Inside the exclusive New York gym where Hugh Jackman, Victoria's Secret models and Wall Streeters work out

The head of the New York Stock Exchange, a famous actor, and a Victoria's Secret model walk into a gym. 

That may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but it's not. It's The Dogpound, an exclusive Manhattan gym that caters to New York's crème de la crème.

The gym opened up in March of last year, and is a favorite with Wall Streeters and Victoria's Secret models.

Some of the original members include Tom Farley, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, and actor Hugh Jackman.

Meet Kirk Myers, the founder and CEO of The Dogpound.

Kirk Myers, CEO and founder of The Dogpound, told Business Insider he was "chunky" when he was growing up. In High School, he weighed nearly 300 pounds. 

His life changed forever when he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure at the age of 21-years old.

"I realized I had to change my life if I wanted to avoid further health complications, so I went to the gym," he said."In two years I lost 130 pounds."

That wasn't the end of his fitness journey, however. Kirk started to help his friends achieve their fitness goals and ultimately he discovered that helping people "get fit" was his passion.

When he moved to New York he started working as a personal trainer. Before he opened up The Dogpound last March, he trained his clients at other New York gyms.

"It started out with 4 people, then 8, then 16," he said."And after I paired up with my friend Brey, and his brother Dawin, it became 31, and it just kept getting bigger."

Ultimately his crew got so big, he decided he would just open up his own gym.  

You can thank Hugh Jackman for the name.

Before The Dogpound was an official gym located in Manhattan's West Village, it was basically a men's club, a group of 14 guy-friends who would get together at 5:45am every day except Sunday to workout. 

Some of the original Dogpounders included actor Hugh Jackman, Tom Farley, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, and former America’s Next Top Model judge Nigel Barker.

Hugh Jackman's french bulldog presided over all of these workouts, and that's how the group got their name.

Here's a video of Jackman working out in the early days of The Dogpound, before it was an actual gym.

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In May 2015, Hugh Jackman joined what is known in the fitness world as the "1000 club" after he successfully completed a 355 pound squat, bench pressed 235 pounds, and dead lifted 410 pounds.