Overall, this was exactly what I was looking for in terms of personalized, inclusive training for…read morepeople nervous about gyms. Detailed pros and cons (price was the big one) for me laid out below. It was about a year ago that I left FE but i forgot to share this at the time; note that things may have changed since I left.
PRO
Unlike places like Club Pilates, the waitlist works pretty well but it wasn't difficult to regularly attend the same classes without even using waitlists. There were a few classes that worked really well with a 9-5 schedule.
CON
The cost was significant for me for a place you can't go to outside of scheduled classes. I totally get this is cheaper than one on one training and the quality is extremely high, but when friends and family asked me how much my training classes were, every single answer I gave was met with shock. While FE staff is very friendly and easy to talk to about membership, the absolute cheapest I could make work was the longest commitment. If you come from a two-income household this would be more reasonable, but as a one-income single person, it was not sustainable for me. There were weird moments for me personally, because there were specific "bring/tell your friends" promotional weeks, but all my friends are low-paid teachers and could never afford this.
When I started to have some medical expenses and more recently a new car payment, there was no way I could keep paying for this (FYI they were very kind and willing to let me out of membership early).
PRO
This is a very high quality training experience with kind, personable trainers who are educated, tactful, and observant about who is in their class. For every class, the trainer prepares specific weights and routines that are personalized for every single person signed up. The equipment/space provided and sanitizing expectations are great, down to the number of weights, the individual stations, and the timers.
CON
There were more (simple things!) instructors could have done to create community. While people were never rude to me, many times when I went to a class with an instructor for the first time (new class time/new instructor for me) -- and this includes my very first class ever -- the instructors didn't facilitate/encourage introductions to the regulars, despite knowing I was new to that class. The class then felt very cliquey, because everyone else knew each other and had inside jokes. I'm an introvert and definitely struggled with that dynamic.
CON
Though I arrived appropriately early, many times I found I still would be the last one to class -- to the point where everyone else had almost finished warmups. That's supposed to be the point of including the warmup in the class time! I would then be behind the others the entire workout. It's not a competition, but it was difficult to not feel that way sometimes.
CON
I felt that the onboarding didn't fully click with me for the progression of the sequences in a class, or maybe that was my first class's instructor's fault. I did not understand at all the A then B then interval sequence back and forth, and was extremely confused as to what to do after each one for my first two-ish weeks. This rectified itself over time but I didn't even fully understand what I didn't understand.
PRO
There are supplemental (mostly paid) opportunities to take advantage of, from special classes to nutrition help to various video content pieces.
PRO
This is a small business, and the owner is very personable and easy to talk to about membership questions or concerns throughout your time there. Even though i didn't feel intentionally welcomed by the other classgoers, the instructors themselves were all very friendly and genuine.
