Equinox Fitness Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Equinox Fitness full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Nice facility, Nice co-workers, Godd Environment

Cons – Underpaid! Trainers deserve more compensation for working!

Advice to Senior Management – Pay your employees more

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Equinox Fitness full-time for more than a year

Pros – Free membership is great if you have time to use it.

Cons – The company only cares about getting new memberships.
They could care less about the people who work there and offer No Support.
They Only care about making there numbers. That is All you are to them.
Avoid this place! Work for a smaller company who cares.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Equinox Fitness

Pros – -highly educated trainers and management
-paid continuing education
-clean facility
-awesome support staff (front desk, cleaners, the shop and juice stand)
-their is no confusion as to what exactly is expected of you everyday, the company is very structured.

Cons – -cheap on compensation for trainers considering all the extra education you go through
-South beach location is extremely small however I am aware other locations are much larger.
-I personally do not feel the gym equipment is high end enough for what they're charging. ($140/month) Yes they do carry SOME technogym equipment, but the other lifetime fitness equipment looks out of date, especially when their geographic competition is David Barton who has personal TV's on every single piece of cardio equipment and top of the line brand new machines and free weights. Not to mention David Barton and all other competitors in the general vicinity is probably double if not larger in size. Again this is a review for the South Beach, FL location.
-Group classes could use some improvements; none I have personally seen are overly exciting or interesting. Management even mentioned how their group classes aren’t really “big” there. How they do not really have regulars who attend the classes. I feel personally they should make it “big” there considering how much the clients pay for a membership. Stick all of your personal trainers in as group instructors and help them get more clients!
-the cotton t-shirts for the uniforms are not flattering at all I think they need to remember the fitness industry is very physical appearance driven.
-95% of the trainers in South Beach are in relatively good shape, however, ALL Equinox employees from EVERY location are a representation of their company and brand. You meet many of the other trainers from different locations when attending your EFTI or continuing education courses. I did not see one single female trainer in shape, and worse they were all overweight. Many of the male and female trainers looked unkempt and not put together. Again we work in an industry where physical appearance is important. Not everyone can be Brad Pitt or Heidi Klum however I still feel having a clean, neat look and more importantly being in relatively decent shape is a necessity! I am appalled these trainers were hired, no matter how knowledgeable they are. Had I been working for the Coral Gables or Aventura location I wouldn’t have been proud of the company I worked for or of my coworkers.
- Several employees informed me the first 6 months you would only be making anywhere from $200-$500 per month. Unless you have a significant other supporting you or you have your mommy and daddy sending you money it is impossible to make a living to support yourself. You HAVE to get a second job. Management discourages everyone from obtaining a second job because of the time commitment and studying that is necessary to work at Equinox. This is a ridiculous expectation; management has to be delusional if they truly believe people are going to be able to survive on Equinox alone until they’re established. I was genuinely saddened by other employees who had been there for more than 6 months and still had only a few clients, especially when I see them working hard and hustling every single day. The trainer to clientele ratio, in my opinion, is just too high and management is setting them up for failure. (more on this in next section) I feel like the trainers there are settling and chasing a dream that may take years, if ever to accomplish. There are other personal training jobs out there, I promise! Do not settle!
-I could continue but my review is long enough as it is. In summary Equinox has potential to be a wonderful place, but they’re just too structured and rigid with the way they do things the chances of the company ever changing are slim to none.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop hiring more trainers than you need! When I was working there maybe 5 of the 20 something trainers on staff actually had a full load of clientele and were established. All other trainers had anywhere between 2 and 7 clients or none at all! If you stop hiring so many new trainers and wait to help establish your current employees you prevent a high turnover rate of trainers. For example I was personally hired with about four other trainers. Clients notice all the new trainers coming in and out so frequently, how do you expect them to ever trust buying a several thousand dollar training package with a new trainer? I wouldn't as a client for fear of my trainer quitting/being laid off and being tossed around to a new trainer. This makes employees feel extremely undervalued and disposable. On top of all this some of the older and established employees can be somewhat cold to you because they don't want to waste their time helping someone who is leaving soon. When I go to work I want to feel appreciated (if deserved) and that the company I work for truly cares about my well-being and wishes to see me succeed.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Equinox Fitness

Pros – Access to a gym and fitness classes that are included with your employment.

