an introduction to the brand’s performance and recovery technology, discounts, prize raffles and more. Mayor Nann Worel will join the festivities Oct. 11 at 2:45 p.m. and founder Asprey will hold a meet and greet on Oct. 12.
For more information and to sign up for a free intro tour, visit upgradelabs.com/park-city.