“Exactly why I don’t have a yoga or Pilates membership.”
A woman who discovered her love for Pilates while living in Australia was stunned when she returned to the United States and discovered how much her local studio was charging for group training sessions. When TikTok user Hannah Lasche (@hannah.lasche) posted an online rant about how expensive Pilates costs in the United States, she called out the “pink tax,” or the price of products and services aimed at women. This sparked a debate about the phenomenon of rising prices. woman.
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“So I got a quote for a Pilates studio and then I hung up,” she says at the beginning of the video, swaying back and forth on the spot. “I used to go to Pilates six days a week in Australia and I loved it. I’ve never been a big gym goer. I’d like to be, but the motivation to go to the gym and get fit is… “There’s no ‘with me,'” she said, expressing a preference for studio-style group fitness classes instead.
She then went on to talk about her experience attending a Pilates class in Australia. The studio offered her a free trial that allowed her to go to the gym once a week, and then unlimited classes for $35 a week.
“If you want, you can come in twice a day, seven days a week…for $35,” she says, which includes four different classes: HIIT, mat, barre and reformer. added.
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But when she returned to the United States and looked into Pilates studios near her home, she was offered a much different payment structure. The representative on her phone told her that she would have to pay more than $250 a month to receive unlimited tuition.
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Hannah was puzzled by the huge discrepancy, but that wasn’t all. Pricing options got even worse. “And I heard it was cheap, but I thought it wasn’t. And she’s leaving, so it’s going to be $250 per person.” Monthly fee plus $150 for membership A ship start fee will be charged. ”
TikTokers didn’t seem to picture their lives like that. “Why, what for?” she asks into the camera, genuinely confused as to what her starting membership fee will be used for. “She said, it’s like a one-time, one-time thing. And I was like, um, that’s a lot of money. She said, yeah, so now we actually have 50% of that membership. is turned off.”
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“So, it’s only $75,” the employee continued, but Hannah still wasn’t ready to hand over the money just to enter her name and profile into the gym’s system. “$75 to start an account? Why?”
Hanna went on to say that it’s these extra charges that are why women in the US are so angry: “No wonder women are angry here.”
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“Pilates has been my biggest blessing. I’ve seen huge changes in my body with minimal sweat and effort. It’s not about effort. It’s very hard, but in Australia it feels so fun and affordable. And here I am. And I’m like, what?” she said, still harping on about the pricing difference.
“When you said $250 a month, it really almost killed me. Is that even a luxury? So, sadly, like our mental health, these things are so important, but people start making decisions. I have to.”
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“What are we doing? Guys. $250 a month? Please,” she says, looking into the camera, ending the clip.
One commenter responding to Hannah’s post said that workout classes specifically aimed at women, like Pilates, suffer from what some are calling the dreaded “pink tax.”
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“I feel like Oiratsu has a huge pink tax. Why are all the women’s workout classes so expensive?”
Others wrote that the only reason they didn’t sign up for a Pilates class on their own was because they too thought the fees associated with it were too high.
“The barrier to Pilates for me is literally the price. So sad,” one commenter wrote, to which Hannah responded: “So sad because this was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
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Another said: “That’s why I always thought Pilates was for the rich.”
Another wrote: “That’s the exact reason I don’t have a yoga or Pilates membership.”
According to one TikTok user, the reason people think a certain price, such as a $250 fee, is “cheap” is because there are enough customers to support it.
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The way to combat this, TikTokers said, is to vote with your wallet. “The fact that people say $250 is cheap is why companies keep raising the prices of everything. We normalize abnormal prices by continuing to buy.”
This was a sentiment echoed by another person who wrote, “Until people bring Pilates equipment into their homes, they will continue to behave like they do with eyelashes.”
But others shared their own journeys and tips for doing Pilates workouts at a fraction of the price, like buying your own reformer or trying other workout routines like Hotworx .
