Equinox Columbus Circle

Dec 2023

In fairness to the location, it's always clean, I've never felt the gym floor was too crowded, the classes are well attended but not packed, and the locker rooms are very clean. I'm not a swimmer, but the pool would also make me very happy if I were. The only downside to the location is that it doesn't have a great layout and has no windows (as it's in a basement). The negative reviews here do not match my experience, and I've been visiting this location for years.

Oct 2023

I was skeptical at first about my all location membership when I moved to NYC but it's the best thing. The Columbus location offers a wide variety of classes especially on the weekend and there's a Whole Foods nearby along with other shops to make coming here so convenient. The instructors are great and if you take advantage of the classes and the equipment, it's well worth the membership. I have now tried 3 different classes which I wouldn't have been exposed to. Wellness is priceless :)

Sep 2023

This is an okay place to work out - I have not done any classes here since the shutdown and cannot comment on those. But I am re-thinking my (ever-rising) membership investment at Equinox because of the difficulties with using the sauna, and the apparent lack of interest on the part of management to do something about it. To use a sauna properly, people should shower first and enter wearing a towel - nothing else. Many purists would say "no towel" but I am willing to give that a pass in the American context. At the Columbus Circle Equinox, members commonly dash in after class, covered with sweat, noisily disrobe in the tiny center of the sauna, and then proceed to sit down with their tablets, phones, books, papers, water bottles, toiletries and anything else you can imagine. They stink, and so does their disgusting clothing and the other objects they insist on bringing into the sauna. A second common scenario involves people coming into the gym for class and stopping in at the sauna, fully dressed and wearing sneakers (!). As one such member informed me: I am entitled to heat up my muscles before class. I think this weight-obsessed crowd is merely looking to shed that extra .00009 of a pound, but I digress. It would be simple to point out that this is disruptive for the more sauna-socialized people, who are usually the same people attempting to use the sauna to improve and build health. But it is more serious than that. We know that textiles and other objects, when heated to high levels, emit all kinds of things - chemicals; toxins - even beyond the bacteria that is spread in the air from the streets and from the perpetrators sweat. This damages air quality. And regarding bacteria, didn't we just emerge from a global pandemic ?! Do I really need to be exposed to unwashed members in the sauna ? Digital devices in the sauna are extremely disruptive for us normal folk, and I have suspected several times that people in the sauna were taking photographs. Management: Is this legal ? Hint: A way to be certain that this does not happen is a firm ban on digital devices in the sauna and steam room - I would actually say, in the locker room in general. If people are unable to go 10 or 15 minutes without checking their social media, perhaps you should get them help. But please do at least protect me, a long-time member, from needing to manage them because you clearly are not. Management should demand that people shower and leave their objects OUTSIDE the sauna. Yes, this is suggested in the posted rules. How about enforcing them ? People are "out." I get that. Rules and rules and more rules are direly needed, and they must be enforced. The sauna is a major part of my health routine, and I am having an increasingly difficult time making sure I have a safe and healthy experience. It also becomes tiring just being in the environment. How is this a "luxury" experience ? For me, that's the point. Does anyone know a decent sauna venue ? Populated by people who know what they are doing and take it seriously.