Pros and Cons of Joining Equinox

I’m breaking down the pros and cons of joining Equinox for anyone who might be on the fence. Back in April, I joined Equinox after deciding to part ways with ClassPass (I did a post on the pros & cons of ClassPass HERE if you’re interested). I was frustrated with not being able to get into the class times I wanted via ClassPass, and on days I didn’t take classes, I wished I had access to more (and larger) equipment than what I have in my apartment. Joe has been an Equinox member for close to a decade and always raves about it, so in need of a change, I decided to become a member.

I regret joining, but it’s not because Equinox is bad by any means. Gorgeous facility, amazing amenities, a wide array of group classes with great trainers—there’s a lot to love about the gym. It’s just not a fit for me personally. My membership is currently on hold for August and September, and I’m going to make the most of the remaining year on my contract when I get back to Boston. After that though, I will not be renewing and will be joyfully running back to that boutique fitness studio life.

I’m a member at the Seaport location and it costs me $185/month. There is a passport option that’s a bit pricer that allows you to visit all the locations in Boston. There’s also a hefty initiation fee, but if you wait for them to run a promotion, I’ve noticed they waive it or discount it during certain time periods. Also if you’re referred by someone you live with, they waive it. When you sign on, you get a complementary personal training session and a private Pilates session (I haven’t taken advantage of either of these yet). You also get a new-client discount on a spa service and at their retail store. Answers to any other logistical questions you may have can be found on their website.

Pros & Cons of Joining Equinox

I can’t divide this into two neat lists of pros and cons because a lot of things that should be pros have ended up being cons to me. So instead, I’m just going to list some of the main offerings of an Equinox membership and then talk about why they do or don’t work for me. In general though, we’ll start with the good and end with the not-so-great.

Equinox has all the equipment (cardio, strength, mobility) you could need for your workout.

Equinox Seaport is a big, sunny space with a huge section of cardio equipment, stretching area, weight floor, cycling room, yoga studio and group fitness studio. They have all the machines you could want and, stored in the group fitness room, the equipment I like using (kettlebells, step benches, sandbags, resistance bands, sliders, etc.). They really have it all.

My big problem: I can’t self-motivate to use said equipment. After teaching classes and filming for the blog, the last thing I want to do is create and push myself through my own workout. Nope. Not happening. I just want someone else to tell me what to do. Plus, I think it’s beneficial for trainers to continue learning from other trainers and not just do their own routines. I guess I could do personal training sessions at Equinox but that’d be even more expensive on top of the $185/month I’m already paying.

The Seaport location isn’t too crowded.

Joe goes to the Franklin St location and says at peak hours before and after work, it’s an absolute zoo, but Seaport isn’t overly packed. After work is probably its busiest time slot, and the line for the showers can get a bit long in the morning before class, but I’ve never seen it so crowded that you can’t find a cardio machine or a space on the floor to use weights.

In the middle of the day it’s pretty dead, which is great if you’re a weirdo like me and want to use the empty group fitness room to take videos of yourself for Instagram. 😉 But I’m a morning person, and don’t take advantage of this much because I don’t like going to the gym in the afternoon (or any time after 7:30AM really).

Downside: I want to go in the morning when it’s a little more crowded, but I hate sharing equipment and space with others. Honestly I don’t like interacting with people at all when I work out—it’s Me Time! That may sound weird given my love for group fitness, but in the classes I take, you get your own machine/station/bag/etc. and everyone is sorta in their own zone. So I don’t like sharing space during peak times, but I also don’t like working out at the times when I would get my own space.

The hours accommodate any schedule.

I thought I’d love this about being a gym member vs only taking studio classes—I’d no longer be tied to a class start-time schedule and could work out whenever I wanted to! Welp, turns out being tied to a class time is actually really good for me. Also, I’m a morning person and it doesn’t really matter that the gym is open late—I only want to workout between the hours of 6 and 7:30AM. Anything later than that and forget it.

