82
SixweeksbeforethepremiereofPhilipGlass’sAkhnatenat
theEnglishNationalOperainLondon,itsstar,AnthonyRoth
Costanzo,discoveredhe’dbeappearingonstagenaked.And
notjustfora moment—he’dbewalkingaroundfullynude,
undera spotlight,fora solidfiveminutes.
“Atthefirstbreakfromrehearsal,I calledtheENOandwas
like,‘Istherea trainer?’” Costanzosays.It was2016,andat
thetimehewas33,5 feet8,andweighedabout 130 pounds.
Hardlyoutofshape,heacknowledges,andyet“ifsomeone
toldyouthatinsixweeksyou’llbenakedinfrontof20,000
to30,000people,you’dwanttolookthebestyoucould,too.”
Aftercanvassingfriendsfora decenttrainerrecommen-
dationandcomingupempty-handed,Costanzohadwhathe
callshiseurekamomentandwentonGrindr,thegaydating
app.“Ifoundalltheheadlesstorsosthathadthebestbodies
andaskedwheretheyworkedout,”hesays.
Onemanwhoresponded—“areallynice,intellectualkind
ofa guywitha greatbody”—toldhim,“Ifyouwanttogofast,
there’sonlyonethingyoucando—electricalmusclestim-
ulation,orEMS.”TheanonymoustorsosenthimtoMario
Kaspers,co-founderofE-PulsiveFitness.Kasperscameto PHOTOGRAPHBYLAURELGOLIOFORBLOOMBERGBUSINESSWEEKFITNESS BloombergPursuits November 11, 2019thesinger’sLondonapartment,strappedhimintoanoutfit
that sent currents coursing through his muscles, and led him
through a 20-minute EMS workout. The workout seemed
short and easy, but two days later, Costanzo was incredi-
bly sore. Clearly it had been intense and effective. He was
hooked, but he had a friend try it to make sure. “He was so
sore he couldn’t tie his shoes,” Costanzo says.
After a few weeks, “I could do 15 to 20 pullups instead of 7,”
he adds. “It plumped certain muscles and defined others.”
EMS workouts, which have been around for a while, are all
based on the same principle: Lightly shocking specific muscle
areas while a person exercises can double or triple the impact
of a workout. The process has adherents around the world,
butit’sbeenrelativelyslowtocatchonintheU.S.
“ThiswouldkillinNewYork,”Costanzoremembersthink-
ing.“It’sa 20-minute workout, you can have it brought to
you, and it’s not that expensive.” So, once he returned home
toNewYorkandcouldn’tfinda comparableEMSprogram,
hebegantoconsiderimportingit toManhattanhimself.
HecontactedKaspers,theLondonowneroftheprogram,
andlinedupinvestorstoraise$100,000.Aftera yearof
research,verifyingthatthemachineswereFoodandDrug
Administration-approved,safe,andmarketableasa fitness
regimen,Costanzotheoperasingerwasa part-timefitness
entrepreneur.Hiscompany,Epulse—“Fitnessina flash”—
startedtakingclientsin2017.Despitehavingneveradver-
tisedtheprogram’sexistence,Epulsehasroughly 500 regular
users,eachofwhompaysabout$100a sessiondepending
onthepackage.Costanzosaysthebusinessis already“more
thanbreakingeven.”
Butthisbusinessisn’tjustaboutmakingmoney.Thesame
productionofAkhnatenopensatNewYork’sMetropolitan
OperaonNov.8,andCostanzo,a countertenor who sings in a
traditionally female range, is reprising his role—nudity and all.
A few weeks before he was set to go on at the Met,
Costanzo arrived at the Epulse studio on the Upper East
Side. To conduct the electricity, a trainer sprayed water
on his outfit, which looks like a life vest and bike shorts.
She then hooked him up to a chrome-plated machine with
dials that control the frequency and strength of the elec-
tric pulses.
Costanzo started with legs and moved on to triceps and
abs, and after 20 minutes he was done. It’s not, he notes,
his only workout—he also biked to the studio from his apart-
ment in the West Village. But the singer credits the program
with his subsequent comfort with appearing onstage naked.
Performing nude is not without hazards. In London,
Costanzo initially thought flashes in the audience were from
photos being snapped but soon found out it was people rais-
ing their opera glasses. “The first time I did it was in rehearsal
with 100 people I’d been in a room with for six weeks, and it
was terrifying,” he says. Graduating from castmates to a live
audience was a whole new ballgame, particularly because it’s
“very cold onstage,” Costanzo says. “I just hope that the men
out there will know it’s not necessarily representative.” <BW>Singer Anthony Roth Costanzo
has to bare it all onstage, so he
developed a shockingly fast workout
you can use, too. By James TarmyFit Enough
For a Pharaoh
Costanzo