Featherbrooke, Johannesburg · Three nights
Three days.
A complete physiological picture.
Most people who need rest cannot disappear for a week. Fewer still have ever seen an objective measurement of how their own body is performing.
VISCERAL FAT
The fat that matters, by DEXA
VO₂ MAX
Cardiorespiratory fitness, measured to maximal effort
ApoB · Lp(a)
True cardiovascular particle risk
HOMA-IR
Insulin resistance, a decade early
T-SCORE
Bone density, silent until it is not
hs-CRP
Systemic inflammation, quantified
Fatigue is a symptom, not a diagnosis.
It has many origins, and some of them matter a great deal. Disrupted sleep architecture. Undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnoea. Insulin resistance developing quietly for a decade before it appears on a routine glucose test. Visceral fat accumulating around the organs while body weight stays exactly the same. Declining cardiorespiratory fitness — the most powerful measured predictor of long-term mortality risk we currently have.
None of this is visible in a mirror. Most of it is invisible on a standard annual medical.
The 72-Hour Reset begins with measurement, because measurement is what makes the advice that follows specific to you rather than generic to everyone. Your programme is built on your own numbers — and then, for three days, you are given the conditions to act on them.
What we measure, and why.
Your blood panel is collected ten days before you arrive, at a partner laboratory in your own city. That single step means your results are interpreted with you on your first day — not posted to you a fortnight after you leave.
Your DEXA scan, VO₂ max test and resting metabolic rate are performed at our accredited diagnostic partner, a short drive from the estate. All three are completed in a single morning, in one visit, with transfers arranged and accompanied. Everything else takes place at Vivari.
- VO₂ max
- A cardiopulmonary exercise test to maximal effort with continuous ECG monitoring, conducted by an exercise physiologist and reported by a physician. It establishes your cardiorespiratory fitness and your individual heart rate thresholds — which is what turns “do some cardio” into an exact prescription. It also functions as an exercise stress test.
- DEXA body composition
- Weight and BMI conceal the two things that count: visceral fat, which sits around the organs and is metabolically active regardless of what the scale says, and lean muscle mass, which underwrites your physical independence in later decades.
- Bone mineral density
- Captured on the same scan. Reduced bone density is silent until something breaks — and it is common in women approaching and past menopause, and in men with low testosterone or long sedentary histories.
- ApoB and Lp(a)
- ApoB counts the actual number of particles capable of depositing in an artery wall, which a standard cholesterol result can miss entirely. Lp(a) is inherited, largely unchanged by lifestyle, and measured once in a lifetime — a raised result changes how everything else should be managed.
- Fasting insulin and HOMA-IR
- Insulin resistance is detectable years before blood sugar becomes abnormal. It is the earliest useful metabolic warning available, and it is routinely left off standard executive medicals.
- hs-CRP
- A quantified measure of low-grade inflammation. It gives us a real number to work against, and one that can be re-tested at your twelve-week review.
- Liver, kidney, thyroid and iron studies
- Fatty liver change, thyroid dysfunction and iron deficiency are common, treatable, and must be excluded before tiredness is attributed to lifestyle.
- Hormonal profile
- Testosterone, and where clinically appropriate the female hormonal profile, are directly relevant to energy, sleep, mood and body composition — and are read alongside your DEXA result rather than in isolation.
- Resting metabolic rate
- Measured directly by indirect calorimetry rather than estimated from a formula — how much energy your body actually uses at rest. It is what makes your nutrition plan yours rather than a version of everyone else’s.
- Overnight sleep study — where indicated
- Obstructive sleep apnoea is the most common physical cause of exactly the symptoms that bring people here, and it is substantially undiagnosed. Where your history, symptoms or examination point towards it, an overnight sleep and breathing study is arranged as part of your programme. If you have it, that finding is worth more to you than anything else on this page.
- Validated psychometrics
- Established, scored questionnaires for burnout, mood, anxiety and insomnia, completed before you arrive. They quantify what brought you here, give a fair comparison point twelve weeks on, and determine which of the two psychological pathways below is right for you.
The psychological component is not optional, and it is not the same for everyone.
Your screening questionnaires are scored before you arrive. What they show determines which practitioner you see on Day 2 — the choice is made clinically, not by preference.
Clinical psychologist
Where your scores indicate significant burnout, low mood or anxiety, you work with a clinical psychologist using structured cognitive behavioural techniques — identifying the specific thinking and behaviour patterns sustaining the problem, and what to do differently. Where ongoing therapy is indicated, we say so and refer you properly rather than pretending three days is a course of treatment.
Mindfulness coach
Where your scores sit below clinical thresholds and the picture is one of sustained pressure rather than illness, you work with a mindfulness coach on practical attention and stress-regulation methods you can keep using — built to survive a working week, not only a retreat.
Your three days.
Sequenced around the biology, not the diary. Fasted measurements come before food. Exercise testing follows clearance issued before you travel. Recovery is scheduled, not left to chance.
Measure
You arrive early and travel straight to our diagnostic partner nearby. DEXA establishes body composition, visceral fat and bone density. Indirect calorimetry measures your resting metabolic rate. Both require a fasted state, so they come first. Grip strength and anthropometry follow.
