"I was never great at going to the gym," says 32-year-old Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of investment firm Kairos. "I prefer the group experience--the teachers, the music. I want to get a cardio workout and just escape an otherwise really intense workday."
Getting that group experience was impossible once the pandemic closed exercise studios in March. So two weeks into quarantine, Jain bought himself a $2,500 SoulCycle bike: "They really did a great job in terms of the quality of the content," he says of the bike's creator. "It feels like you're in a studio for real, from the sound quality, to the music and the courses."
And the bike has been a big productivity booster: "When you spend all day on calls, working through problems, at some point you get a little mentally drained, especially when you're living, sleeping, and working in the same space," he says. "So stepping back and getting that sweat in is like a restart. You go into the next part of your day clearheaded."