Last week, I posted Part 1 of My Hip Injury and left you with a cliffhanger for this week. Oh the suspense! But then I was quoted in the NY Times article Full-Service Gyms Feel a Bit Flabby, and I really wanted to address this article while it is still fresh — and while I (hopefully) still have visitors who found me there. If you just found my blog through the article, welcome! Something you should know about me: I generally only post blogs on Tuesdays. Also, I call them blags.
While I realize I should have posted my response to this article sooner, I happen to be in the middle of the busiest three weeks I’ve ever had. Why is there so much going on in the dead of winter? I just want to go home and be warm! In the summer when I want to be outside all the time I can never find anything to do! That said, I am still flying high from being quoted in the best paper in the world and I am so excited to have had this opportunity.
For the rest of you children and puppies interested in my well-being, I will post My Hip Injury – Part 2 next week.
In the Times article, Catherine Saint Louis asks the question “Is the gym passe?” With a recent drop in membership at large full-service gyms and boutique fitness studios gaining popularity, what gives? Among the reasons discussed in the article are people being plugged in to their iPods and TVs, diminishing the social and community aspect that used to come along with gym memberships, as well as a lack of support system and not enough group fitness classes.
While these are all valid points, I believe that many people leave the gym for the same reason I did: they don’t know exactly what they are doing and they are not seeing results.
The paragraph where I was quoted says:
Dori Manela, 27, who does social-media work for a real estate company, doesn’t believe that gorgeous design helped her get fit. She quit the luxury gym at the Sports Club/LA on the Upper East Side, which she lives a door away from, after Core Fusion classes at Exhale Spa gave her muscles she’d long coveted (and the first two months free). “I was paying a lot for a pretty space,†said Ms. Manela, who found it hard to trudge next door to spin at the Sports Club, and yet now rides the subway to do Core Fusion four times a week.
Theodora, who was also quoted in the article, explained that the pretty space is exactly what draws her to spend more money on Equinox ,and she finds it a huge motivator. I agree — a pretty space does make going to exercise more enticing. My issue with Sports Club/LA was not simply that I was paying a lot for a pretty space, but that I was paying a lot for a pretty space AND getting no results. I could have been paying $100 less a month at New York Sports Club and been getting the same results. Â If I’m going to shell out my hard-earned cash, I better see exactly what my money is buying me. Walking next door and using the gym at 6:15 am felt pointless. Getting on the subway at 6:15 am and taking Core Fusion has purpose.
This is what I meant by my quote: If you are someone (like me) who doesn’t know how to exercise effectively, there aren’t many opportunities at a gym for dramatic change in your body. Yes, big gyms offer lots of classes. Some are effective, some aren’t. If you want to go to a class that produces results, you have to do it on their schedule, which might not always work with yours. The gym might offer 10 classes a day, with two being the fantastic ones that will strengthen you and burn fat all-in-one. That means you need to get to the gym at one of those two times if you want to take this class. The rest of the time might be classes that (in my opinion) are more for fun and less a true full-body workout.
That is not to say these classes aren’t great for you and get you moving, and it is not to say they do not have their own benefits. But for someone like me, I needed something that would truly challenge my muscles in new ways and at Sports Club/LA, I only found that class twice a week with Brynn’s Transfigure. Because it was only offered twice a week, I was not able to take this class enough to see any significant results.
But when I join studios like exhale Core Fusion and Refine, their entire class schedule is the results-driven class. There is no having to wait for a certain day at a certain time to take the hard class; EVERY class is the hard class. 100% of their class programming are classes designed to strengthen, tone, burn fat and change your body. The teachers are all motivating. I leave every class feeling better than when I came in. I walk out knowing I just did something amazing for myself.
I need that. I need to know I can go to Core Fusion at 6:15 am before work or Refine at 5:20 after work or Core Fusion Cardio at 8:15 after my evening doctor’s appointment. I need to know that I have all day long, from 8 am to 6 pm on Saturday, to get my workout in. That means I can see my friends for brunch or dinner or shopping without having to plan my day around a single workout. I can always fit a class in because there always is a class. And, Refine and Core Fusion work. The teachers push me in ways I could never have on my own. I would never have known how to! I feel and see the improvements in my body. I did not get this from my workouts at the gym.
I am all for paying more for the prettier space — as long as the prettier space is worth it. For me, there is nothing I could get from a gym that I couldn’t get from Core Fusion and running outside, so I have no need for a gym membership.
Ms. Saint Louis wonders if the trend is veering towards a la carte classes like Core Fusion or Soul Cycle where people can pay-as-they-go. I don’t think it is about paying as they go; I think it is about results. I think people are wising up. The reason these boutique studios became so popular is because people see results.
Yes, the community aspect that Ms. Saint Louis describes plays a part in their success. Like Jess explains in the article, the teachers in these studios remember your name from your very first class and they make you feel special. When I don’t take a Core Fusion teacher’s class for awhile, they will ask me where I’ve been. I feel like I’ve been missed! Now that I am injured, my teachers always ask about my hip. Brynn at Refine Method is specifically working with me to strengthen the surrounding muscles and help me get over my injury. I get individual attention — and so does every person who attends these classes.
For example, my friend is having a trunk show at exhale this weekend for her jewelry line and I emailed her today and said:
On Saturday, Bergen’s and Erin’s classes both start at 9:30, so we will get to see them before. Catherine is teaching on Friday, she is an absolute sweetheart and I am going to email her now.
Erica responded that she loves that I know everyone. And you know what? I love that too. But even more than that, I love the results I see from their classes.
And that is what it comes down to. My money goes where the results are, and many others feel the same. To address the original question: Are gyms passe? To me, yes. I can never see the benefit for myself to ever have a gym membership again, as long as I live in a place with boutique core classes. But for the most part, no. There will always be people who know what they’re doing and people who pretend to know what they are doing and cardio junkies. Maybe gyms will have to get smaller to adapt to a different type of clientele, and they will certainly have to make some class schedule and teacher upgrades if they want to compete with targeted boutiques, but for now the gym is not (yet) out of style.
But it is a telling sign that so many of my friends who belong to gyms also purchase packages at boutique studios, and others anxiously wait for RueLaLa to offer them at a discount. Why are they all jumping to spend money on TOP of their already-expensive gym memberships? Because these classes are fun and because they work. The gyms might become passe if they aren’t willing to recognize this and adapt to the current environment in exercise. People want attention, yes. But even more, people want results. That is what will keep them coming back.