Breakfast, then your VO₂ max test at the same facility — a graded cardiopulmonary exercise test to maximal effort with continuous ECG monitoring, conducted by an exercise physiologist and measuring oxygen uptake, ventilatory thresholds and cardiac response under load. All instrumented testing is complete in this single visit.
You return to the estate for a nutrient-dense lunch, and the rest of your programme takes place at Vivari.
Your extended physician consultation. Your pre-arrival bloods and the morning’s results are reviewed together — the whole picture in one sitting, rather than in fragments — and your measured metabolic rate sets the daily energy requirement your dietitian will build on tomorrow. Your programme for the remaining two days is set here.
Your first hyperbaric oxygen session, then the first of your daily spa treatments.
An anti-inflammatory dinner. Where a sleep study has been indicated, it is fitted before rest.
Restore
Your first training session, prescribed in the heart rate zones established the day before — for most people, the first time correctly calibrated effort has ever been demonstrated to them. Wellness breakfast follows.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, then your consultation with a registered dietitian — built on your measured metabolic rate, your body composition and your blood results rather than a population average.
Hydrotherapy and a nutrient-dense lunch, then your psychological session — either structured cognitive behavioural work with a clinical psychologist, or mindfulness coaching, depending on what your screening questionnaires showed.
Your daily spa treatment. Nothing scheduled afterwards.
Dinner, and the evening is your own — then a structured sleep protocol of light, temperature and timing.
Integrate
A gentle start and breakfast. Your second training session focuses on the specific movement and loading patterns your assessments identified.
Your final hyperbaric oxygen session and your final spa treatment.
Your results consultation. Every measurement explained: what it means, how it sits against reference ranges for your age and sex, which numbers matter most for you, and precisely what to do about each one. You leave with a written plan and a scheduled twelve-week review.
Nothing for you to arrange.
Diagnostic imaging and exercise testing take place at our accredited partner facility nearby, in a single accompanied visit. Every other element of the programme is delivered at Vivari. Booking, sequencing and transfers are handled for you.
Assessment
- Pre-arrival cardiometabolic and endocrine blood panel
- Extended physician consultation on your first day
- DEXA — body composition, visceral fat, bone density
- VO₂ max test with ECG monitoring
- Resting metabolic rate by indirect calorimetry
- Accompanied transfers to and from the diagnostic partner
- Overnight sleep and breathing study, where clinically indicated
- Validated burnout, mood, anxiety and sleep screening
- Physician results consultation on departure
Restoration
- Three nights in a luxury suite
- All meals — anti-inflammatory, seasonal, prepared in-house
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy daily
- A restorative spa treatment daily
- Two personalised training sessions
- Hydrotherapy experience
- Registered dietitian consultation
- Clinical psychologist session using cognitive behavioural techniques, or mindfulness coaching — assigned by your screening scores
- Structured sleep environment and protocol
Afterwards
- Written personalised health plan
- Training prescription in your own heart rate zones
- Dietitian-prescribed nutrition plan built on your measured metabolic rate
- Sleep and recovery protocol
- Onward referrals where indicated
- Twelve-week physician and dietitian teleconsultation
- Repeat inflammatory, glycaemic and lipid testing
Who it is for.
Adults who take their long-term health seriously and have never had it properly measured.
- You are persistently tired, foggy or flat, and want to know why rather than guess
- Your weight has not changed but your body clearly has
- You want an objective baseline before you start making changes
- You are considering a longer programme and want to understand your starting position first
- You cannot commit to a week away, and do not want a superficial substitute
If you are experiencing sustained burnout, established metabolic disease, or symptoms that need ongoing management, a longer programme is likely to serve you better — our 5-Day Executive Burnout Recovery Programme or 7–10 Day Metabolic Reset. Our medical team will tell you honestly at pre-admission screening if that is the case.
What three days can, and cannot, do.
Three days is enough time to measure your physiology thoroughly, to begin recovering, and to leave with a plan built on your own results.
It is not enough time to change your body composition or your cardiorespiratory fitness. Those follow the work you do afterwards — which is exactly why your programme includes a twelve-week review rather than ending at the gate.
Guests commonly report better sleep, less mental fatigue and greater clarity across the stay. Responses vary with your starting health, your engagement, and what the assessments find. Where your results point to something needing further investigation or treatment, we will tell you plainly and refer you properly.
Everything above is included.
Three nights, all meals, the complete diagnostic suite, every therapy, your written health plan and your twelve-week physician review. There are no additional charges for anything described on this page.
A partner sharing your suite receives the identical programme in full — the same assessments, the same practitioners, the same plan. The difference in price reflects the shared accommodation and nothing else.
Programme numbers are limited each week so that clinical attention is not divided.
Every guest completes a pre-admission medical screening questionnaire. Together with your pre-arrival blood results, this establishes suitability and clearance for maximal exercise testing and for hyperbaric oxygen therapy before you travel, and identifies anything requiring the programme to be adjusted. Where a component is not clinically appropriate for you, it is substituted and discussed with you beforehand.