Got My Fitness On: ClassPass Chicago Review

My month-long ClassPass membership has come to an end and it's time to review this membership program. I originally wanted to try ClassPass because I liked the flexibility of membership in terms of the variety of studios included and because ClassPass has the almost-magical ability to centralize everything into one website. With that said, here are the pros and cons of ClassPass:

PRO: CLASS PAGE/RESERVATION SYSTEM
This right here is my absolute favorite part about ClassPass: you log on, click on "classes," and every single class offering at every studio participating in ClassPass is right there before your eyes. To make it even better, you can filter the class search by time, location, and activity and you can reserve your spot in the class up to seven days in advance. Their reservation system is easy to use and I really can't say enough about how much I loved seeing everything on one page. After you register for a class, you are given the option to put the class information into your calendar. As someone who, at times, feels married to her calendar, this was helpful. ClassPass also does a great job of sending confirmation and reminder emails for your registered classes.

CON: CLASS PAGE
The only hiccup I had with the classes page was that if I clicked on a class to read more about the class and then went back, I lost all my filters and the class page would revert back to the closest day to your search. So, for instance, if it was November 20th and I was looking at classes for November 23rd between 5:00pm to 7:00pm and I clicked on a class and tried to go back to my original search, I would lose all the filters and the search would revert back to November 20th or 21st classes.

PRO: CLASS PAGE
Every class had a description and every studio had links to social media. If you clicked on a studio, it would show you the line up of classes at the studio for the week. If you clicked on a specific class, it would show you when the class was being offered again. There were even teacher bios for some of the students.

PRO: RESERVATION SYSTEM
You can plan out your whole week in workouts with ClassPass. Before my first week of trying ClassPass, I spent Sunday night looking up different classes and planning out my workout. I loved that I was able to do this and actually became a little obsessed with checking ClassPass daily to see if there were any classes available during unexpected openings in my schedule.

CON: RESERVATION SYSTEM
The only thing I didn't like about ClassPass and, it has more to do with my lifestyle, than the membership itself was that your classes must be planned ahead of time, at least 2 hours before the class start time. Like I said above, I would have unexpected pockets of time open up and I was never able to take advantage of that free time with a class because I missed the cutoff for signing up for the class. I understand that ClassPass has to release the spots so that others can take advantage of the classes, but still. It was because of this that I wasn't able to take advantage of ClassPass as much as I would have wanted.

PRO: CHECKING IN
Checking in at the studios was easy peasy. I still had to fill out new student forms and sign liability waivers, but other than that, there was no delay in getting myself checked in and working out.

PRO: STUDIO AND CLASS VARIETY
With over 50 studios offering classes in everything from yoga to strength training, ClassPass offers you the best variety possible. I prefer yoga, so most of the classes that I tried were yoga-focused, but even so, there was so much variety of style and environment. I loved being able to preview and try all the different studios in Chicago.

PRO: CLASSES WERE AWESOME!
What a great group of studios on ClassPass. I took classes at The Dailey Method, Moksha, AIR, Body R&D, CorePower Yoga, YogaSix, Zen Yoga Garage, and Core Chicago Pilates and loved all of them. Again, I loved being able to take classes at all the different studios, instead of having to pay the $15-$20 per class I would have had to pay if I would have gone to the studios on my own.

PRO: CLASSPASS PRICE
You can't beat $99 a month price tag. Even if all you take is 5 classes a month, you are still getting your money's worth. 

BOTTOM LINE
Whoever came up with ClassPass deserves a prize for coming up with a membership program that is able to attract a great variety of studios to participate and offer its members hundreds of classes a week. There were minor things that I didn't like, but it's not a deal breaker. ClassPass is made for the person who likes the studio atmosphere, versatility in their workouts, and accessibility to various environments and classes.

For more on ClassPass visit their website. ClassPass is currently offered in the following cities: Boston, Chicago, NYC, LA, San Francisco, DC, Seattle, San Diego, Portland, Austin, and Dallas.

ClassPass gave me a complimentary month-long membership, but all the opinions in this post, my review, and on Instagram, @thecookierunner, are my own.