If you said to yourself, “I thought of that idea!” when ClassPass came to town, you were not alone. With the city’s surging boutique group exercise scene, many fitness junkies were looking for memberships that allowed them to visit different studios under one plan.
ClassPass, formerly Classtivity, was providing a similar experience to New Yorkers for the past couple years. Finally they made their way last month up to Boston and over the past month, I tested it out for you guys! You can read about the launch I attended party here.
The Basics
You sign up for $99 a month. This gets you unlimited class passes to use around the city. Currently there are studios in Boston and a few surrounding ‘burbs. You can only take a maximum of 3 classes per studio per month. At the end of each month, you do start clean however. You book the classes on the ClassPass website. You sign up over 24 hours in advance online.
They are pretty quick to get back to you, but you can’t wake up Sunday morning, realize you are not as hungover as you thought and decide to go to a spin class. I didn’t try this because I doubt they have someone manning the emails at 9 am on the weekends. I did sign up for an 11:30 am Friday class at 5pm on Thursday and someone confirmed my spot within 10 minutes. I still felt “needy” every time I had to email them but they don’t make you feel bad at all. I did try to request a class once and it took 3.5 hours to confirm back via email but they apologized for the delay. (updated 3/12 – this is not longer true. You can sign up online last minute for many studios. Not all, but many!)
Certain classes can be blacked out by the studio and only a certain number of spots can be used by ClassPass members. The only studios that noticeably had classes I could not book due to being sold out or just not listed on the ClassPass website were Btone, Recycle Studio and Exhale – all were during peak gym hours with some of my favorite instructors to classes that traditionally sell out each week.
The Studios
For my trial month, I visited Recycle Studio once, BTone 2 times, Exhale 3 times, FlyWheel once, Studio J once and C2Pilates once. I wasn’t able to fit in 10 with my travels. In all honestly, I have visited all of these studios in the past except Studio J.
- I love Btone and discovered Claudia is an amazing instructor. Her routines are always unique and very challenging. Michele and Jody are also amazing. Btone uses the megareformer.
- FlyWheel offers spin classes during the late morning and midday, which works for my schedule and lack of ability to wake up early if I don’t have to. Christina’s class I think is my favorite because she uses a lot of choreography. Rachele is great too if you prefer a less dancing around on the bike type of class which many do.
- Meg at Exhale teaches a killer Core Fusion Barre class. I loved it and had a sore booty for 2 days afterwards. Her music is fabulous, too. (My coworker at Barry’s, as is Christina above)
- Studio J was a change of pace. I took class with Ali B who I love and her class was similar to those that she teaches elsewhere. I took an hour long noon Pilates Mat Boot Camp and had a sore booty again for a few days. It was the only new studio I tried using ClassPass. (No longer open)
- C2Pilates was an hour long reformer class that was myself and about 5 other older women and one other young adult. The class with Eliza was challenging enough but I think the instructor was catering to her class regulars. I was told to try the Pilates Reformer Plus but when I went to sign up, C2Pilates no longer offered any reformer classes on ClassPass! I see now that they have opened them back up again.
- Recycle Studio is always a good sweaty workout. I took a class with Ani for the first time, who was awesome with her choreography, intensity and music pairing.
As far as the other studios offered on ClassPass, many offer free classes for first time students so really you don’t NEED ClassPass to try some of these out. BTone for example charges you just $5 for your first class. I saw another studio on the website that offered unlimited yoga classes for the month of April for $10. If you use ClassPass, each class would technically cost you less than $10.
If you are a workout junkie like me, 10 classes a month is not enough. However, I love going to Back Bay Yoga once a week which is between $5-15 per class depending on time slot or Gilt promotion, as well as running outdoors and taking classes at Barry’s of course so for someone like me, it is worth it to sign up I think. If you are a boutique regular using 4 or 5 classes a week at the same studio, ClassPass will not be enough to fill your fitness love tank. It also is a great option if you want to supplement an outdoor running routine with cross training and want to avoid a gym membership.
It was fun for me to try different studios again. I kept bumping into friends unexpectedly at each class. Currently, I go to Barry’s 2-3 days a week, Recycle Studio once a week, and would love to add a day of Pilates or Barre into the mix so I’ll probably sign up myself when I get back from vacation.
Interested in signing up too? Visit ClassPass to join.
The only studios not on ClassPass that I love in Boston are Barry’s Bootcamp, North End Yoga, Pure Barre and The Bar Method. New studios are constantly being added so we will see if any of them join in. Practically every spin/cycling studio is on there so if you like to spin, it’s probably a good deal for you. Recycle South End is not though, just Back Bay as a heads up.
I was provided a free month to review ClassPass but this post is not sponsored or paid for. All opinions expressed are true!
