Spa of the future

Robbie Leung is the Director of Wellbeing at SENSORY Wellbeing at Pan Pacific London, and its holistic vision of wellness, supercharged by technology, makes their approach an insight into the spa of the future.

Harnessing the power of a multifaceted career, which has taken him from professional sports to state-of-the-art spas with a stopover qualifying as a pilot, Leung's focus is on performance enhancement.

Whether that means giving spa guests the best recovery experience after a long day at work, or helping hotel guests to reach their peak fitness, the approach is driven by data as well as experience.

How a career in sport drove spa innovation

For context, Leung started his career as a fitness instructor. With a passion for water sports, and based in Bournemouth, he compounded his studies to become a personal trainer with working as a lifeguard at the beach and joining the RNLI. Alongside the rigours of overseeing beaches filled with up to 30,000 people in the height of summer, and tackling the physical and mental demands of the sea, he spent his downtime surfing and jet skiing. At university he qualified as a pilot but also began playing sport again in his third year, which led to being scouted for the GB hockey team, training for the 2012 Olympics.

He says: "It was at that time that I saw how tech was used to support professional athletes. They're all so young - they have the talent, but not necessarily the mindset, strength and conditioning. Technology and nutrition had a powerful role to play in developing that. For example, if you're playing in South Africa then you might use temperature chambers to acclimatise. That got me interested in really looking at human performance and seeing how you can achieve better results in different ways over time."

Learning about peak performance in Formula One

After the Olympics, Leung moved out of playing sports and made his way into Formula One where he worked as a performance coach for an F1 driver. His role was to look after the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of the driver, during which time he did a foundation course in psychology to better understand mental strength and motivation.

He says: "The use of pro athlete data and technology in F1 really opened my eyes. In F1 everything is about those two things, and that fuelled an interest that would drive my next steps."

Transforming the world of wellbeing

After some time spent travelling, Leung had his sights set on his next challenge. He wanted to understand all aspects of the health club business, so he began working as a General Manager, in a David Lloyd before moving to an Anytime Fitness to gain an understanding of the spectrum of health club offerings. Observing the different business models, as well as how people interacted within fitness environments, by 2015 he was headhunted into the hotel sector. Since then, Leung has been responsible for opening 12 luxury hotels around the world, bringing a wealth of experience and channelling it into the luxury spa hotel arena.

He says: "When I started working with Pan Pacific London we built our wellbeing concept on three pillars: high performance, accessibility and education, and we use them to drive every experience that we create."

High performance

High performance is all about data, reports and biofeedback. We often hear people refer to high performance athletes but what does it mean on a wider level? This is where Leung's focus on data comes in, exhibited in the hotel's Body Assessment and unique TecnoBody® D-Wall.

The Body Assessment is available from their treatment menu, supported by Pnoé - the world’s leading automatic VO2 and metabolic analysing system. The test provides an in-depth analysis of heart, lung, muscular and neuromuscular function in real time. Guests can book the experience and then continue with the D-Wall - within three minutes it delivers a posture analysis. If you're having the full assessment then you complete the 360-degree assessment with a food intolerance and allergy testing with our in-house nutritionist.

That knowledge then triggers an informed wellbeing journey.

Educational

Leung believes wholeheartedly that wellbeing is about education and helping people to learn about their bodies and performance as it changes and evolves with age. The spa provides an opportunity to learn your body in a beautiful environment, so you can make an informed plan about what you want to do next.

Accessibility

Accessibility in this context is about where the hotel looks to provide guests with options and solutions that might help them to address their wellbeing. In this environment you can try different approaches to wellbeing (from sauna blankets to treatments), enjoy them and find what works for you. You might try something and then decide to invest in it at home, for example.

Leung says: "From those pillars we then look at the breakdown of treatments in the form of physical, recovery and sleep. Suddenly we have an idea of what people need and how we can help them to feel better. That might be helping them to recover from an overnight flight with leg recovery boots in their hotel room to reduce swelling. It might be aiding sleep quality with our OOLER sleep system by ChiliSleep, which helps control body temperature, while a weighted blanket creates a sense of calm. All this data and technology is a powerful tool for increasing human performance, not just in sport, but at work and in life as well."

Empowering people to understand their health

Leung's approach is both aspirational and practical. He doesn't see the hotel and spa as providing all the solutions that people might need, but an opportunity to empower them to understand themselves better and explore wellbeing opportunities. His passion for technology recognises that it comes in a wide spectrum of options, and this is about offering experiences that have wide appeal. It's not about tech that only the few can benefit from or might actually use, but that people of all ages and demographics can enjoy.

He says: "What does wellness mean to me? It's very individual and it can change every month. You cannot follow the same thing forever - people get bored, your schedule changes and you need to adapt to your lifestyle. Sometimes it's great having resources and products to use, but lots of trends appear and it can be confusing to know what to focus on. Here we have a clearly defined strategy that it's easy for people to embrace. It's all about improving your personal performance, whether that's in sport, business or general health."

A chance to enjoy and invest in health

This recognition that wellness means different things to different people at different times is also essential. It’s a crucial part of the mindset that led to Leung's introduction of on-site tests that measure both internal and external wellbeing. He notes that some people will present with very high levels of external fitness but will struggle internally, with joint flexibility for example. Meanwhile, some have very good internal strength but don't have muscle mass.

Leung also notes that it can be overwhelming deciphering which technologies to invest in for personal wellbeing, and that's where Pan Pacific London offers an opportunity to explore. He wants people to enjoy the chance to test things out, investing in themselves and their health.

As to what's next, he says: "We're continuing to do what we're doing. It makes me proud that we started four years ago and we're ahead of the trends. We're also looking to the next four years and where things are going. We have some exciting launches coming soon, but it all comes back to data, biofeedback and human performance - our next move could change the spa world the way Netflix has changed the movie world though, so watch this space!"