- Tracy Anderson charges members $900 a month to workout at her studios in LA and New York.
- Her former trainers said teaching in the 95-degree studios for at least four hours a day could be grueling.
- They said working there left them exhausted, dehydrated, and suffering from things like heat cramps and bacterial vaginosis.
Tracy Anderson studios were always more than fitness clubs — they were an intrinsic part of clients' identities. They sit in posh neighborhoods like New York's Tribeca, where you can pop around the corner for a $50 blowout at Drybar or a $150 soak at Aire Ancient Baths. Women in Alo Yoga leggings and crop tops line up early to grab their favorite spots. Inside, it's hot, it's loud, and everyone is thrilled to be there.
Over the past 20 years, Anderson has built a fitness empire catering to wealthy women who don't just want a good workout — they want the prestige that comes with a TA membership. The 5-foot-tall Anderson runs six studios in Los Angeles, New York, the Hamptons, and Madrid. Members in the US pay $900 a month to learn the "Tracy Anderson Method," a dance-based workout in a room heated to 95 degrees with 75% humidity. She's been touted as "Hollywood's secret weapon," hailed as a "savior" by Madonna, and was so beloved of Gwyneth Paltrow that the actor invested in Anderson's business.
Many trainers were excited to work for Anderson. "The clients pay $900 a month. Maggie Gyllenhaal and random celebrities will pop up in your class. That all sounds cool, and it also sounds like you're going to get paid pretty well," one former New York trainer said. Instead, many ex-trainers said they were met with grueling working conditions and disappointingly low pay.
The method demanded that TA trainers, most of whom were also professional dancers, perform the strenuous workouts full out, every time. They were never allowed to stop dancing, even to walk around the room to check on clients and correct their form so they didn't get injured, former trainers said.
Trainers were required to lead at least four hours of classes per shift in the sweltering studios, leaving many of them exhausted, dehydrated, and dealing with health issues like back pain and heat cramps, several former trainers said.
One former trainer in Los Angeles was impressed by the method at first, saying she got her dream body teaching the classes. But over time she couldn't take it anymore. "You can't pound your body into the ground like that every day," she said. "Things start to go wrong. Torn discs. Hemorrhoids. You can't stand up. It affects everyday life." She recalled once being so tired after a week of work that she fell asleep while driving and found herself swerving on the road.
Another former trainer said her body "was just breaking apart," adding that she quit because of the physical demands of the job. Another New York-based trainer said that at one point she stopped getting her menstrual cycle, which can occur when a person exercises excessively. She added that she frequently developed athlete's foot and bacterial vaginosis that she attributed to the constant sweat from teaching in the heated room.
The studios' high humidity caused mold to grow in the locations in Studio City in Los Angeles and Tribeca in New York, several former employees said. "It was so humid — like a breeding den of bacteria," one former upper-level employee in New York said.
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