I’ll be honest, taking a boutique fitness class has always filled me with anxiety. Even as a fitness writer and editor who’s been offered her fair share of class trials over the years, I’m very choosy about the ones I attend, and in the days leading up to it, it’s all I think about. Will I fit in? Will I look stupid? Will everyone judge me?
I was a CrossFit devotee for years, and one of the things I loved was its rawness, its realness – none of it felt curated. We came to class wearing old, oversized T-shirts, we sweat profusely, we cheered each other on, we collapsed to the floor after an intense workout, then high-fived each other afterward for trying our best, no matter if we finished first or last.
When I think of the typical boutique fitness class you might see influencers doing on TikTok, it feels very sterile. Thin, young girls wearing variations of the same matching workout set, doing each move perfectly, not saying a word to each other the entire time, silently competing with the person next to them. I always felt like I didn’t belong in a space like that – a space that didn’t appear (to me) to be truly for everybody.