But if you’re not particular like me, then the Equinox hours make for a flexible schedule.

Equinox has a wide array of group fitness classes taught by some top-notch trainers.

There are workout classes for just about everyone offered at Equinox—whether you like strength training, cardio, dance, yoga, Pilates, barre. And the majority of the instructors I’ve tried have been awesome—knowledgeable, fun, and put together an effective workout. If you’re switching from ClassPass or being a regular at a studio in Boston, you’ll be happy to see that you’ll probably recognize at least a few of the instructor names on the group fitness schedule. Many of the Equinox instructors also teach at studios throughout Boston.

Some classes in particular I’ve tried and would recommend (there are *so many* classes and instructors I haven’t tried yet so this list is by no means exhaustive):

• Ropes & Rowers | I love this class! It got me excited to be an Equinox member because I felt that it was of the same high quality as the boutique fitness classes I’d been taking. It’s Tuesdays at 6:30am in the Seaport and I went almost every week. You rotate between four stations that include rowing, battle ropes and weighted exercises. It’s a challenge and the instructor, Chad, rocks.
• Tabata | I only took this class once but really liked it (you’ve probably guessed if you’ve been following this blog for a while that I kiiiiinda have a thing for tabatas). This was also taught by Chad—look for him on the schedule if you join, he’s so fun!
• Pilates Fusion | I took Jen Phelan’s class after hearing rave reviews for years and she really is awesome! If it was offered at 6AM, I’d definitely go more frequently.
• The Pursuit: Burn | This one’s a little gimmicky but fun. It’s sort of like being in a video game and you have different competitions and races where you see your progress in real time up on a big screen in front of the class. I’m competitive so it motivated me to really push myself.
• Precision Running | This is a great workout that I’d do regularly if not for one thing: It’s done in the main cardio area with headphones so you can hear the instructor. This means there’s NO MUSIC. 45 minutes on a treadmill with NO MUSIC. Equinox has opened Precision Running Lab studios and I’m sure the experience is awesome there, but offered on the main floor of the gym with no tunes is tough. Lately I’ve been using the Peloton app to get a similar experience on my own at the gym (with music).

I haven’t yet found a yoga class or instructor that I love but I’ve also only tried a couple so that doesn’t say much. I think I’m biased because I’m just wildly (creepily?) obsessed with Kate’s classes at YogaWorks and in my mind nothing can compare.

The downside to offering tons of classes: Because there are so many different classes to fit in the schedule, when you find one you love, it’ll probably only be offered a couple times a week, and maybe not always at times that work for you. Some classes I’ve liked with instructors I really like are offered in the evening, and I prefer to workout in the morning. I don’t want to alter my schedule to take the classes I want—I want my preferred classes to be offered when I want to take them. That’s why specialized studios are so great for me: They offer the same class all throughout the day so that the class I love is always offered when I want it.

The amenities are great.

These will vary slightly from location to location, but it’s safe to say Equinox doesn’t skimp when it comes to its amenities. From the shampoo brand and the locker room to the steam room and the lounge area for doing work, it’s top notch. They also have a juice/smoothie bar but it’s Juice Press which I firmly believe is the most overrated maker of smoothies in all the land, so I don’t take advantage of that amenity. I honestly don’t take advantage of many of the amenities, as great as they are. I live close to the gym so I typically just go home to shower and use my own products at home.

I was most excited about the free wifi and work area since I work from home and need to get out of the house sometimes, but they play music pretty loud throughout the club so I rarely would actually be able to do work there.

Equinox’s vibe is—as the kids would say—so extra.

In some ways, this is a good thing (see previous section). But there are times it ventures into the realm of gimmicky. In one of the spin classes, the instructor said something along the lines of, “Now we enter into the 4th dimension of our patented Equinox method of hydrolapse tension training where the air molecules have been optimized for maximum caloric burn and radio frequency immersion.” What the what?! Couldn’t you just tell me to sprint? Why is everything so over-the-top? There are people in prison getting in perfectly effective workouts—do my hair follicles really need to be optimized in this class?!

