I signed up for the intro course to see what Club Pilates is about. I've done Pilates many times before, but Club Pilates isn't like your standard reformer classes. The intro class is only 30 minutes long, but the point is to just teach you some super basics, and to teach you more about the studio. Pretty standard.
I have to note that I came during COVID and they really try to take precautions to space everyone out and make sure that people everyone wipes down their equipment. A part of the problem with this is that some other people in the class didn't wipe down all their equipment, just the mat and the foot bar, so the box and all the other high touch areas were not cleaned in between classes. Additionally, after the intro course they crammed us all in the tiny little lobby space to talk about membership pricing, which was not socially distanced. This made no sense to me, as the whole rest of the studio is a much larger space.
Now, aside from the COVID situation, there were two things that really bugged me. First, the instructor was straight up mean. At one point another persons phone went off, which yes, is super annoying, but the instructor chose to yell at that person, who was obviously embarrassed already. When it's someone's first time in a new gym or studio, it takes some time to learn etiquette. Not worth getting yelled at. She was also very snippy while trying to correct people, both to me and others. It was like taking a bootcamp instructor and putting them in a Pilates studio when Pilates is usually a nice relaxing workout.
The second thing that bugged me was their sales pitch. This was an absolute mess. They kept dissing other types of exercise to make Pilates seem like the only exercise you need. They especially dissed weightlifting, claiming that it makes women bulky. That's not true, and it's harmful to say that to women really trying to be healthy and make a difference in their life. I've never been to another studio that tries to say that their workouts are all you need, as most people are smart enough to encourage people to figure out what works best for them. They also kept talking about how the studio has such a strong community, but then went on to talk about other clients' personal issues, as if they're bragging that they know about these personal things going on in other people's lives. Really sketchy to me. They also keep pushing a three month membership on everyone and I seemed to be the only person there who realized how stupid a three month commitment would be in the middle of a pandemic. We're having a couple decent weeks in the area, but a month from now could be a totally different ball game. When I tried to bring this up, I really didn't get a clear answer on freezing a membership or what cancelling would look like. Big red flag to me.
I thought that maybe I could put some of things aside and still sign up for a few classes in the future. After all, it's been months of me running and only having access to some light weights, so Pilates would really help loosen things up and give me a good stretch. When I tried asking for some clarification on the different class types and scheduling, I got bounced between different instructors and nobody gave me a clear answer. I ended up deciding that the disorganization and the lack of professionalism was enough to keep me away.
Two stars because at least the equipment is newer and the studio itself looks nice. Probably a better place for people very new to Pilates and don't have expectations from other studios. read more
