Savvy New Yorkers are trading work for workouts at pricey fitness centers

 

Can’t afford that pricey boutique gym class?  No sweat.
You can pay your way in to a number of New York studios by joining their cleanup crew. Fitness centers across the city let limited numbers of volunteers take classes for free, in exchange for helping them organize and sanitize their space.

And stocking toilet paper or wiping down bike seats is a small price to pay to stay in shape, according to those who do it.

“It’s hard to live in New York City on a budget, especially when you’re working part-time and going to school, so it was monetarily a great idea,” says 20-year-old Baruch College student Kerry Mack, who volunteers at Union Square spin studio Revolve Fitness in exchange for classes, which normally cost $25. “You really cannot beat it.”
At Revolve, 10 “work-traders” are responsible for greeting guests, adjusting bikes for riders, cleaning the clip-in shoes and collecting sweaty towels.

But Mack swears the gig “sounds a lot more unglamorous than it is” and that “it’s really not a down and dirty job.”
The program has been in effect at Revolve since the space opened in 2011.

“At one point there were more work-traders on the schedule than staff, and then (sometimes) there’s only a few,” says Revolve’s studio manager Chamisa Lamm.

The Yoga Room, which has studios in Astoria and Long Island City, has no trouble filling work-study slots. Studio manager Jennifer Batson says she currently has about 20 who clean the practice rooms and bathrooms. Many more have passed through her program. Batson herself started as a work-study five years ago.

“I have mopped my fair share of rooms and I’ve done my fair share of laundry, and it really is a team effort,” she says. “Nobody is below stocking toilet paper. If everybody works together then that’s what really makes it a wonderful system.”
Batson’s longest-employed work-study, Jason Rajib, agrees. Rajib, 30, first signed up for the program after he could no longer afford the studio’s $20 yoga classes.

“We take care of the studio and in return we get rewarded,” says the part-time bartender from Woodside.
Rajib was at one point taking nine classes a week — which amounts to a savings of at least $720 a month.

Work-study is a practice popularized by dance studios, according to Alycea Ungaro, founder and co-owner of Real Pilates in Tribeca. Under her watchful eye, cash-strapped clients can come to class for free so long as they clean the equipment, help with scheduling, organize the retail boutique and run errands as needed.

“It’s very common in the performing arts industry,” Ungaro says. “I’ve been on both ends, (as a) recipient and a teacher.”