Over-priced fitness studios : Are they worth it ?

If you live in New York or Boston, you know what I am talking about. Yoga, Zumba, Barre, cardio kickboxing, bootcamp-styled classes, spinning -  there's an expensive studio offering group classes for each of these fun activities.  You may also be aware that a clever way to beat the system is to sign up for Classpass and as a consequence pay almost a quarter of the $30 cost of some of these classes. Of course, to get the above-mentioned 75% discount deal you have to go to classes atleast 15-20 days of the month. As a true blue Indian , this motivation to get a good bargain overshadows my inherent inertia and keeps me honest.Even during snowstorms.  The catch is  that you only get to go to any studio a maximum of 3 times a month . This is fine by me as I am easily bored by the same workout anyway.

The other advantage to this system is that I have been able to sample a large number of fitness studios in Boston, primarily the posh Back Bay area. Most of the time, I get a pretty good workout.I do have a grouse to pick with some of these fitness classes though. In the rush to get people an "intense sweat", they compromise on form. In particular, I have noticed the  bootcamp style classes like to throw in kettlebell workouts without any instruction on proper form. I saw some people who clearly had not used a kettlebell before and were on their way to throw out their back. So what did the instructor say ? Nothing! I tried atleast twice on different occasions to tell the instructor about this deficiency. The first time it was at a martial arts studio in Cambridge that was quite terrible in more ways than one.So it was a pretty angry feedback and a promise to never return. The second time it was at a back bay studio where I quite like the classes due to their well laid format which gets you the promised "burn". Unfortunately, they do not correct form during their bootcamp style classes, which can result in injury. I gave much gentler feedback this time round but do not know what the follow-up has been.

It is just frustrating to me that these studios do not pay attention to these things. At the very atleast, they ought to make it a pre-requisite to attend a training session prior to the class to get the proper training on using different kinds of weights. Or some kind of listing on their website that would at the very least cover their backs in case of a legal suit ( you can pay me later XXX studios for the free advise!) . I did attend a class at a very small homey gym in Kenmore Square once, where I absolutely loved the instructor. He taught technique very carefully, even giving you a personal free 30 mins session before the main class if you were new. In addition, he  tailored each class according to the levels of the various students in the class.Oh, and they had a great rate for buying classes in bulk.

Bottomline : Money Not (Always) Equal to Quality .