I’m exaggerating obviously, but Equinox can be a little extra. A lot extra.

Through their app and cardio equipment, Equinox also provides you with a lot of numbers. Number of check-ins you had last week, number of calories burned in that last class you took—and I’m sure many more measurements if you were to use their personal training services. This would be great for people who like that stuff but personally, I hate numbers. They suck the joy out of staying active and working out for me. They make me feel obligated to do things and hit certain marks. They make me obsessive.

If you like all the bells and whistles, Equinox is a great choice. If you just want access to some weights and cardio equipment, and aren’t picky about group classes, I’d save your money and join a different gym.

The easiest way to get out of an Equinox membership is to get abducted by aliens and vanish from Planet Earth.

I knowingly signed a 12-month contract, so this is not me complaining that I’m stuck paying Equinox for a year—I 100% brought this on myself. But it’s worth emphasizing for anyone who is on the fence about joining. Don’t do it lightly! Once you commit, it’s *extremely* hard to back out. I wish they had a 1-month trial membership and at the end of the month you could either decide to sign on for the rest of the year or cut ties without consequence. Through guest passes, you can workout at Equinox for a day to get a taste of it before joining, but in my opinion it takes several weeks to really know if something is going to work for you or not.

To get out before the year is up, you need a doctor’s note saying you can’t work out or proof of relocation to a city that doesn’t have an Equinox. I can’t bring myself to get a doctor’s note because I feel like lying about that stuff is going to jinx me. Like kids who lie in college about a grandparent dying to get out of a test boggle my mind. Don’t put that shit out there into the Universe! Are you crazy?!

Currently my membership is on hold for August and September since I’m not in Boston. It’s $30/month and you can put your membership on hold for a maximum of three consecutive months. Typically they charge you the full cost for the whole year and then once your membership switches to month-to-moth, they’ll charge you the $30/month for the time you were on hold. Thankfully, they made an exception for me. If they hadn’t done this, I’d be paying $185/month despite the fact that my membership is on hold and I’m not allowed to even access the gym. Then *after* 12 months of paying the full price, I’d need to stay on for an additional couple months to actually get my $30/month savings when I wasn’t using the gym.

I know I sound like a bad stereotype of the flakey, noncommittal millennial by complaining about a contract that I willingly signed, but this whole policy makes me love boutique studios all the more. They’re so much more flexible with their membership options! Being this ferociously locked in makes me feel like Equinox is just all about their bottom line and I’m nothing more than a monthly payment to them. Why would you want a member to stay the year if they’re unhappy?

The sales pitches for personal training and other additional services are a little overwhelming.

My mother doesn’t even call me this much.

I respect the hustle, but the nonstop phone calls and emails about scheduling personal training sessions are a bit much. And I’ll politely respond to one trainer saying that I’m not interested only have a different trainer start reaching out to me. I understand that they’re only doing their job and part of making a living as a personal trainer is selling your services, but it’s getting to be a little draining.

It goes back to my previous point about feeling like Equinox is just all about the bottom line. It’s very much a business. Yes, local boutique studios are too, but they also have heart. They feel more personal and less corporate. In all fairness, maybe Equinox could feel that way for me too if I gave it more of a chance. They do organize events for their members, and you start to recognize faces if you go to the same classes frequently. I’m sure many members do get that community feel from Equinox.

I think I just know so concretely that belonging to Equinox (or any traditional gym) is not the right fit for me, so I can’t help romanticize the boutique studios I love so much. *Cue Joni Mitchell singing, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” as I stare forlornly at my deactivated ClassPass membership.*

__________

Me? Long-winded? Nahhh. Congratulations to anyone who read this entire thing—you now know every single thought I have about Equinox. While it’s clearly not a fit for me, I’d still say it’s one of the nicest gyms in Boston. Different strokes for different folks!

Are you/were you an Equinox member? What the pros & cons for you?

xo Nicole