Melissa Gellman Weiss has spent the past 20-something years as a marketing executive at iconic global brands including Amazon, J. Crew, Barry’s, Theory and Helmut Lang. “I love to create and build brands and have been lucky enough to spend the past 20ish years doing just that,” Weiss tells Grazia USA.
But it’s her passion outside of work that inspired Weiss to create the RE/GEN Method, a recently launched fitness program meant to help with strength, mobility, recovery, longevity, and resilience. “Outside of my career, I’m a self-described fitness junkie who was devoted to group fitness and lifting weights,” saysWeiss. “I’m also a cancer survivor, who turned to fitness for wellness in the wake of my treatment. After I turned 40, I started getting hurt in my exercise classes. I was unsure why. I started doing Pilates to rehab my injuries – which it did!”
But just Pilates wasn’t enough to support her total fitness needs. “I needed strength training – especially as I crept deeper into my mid 40s,” she explains. “I also missed the energy and connection of my group fitness classes. So, I started a regimen that included Pilates, along with my favorite fitness class plus weights, yoga, and occasional other classes. And I did start to feel better. But it took all these classes and a ton of money to get there.”
Noticing other friends grappling with the same challenges finding the perfect workout to reduce back pain, exercise injuries, postpartum and perimenopause-related stuff, weight gain that came out of nowhere, and exhaustion,Weiss decided to create one herself. “I collaborated with fitness experts and PhDs from Columbia and Yale to develop the RE/GEN Method, and intelligently designed functional fitness solution to strengthen, heal and protect the evolving human body,” says Weiss.
In summer 2023, RE/GEN Method launched with a pop-up studio in NYC including group classes, a virtual studio with live private sessions for 1x1s and small groups, and wellness programs for everything from postpartum recovery to pickleball prep. “We have a concierge offering for our clients to receive individualized support, in and out of the studio,” says Weiss.
With her laser focus and determination, Weiss will make big moves there is no doubt RE/GEN. “We intend to roll out 12 to 15 studios in the next five years.”
Weiss is excited to share her method with the masses. “This was passion-led from the start,” saysWeiss. “I was hell-bent on making this happen. So many people identified with our mission and joined the team organically. Also, there is something to be said for 20 years of working in marketing, brand, digital, and business development: I have contacts from years in the industry.”
Entrepreneurship is not without its challenges – especially when one launches their first company in their 40s – with children and a spouse. “As a woman who is asked, ‘How do you balance it all,’ I can tell you, I do not balance it all on any given day,”Weiss admits. “I think that’s a gender-biased question that is unfair and outdated. It’s not a juggling act; rather, I am just choosing whom or what gets sacrificed that day.”
Having created RE/GEN Method due to a growing need in the wellness space,Weiss says, “This job is something I dreamed up – it is literally my mission. I believe that what we are doing will tangibly improve people’s lives.We have created something that does not exist in the market. I am so proud of what we are building here. It’s a privilege to be a part of it.”
