A membership to the climbing gym Brooklyn Boulders will run you $115 a month, which isn't so terrible when it's also doubling as your office space (this is a big thing in the tech world, apparently). But be warned before you sign up: There's a "hidden fee" of sorts that might make some introverts — or gym-averse workers — squirm:
The co-working areas — open to members, as well as to visitors who pay $28 for a day pass — come with their own fitness rules. "We want to incentivize people to not be sitting," [BKB co-founder Lance] Pinn says. So the gym levees a physical rent for using the space: five sit-ups or five pull-ups every half hour, or one conversation with a stranger in the spirit of enhanced serendipitous innovation. BKB's Somerville location has pull-up bars directly over desks. A few feet away, members do deadlifts and massacre punching bags while wearing bluetooth headsets. "Physicality stimulates innovation and creativity," effuses one sign in the office space. [Bloomberg Business]
BKB currently has office-gyms in New York (Brooklyn and Long Island City), Massachusetts (Somerville), and Illinois (Chicago). Far enough away from these locations that you're feeling safe from the threat of "physical rent" and forced conversations with random strangers? Don't breathe easy just yet — live-work offices are spreading across the country, so if doing squats between meetings sounds horrible, don't share this with your boss.
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