This November, Miras Ibraimov is bringing Hero’s Journey, an established fitness brand, to the UAE, opening in Al Quoz. Zenith speaks to him about what Dubai’s fitness scene was missing, why he chose Al Quoz and what he hopes will change about the way people think about fitness and progress.
Dubai has an abundance of premium fitness spaces. What did you feel was missing, and how will Hero’s Journey answer that need?
“Dubai has plenty of good gyms, and many of them are beautiful. What I felt was missing is structure.
Most gyms are like a library: everything is there, the doors are open, and you work out what to do on your own. We wanted to build more of a university. At Hero’s Journey, your goal is broken down into trimesters, months, weeks and even the minutes of each class. Every session builds on the last one, and you always know whether you are moving forward.
It comes down to a simple formula: better results come from effective workouts multiplied by consistency. If either one is zero, the result is zero. So we design both together.”
Premium is often associated with beautiful spaces and exclusivity. What does a premium fitness experience mean to you, and how will members experience it at Hero’s Journey?
“Honestly, I’m not a fan of the words ‘premium’ or ‘exclusive’. They are used so much today that they hardly mean anything. But to answer your question, if I had to say what it should mean, it comes down to two things. The first is how well everything works. The second is community, in the real sense of the word.
On the first, I mean the little things. Premium isn’t just about marble. You walk in and your session is already planned, building on your current progress. The equipment records your work, so you never touch a phone. Booking a class is simple. Waiting for a station, or being on a waiting list for a class, is not premium. Everything is intuitive and smooth, and there is a coach in the room who knows who you are.
On the second, every gym says it has a community, and that makes sense, because fitness naturally brings people together. We have built the infrastructure for it: a social feed inside our app where members post their results and meet like-minded people. Clans are coming soon after we open. Members join a team and complete challenges together. It is tested and proven in our existing locations, and we can’t wait to bring it to Dubai.”
Every workout at Hero’s Journey builds on a member’s progress. How do you use technology to make training feel more personal while preserving the connection between coach and member?
“Coaches have to have the best tools. That’s it.
Technology is there to eliminate the logging, the notebooks, the typing, and let coaches focus on what really matters: the person in front of them. Our equipment records everything automatically and recommends your weight for every set. Every workout builds on your progress. And it is built on billions of data points from more than 1.6 million training sessions logged by our members.
It’s like going to the doctor. Would you rather they spent the appointment looking at a screen, or looking at you? Same with teachers. You give them the best tools so they can focus on people.”
Why did you choose Dubai, and Al Quoz specifically, for the brand’s first location in the UAE?
“I used to come to Dubai as a tourist. I’d stay by the sea or downtown, like most visitors. But the real Dubai is further inland, and that’s where people actually live.
Al Quoz is the geographical centre of the city. Our first location had to be a flagship, and only then do we go smaller, with studios in residential communities and business districts. When four friends from different parts of Dubai meet for a game of padel, the easiest place to meet is the centre. It’s as simple as that.
Then there’s the space: at 20,000 square feet, we can bring strength, HIIT and reformer under one roof.
It’s also where true Dubaiers go. It has the best cafes in the city, and the best matcha, so the quality is already there. And our part of Al Quoz is officially called the Creative Zone, which suits us. It has the right character, and there is room to make some noise.”
You’ve built businesses across retail and hospitality. What lessons from creating memorable customer experiences are you bringing to Hero’s Journey?
“Moving from supermarkets to restaurants, I understood where the margin is in the value chain: it’s in the emotions.
There is no reason to come to a market as competitive as Dubai with a generic product. You get the basics right, a frictionless, well-made product, and then you package it with emotion. And you do it every day: it has to work as well on a quiet Tuesday morning as on opening night.
I wish I knew how to explain that in words, but you have to feel it. It’s the same reason Apple decided to open physical stores. Some things are beyond words, and people know when something is right. That’s what we’re building at Hero’s Journey.”
Looking beyond the opening, what do you hope Hero’s Journey will change about the way people in Dubai think about fitness and progress?
“That fitness is for everyone.
It shouldn’t only cater to self-motivated elite athletes. For a long time, people thought the problem was them. It isn’t. The fitness industry was designed around highly motivated, athletic people, and everyone else was left to keep up.
We think the problem was the product all along. Fix the product, with a clear path, a coach who knows you and a community that pulls you in, and people who never saw themselves as ‘gym people’ start showing up. In our own data, members train two and a half times more often than at a conventional gym.
Fitness was always for everyone. It just needed to be designed that way.”
To know more about the concept follow Hero’s Journey Dubai @herojourneyae herosjourney.ae
