Wall Street Woos Clients With High-End Workouts

Wall Street’s salesmen have long plied clients with trips to ballgames and expensive meals in the hopes that friendship—or at least familiarity—will lead to more trades. Now some are treating clients to a different kind of entertainment: high-end workouts.

Predawn and afternoon classes at Manhattan fitness studios SoulCycle, Barry’s Bootcamp, and Flywheel Sports are popular with bankers who want to bond without loading up on liquor and fatty foods. John Abularrage, head of brokerage Tullett Prebon’s Americas unit, takes clients to 5 a.m. sessions at Barry’s Bootcamp in Tribeca, where they run on treadmills and lift weights to dance music. “Some of them are more eager than you would imagine to trade a heavy dinner or drinks for a workout,” he says. “When there’s a lot of entertaining to do for your job, you can get out of shape pretty quickly.”