Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
When the people who have been freelancing on and off for years are the same people posting gym selfies from Equinox, and the friend who is constantly stressing about her financial situation never shuts up about Solidcore, you start to wonder where the money is coming from. How can $35 to $45 workout classes be the norm in a place like New York City, where, according to a recent study published by SmartAsset, a $100,000 salary feels more like a $36,000 salary after adjusting for taxes and the astronomically high cost of living? In internet speak, the math ain’t mathing.
Online, the NYC fitness scene is even more perplexing. Content creator Kit Keenan goes to Equinox multiple times a week in addition to taking classes at various boutique studios like Forward_Space, the Sculpt Society, and SoulCycle, which she showcases on TikTok in her “Week of Workout” series. HalleyKate says she is “addicted” to the Tracy Anderson Method and frequently posts videos from her classes — the celebrity trainer, whose dance-inspired workouts hinge on repetition, light weights, and complex, multidirectional movements, notoriously charges members $900 a month for unlimited classes at a single location. It is hard to believe anyone would pay that much money to roll around on the floor in a 95-degree room, but TikToks showcasing her jam-packed classes prove otherwise.
TikTok user @summernstewart explained how she justifies the price in a video posted last year: “The cost per class, if you go every day like I do, becomes $30 a class. Classes in New York City typically are about $50 per class, so it’s actually much less expensive than if I was going to a SoulCycle class or a CorePower class or something else every single day.”
And she’s not wrong. Caroline Rose (a.k.a. @crinthecity), 26, whose mission to test as many NYC workouts as possible and document her findings on a publicly shared spreadsheet has earned her hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, tells the Cut that the average cost for a single, drop-in class in NYC is about $40.
“The study was sparked by me being so shocked that these classes were so expensive,” she says. She has now tested more than 50 classes — everything from popular Pilates, yoga, and barre studios to HIIT classes and running-based workouts. “As a girl who was doing SoulCycle when the classes were in the $20 range, discovering the average price for a single class is now $40 was pretty mind-blowing.”
We, too, are in awe of the cost of working out, especially in New York City. So we polled 45 women to find out how much they are really paying for gym memberships, fitness classes, and boutique fitness studios. Read on to see what they said.
Across all salary brackets, the average amount of money women in NYC spend on working out is about $270 a month. For women who are not based in NYC, the average is about $180 a month.
And it’s the most expensive type of workout by far, according to our poll. Caroline Rose agrees: “Any place that associates themselves with Pilates and has a reformer lives in a higher caliber of pricing. They will often charge upwards of $45 per class, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be a better class or that they are going to have nicer amenities.”
At Equinox, top members pay $500 a month; at Dogpound, an introductory pack of three sessions costs $600. Lifetime memberships start at $329 a month ($300 a month for people under the age of 26).
New York Sports Club offers a yearlong membership for $89.99 or a month-to-month membership for $99.99. Blink’s lowest-tier membership costs $35 a month, Planet Fitness is just $15 a month, and Crunch’s single-club access plan costs $135 a month.
The women polled who spend the least amount of money on fitness say their workout routine consists of walking, running, or lifting free weights. Women who subscribe to an app or online platform, such as Melissa Wood Health, spend less money, on average, than women who belong to a gym or fitness studio. Other women who spend little to no money on working out say they use the gym inside their apartment, which is included with their rent.
A 25-year-old who spends about $800 a month on working out has a membership at five Pilates studios that specialize in different things, from infrared-heated mat Pilates and sculpt classes at Fuze House to reformer sessions at New York Pilates and dimly lit, high-intensity classes at Jetset Pilates. She also belongs to a heated yoga studio and Forward_Space, a cardio-dance studio that feels more like a nightclub thanks to the neon lights and pounding music.
ClassPass is a monthly subscription service that offers access to a wide variety of fitness classes, gyms, and wellness and beauty services. Members pay for a certain number of credits, which they can use to book classes and appointments throughout the month.
One 41-year-old whose yearly salary is $150,000 spends $525 a month to take a private Pilates session once a week.
These are usually through their job or social-media platforms; 8 percent reported that it happens at least a few times a month.
One 40-year-old who swears by Forma Pilates, in addition to weight training and hot sculpt classes, admits she’s “not sure” how much she spends on working out every month. “I’m scared to know the answer, so I haven’t added it up … not responsible, I know,” she says.
NYC-based 26-year-old Jenny Narciso, who recently joined Lifetime and posted a TikTok explaining the “girl math” behind her purchase, tells the Cut that there is “really no such thing” as an affordable membership in Manhattan. “Despite Lifetime being out of my budget, because I’m 26 and make a relatively standard entry salary, I work a lot of hours and I figured that if I was going to be paying for any sort of membership, it might as well be all or nothing,” she adds.
Several women say the amount they spend on working out varies from month to month. One 34-year-old who belongs to Equinox says she also buys a 20-pack of SoulCycle classes (which cost $700 and is valid for nine months), then purchases more classes as needed.
