Q&A: 54D Founder Rodrigo Garduño Talks Global Expansion Plans with Second South Florida Studio & New Digital Program

Photography by Ryan Troy on July 21st, 2020 in Editorials, Lifestyle

Rodrigo Garduño

Miami, FL – July 21, 2020 – High-end boutique group-fitness brand 54D has revolutionized the health and wellness industry with an intensive nine-week program that trains the body and mind. 54D has amassed a growing legion of devoted followers, including top supermodels (Adriana Lima), elite professional athletes (Jorge Posada), and chart-topping singers from all over the world (Juanes and Fonseca), by delivering results through a no-excuses, full-commitment approach to group fitness. Originally founded in 2012 in Mexico City by former professional soccer player Rodrigo Garduño, 54D opened its flagship location in Coral Gables, Fla., in 2018, and recently announced plans to expand to the Miami Design District.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic that led to widespread business shutdowns around the world and prompted shelter-in-place guidelines, 54D found a loyal fan base on social media, where Garduño hosts daily workouts, drawing, on average, over 30,000 viewers together via Instagram Live from all over the world. World Red Eye caught up with Garduño to learn more about 54D, what it was like to pivot their business model, launch a new digital program, and plans for expansion.

Rodrigo Garduño

WRE: What makes 54D different from other workouts or gyms?

Rodrigo Garduño: When we say, ‘we are not a gym,’ we really mean it. Fitness is about discipline. We demand nothing less than 100 percent devotion from every person who comes through our doors and signs on the dotted line. If we are showing up every day and giving it our all, we expect you to do the same. That way, we can all reach our highest potential.

Our regular studio workouts were created to transform fitness, with a results-driven, nine-week program. From the get-go, we wanted to revolutionize an already saturated health and wellness industry with a concept focused on training not only the body but also the mind, a key component to motivating people to make a lifelong commitment to staying in shape and, above all, healthy.

The 54D system is divided into three highly specialized areas: physical training, custom nutrition and recovery therapy. Physical training sessions involve high-intensity group training, while nutrition plans promote clean eating and zero alcohol consumption for the duration of the nine-week program, which includes six daily workouts per week. Following training sessions, top-of-the-line recovery therapy programs, including cryotherapy, are available to ensure the body properly recuperates to prevent injury and ensure maximum results.

WRE: You recently reopened your Coral Gables studio. What changes can members expect when walking back through the doors?

RG: All of our studios have been retrofitted with industry-standard air purifiers and will operate under stringent safety and hygiene standards. We are following guidelines proposed by medical health experts to ensure the wellbeing of our members and staff like reducing the size of our group classes and adopting new safety protocols. The entire 54D team has been looking forward to reuniting with our members and continue to grow the movement on- and offline.

WRE: You’ve achieved significant international reach during the pandemic with your IG Live workouts. Can you tell us what it was like to pivot your program to a digital platform?

RG: I am grateful to have had the opportunity to reimagine how 54D can reach our followers even without the ability to offer our full signature program in our studios. We never expected our classes to be so successful. We just wanted to help people get through a difficult time. Admittedly, the switch to IG Live classes was initially challenging because I enjoy interacting with people and feeding off their energy. We began to use the comments section as a gauge of how viewers were experiencing the classes and receiving real-time feedback, allowing my colleague and right-hand man Rodrigo de Ovando and I to quickly adapt to the format change. Now we look forward to that daily connection with people from all over the world, from professional athletes to celebrities, to folks who simply feel inspired about our movement. We feel very connected to our virtual audience.

We started with about 600 people following us and now have had over 30,000 people joining a live class and reaching over 150,000 views. We have seen exponential growth since we migrated our classes to the online platform and are confident more people will continue to join our wellness movement. We’ve even seen an uptick on requests for information on 54D since we started the Instagram classes for onsite training and now for our upcoming digital program.

Rodrigo Garduño

When we say, ‘we are not a gym,’ we really mean it. Fitness is about discipline. We demand nothing less than 100 percent devotion from every person who comes through our doors… If we are showing up every day and giving it our all, we expect you to do the same.

Rodrigo Garduño

WRE: Can you tell us about your expansion plans? What is next for 54D?

RG: We don’t see the brick and mortar model going away and are moving forward with our plans to open in new locations. We are well on our way to open our second U.S. location in the Miami Design District, which we anticipate will be ready to open later this year. We are also planning to expand into new markets in the U.S. and are looking at opening in New York City in the next year.

We launched a digital program to meet the demand from our digital community all over the world. We saw how interested people around the globe were in our approach to fitness and thought this was a great opportunity to create something truly unique for them.

Our digital program will be similar to e-learning in that you want to start at a specific date and go through the process with the same group of people. We want people in cities where there’s no 54D studio to experience what they have during the past weeks on Instagram, through the program and with a sense of community. Members will go through the same process as in the studio during those 54 days to reach achievable, measurable results. Just like we tell our members who come to our studios, we believe if you commit to our digital program, we are confident that you’ll leave after nine weeks feeling and looking like a whole new you.

Rodrigo Garduño

We look forward to that daily connection with people from all over the world, from professional athletes to celebrities, to folks who simply feel inspired about our movement. We feel very connected to our virtual audience.