Is ClassPass Worth It?

In New York, your average fitness class ranges in price anywhere from $14 to $40 bucks. So if you’re taking say, 3 classes per month, you’re likely coming out ahead financially with ClassPass. Unlimited studio memberships can run up to $375 a month.

Fitness can be expensive but, losing weight and feeling awesome in your own skin doesn’t have to be:

Anyway, that’s an insane amount of money to sweat and sculpt your butt cheeks, especially when you can just do squats in the ladies room at work for free.  I did that once, squats in the ladies room. I was doing 100 a day and was feeling pretty good about myself. And then I blew out a pencil skirt and it was a terrible experience so I figured, maybe ClassPass instead?

I’ve never really enjoyed paying for fitness classes to begin with though. I think we all know by now that D-Money likes to see her crisp Washingtons in the bank instead.  Look, here I am working on my gunnnnnns. (Picture from our friends at Uplift Studios!)

After some convincing from my fitness freak coworker however (who by the way, was there to help me pick up the pieces post-pencil skirt-debacle), I decided to sign up for ClassPass and give it a go. I really do enjoy a good fitness class and creating a sustainable, solo, fitness routine has never really been my strong suit. Maybe it’s all the days I spent being forced to run timed 4-milers and do wind sprints and all of that unpleasantness playing competitive sports.  I still feel like laying down when I think about all of that. Laying down and eating a cookie, if I’m being honest with you, which coincidentally is the only thing I’ve really wanted to do lately.

Anyway, it made financial sense to me.  If I wanted to take fitness classes, this was a really good idea.  Even if I only went to one barre class a week, I’d be ahead of the game. So off I went.

 

 

If you’re not familiar with ClassPass, allow me to explain.  For $99 a month (at least in New York) you can sign up for unlimited fitness classes at participating studios around the city.  It’s fantastic.

Here is what I learned in my first month:

1.  I worked out more in that one month that I have in any other month this year, even more than when I trained for the 1/2 marathon Unleished and I ran back in April.

Here we are pre-race.

Here we are post race.

2.  Paying ahead of time definitely held me accountable.

3.  There are so many fitness studios in New York City that I never knew existed.

4.  I don’t like spin like, at all. #sorrynotsorry

Here is what I really liked:

1.  I loved that it was paid for in advance, not only did it hold me accountable as mentioned above but, it made it all feel free.

2.  I loved that it forced me to schedule my workouts at the start of each week because if I was going to fit classes in, I had to plan ahead.

3.  I loved that it forced me to try some new things, even if I wound up not enjoying them.

4.  I found a Friday, lunch time, yoga class that I really love and can pull off without being out of the office for a ridiculous amount of time.

Here is what I didn’t like:

1.  Living in and commuting from Hoboken was a challenge. If a class wasn’t conveniently timed either before work, at lunch or after work and conveniently located either close to home, close to the office or on my commute, then I wasn’t going.  This really limited my choices.  I wasn’t going to head to the lower east side from north midtown east and then back across town to get home either over or under the Hudson River.  Schlepping around is just not something I’m interested in.

2.  The classes I was really looking forward to either weren’t found (like Physique 57) or really hard to get into (like Exhale Core Fusion).  I’m a barre & yoga class junkie for sure.  I was kinda pissed when the 5:45 pm Core Fusion class filled up literally 8 seconds after becoming available. This was frustrating to me.

3.  I 100% get that the studios are not incentivized to allow for more than 3 classes per month per Class Pass-er. I understand that they aren’t incentivized much at all aside from the possible acquisition of new clients who find them via Class Pass and then get addicted.  But, only being able to hit up the same studio 3 times felt limiting as well.  I feel like 4 would be better because then you could go 1x per week at least.  But like, yeah, I also wish that an unlimited barre membership, was like $50 bucks sooo.

In conclusion:

I loved it. I will continue to use it (I actually have it on hold at the moment – you can do that for $19 a month and still take 1 class which, I’m comfortable with). I think that if you love fitness classes, aren’t super loyal to one form of exercise or one specific studio, and live on the big island (Manhattan) it’s 100% worth it.  If I wasn’t such a pain in the ass about the type of classs, the time and location, it would be golden for me.  It’s still really great though and I still think I will definitely move my cookie-eating ass way more than usual whilst a member.

ClassPass, it feels good.