Cons – Poor communication across the board.
Revolving door in terms of employees at the corporate and club level.

Advice to Senior Management – Improve your management and communication style - treat your employees better.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Equinox Fitness

Pros – high potential for business growth
clients make great future contacts
beautiful clean facility
Once established you are left alone to run your business - since you are paid on commission you do n't have vacation or day off limits

Cons – not paid for any sick time
no help in building business - very competitive
small portion of trainers make a great living, the majority struggle, no middle class

Advice to Senior Management – Increase awareness to clients on trainers background

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Equinox Fitness

Pros – * Free Membership and Khiel's products in the locker rooms
* Great Co-Workers!
* Learn a lot about fitness
* Fun club atmosphere
* Makes you want to be fit and healthy

Cons – * Feeling disposable
* POLITICS - yes politics are at every job but it sucks when managers are handing some people clients and some people like me never get help
* FLOOR SHIFTS!!! walking around for 4 hour time blocks, picking up sweaty towels for $8 an hour makes me feel degraded especially when I came in with a cert and experience
* The ramping process, going to class handing in all sorts of paper work, endless meetings and e-mails
* LOW PAY - when I train private I charge $75 and get to keep it, I can wear what I want and I don't have to submit my programs to anyone; with Equinox as a Teir 1 trainer I get $23 a session so that means when someone purchases a 12 session pack for $1032 I only get $276 of that!!
* Uniforms- enough said
* It's always an uphill battle when you work on commission, no matter where u are in the company u can't get comfortable you will always be looking for new clients
* and sometimes the members are bitchy and think they're entitled to so much...but that just might be NYC

Advice to Senior Management – fix the floorshift dilemma!

Current Employee – been working at Equinox Fitness

Pros – Training potential in new class formats and personal training

Cons – Still waiting to see more

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Equinox Fitness

Pros – gorgeous people
free membership
fun atmosphere
great training program
awesome for networking
great music

Cons – terrible compensation- Equinox charges 100 a session and gives the trainer 30
long hours
too many meetings
terrible bonus structure

Advice to Senior Management – Stop being greedy and properly compensate the trainers, 30% of your revenue comes from training. If you compensated the trainers properly you wouldn't have such a high turn over rate.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Equinox Fitness

Pros – Amazing brand and customer experience

Cons – Structure of the company (member sales vs corporate sales vs operations management) makes it challenging to work in

Former Employee – worked at Equinox Fitness

Pros – The main advantage of Equinox is the constant exposure to discounted educational opportunities that also count for CECs towards certification renewal. Although Equinox supports many dubious ventures and not all educators are of highest quality, enough are that it's quite worthwhile.

You'll also meet and work with some really great people.

The "free membership" perk is overrated. Equinox is not a good place for someone serious about getting stronger and fitter to work out. It's workable, but not good.

Cons – It's difficult to make a living wage in this city working for Equinox. They pay very poorly, yet expect a lot of work from you - and no work/life balance. The managers are mostly incompetent and unwilling to actually manage. Their policies prove that they don't care for the well being of their employees, and anyone below the level of General Manager is pretty much expendable.

The worst part, though, is their claiming of the moral high ground for being the company that dedicates the most resources to education and investing in their employees. To have attained top level trainer status, you're not once required to demonstrate proficiency in actually coaching exercises properly. Taking an online multiple choice exam about Target Heart Rates doesn't mean you can SAFELY and properly teach someone how to squat, or do a kettlebell swing, or any other movement. The managers often don't know proper form and technique either, so they're in no position to assess their staff! The other gyms (NYSC, NYHRC, Crunch, etc..) are no better and probably worse, but they don't make the claims Equinox does about investing in their employees education.

The clubs are also too crowded. I always felt that someone paying thousands of dollars for personal training shouldn't have to wait for equipment, or alter their planned workout, because the gym is crowded with snobs unwilling to let people work in with them.

The company overall is more concerned with this month's numbers than anything else. That tells you all you need to know.

Advice to Senior Management – If your plan is to succeed making money, you seem to be doing a good job. If your plan is to actually make more people strong and fit, and make money while doing it, then treat your members and employees better and more fairly. And stop promoting silly fads in the name of fitness.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend