Belonging to a gym in New York City in general is very, very expensive. Unless you are extremely lucky and your company owns a gym that you can either use for free or for a tiny nominal amount, chances are that if you have a membership, you’re paying somewhere between $95-200/month. I’m paying far less than that, but it’s because I pre-paid in advance, and I also get a discount per month through my company’s health insurance company. I was reminded of how exorbitant New York City gym memberships are when I was on the bus going up to Harlem on Saturday, and a woman runs into a man that she is acquainted with as she boards the bus. They are exchanging information about fitness (it looked like she was on the way to the gym given the way she was dressed), and she tells him that she “only” pays about $195/month for her gym membership plus ClassPass, the monthly membership that allows you to go to any specialized fitness studio for an unlimited number of times in a month for $99.

I’m happy for her that she seems highly motivated to keep active and would wake up early on a Saturday morning to hit the gym, but only in New York City would anyone preface $195/month for gym memberships with the word “only.” This city is way too expensive.