A TikTok clip from inside a Manhattan Equinox has racked up more than nine million views, and it isn’t selling anyone on the $300-a-month membership.
The video, posted by a member named Dana Reyes, shows a trainer pacing in front of a small group and describing the gym’s culture as “a place where your old self dies a little.” Reyes whispers to the camera, “I just wanted to do legs.” The comment section did the rest.
Within 48 hours, the phrase “my old self dies a little” was a sound used in more than 40,000 videos, most of them mocking everything from boutique fitness to corporate wellness retreats.
Instead, the brand leaned in, posting a black square to Instagram with the caption “Growth requires a funeral.” That post has nearly 200,000 comments, and roughly half of them are some version of “this is a gym, not a religion.” The company has since disabled comments, which only poured fuel on the fire.
The backlash arrived just as Equinox was promoting its annual “Commit to Something” campaign, which usually features glossy, high-fashion images of members mid-workout.
This year’s version, released Monday, shows a man bench-pressing while a priest reads last rites.
Either way, nobody was talking about the cold plunge.
Meanwhile, former employees are coming forward.
A trainer in Los Angeles told BuzzFeed that the “old self” language isn’t new. “We were literally coached to say things like ‘your comfort zone is a coffin,'” she said. “It works on some people.
It scares off the rest.” Another ex-staffer in Chicago described monthly “accountability rituals” that involved writing your biggest failure on a whiteboard and then erasing it in front of the group.
The drama has spilled into celebrity territory.
On Tuesday, actor and longtime Equinox member Brian Tyree Henry posted a selfie from a different gym, a no-frills spot in Atlanta, with the caption “$29 a month, nobody asks me to die.” The post got a million likes.
A few hours later, a Bravo reality star who shall remain nameless posted a story from inside Equinox’s Hudson Yards location, tagging the brand with three crying-laughing emojis.
The stock reaction online has been predictable: Equinox is elitist, Equinox is a cult, Equinox is just a gym with good lighting and a PR problem.
But the deeper issue is the same one that’s hit SoulCycle, CrossFit, and every wellness brand that promises transformation.
At some point, the language of self-improvement starts to sound less like motivation and more like a recruitment pitch.
Equinox’s CEO did address it briefly at a conference on Wednesday, saying the brand is “having conversations about tone.” He did not say whether the trainer in the video would face discipline.
He also did not say whether the membership price would drop, which was the only thing most people in the comments actually wanted.
A day after the original clip, Reyes posted a follow-up.
She said the gym is “mostly fine” and that she just wanted to do legs.
That video has six million views, which suggests the internet isn’t done with this one yet.
The viral cycle will move on by next week, probably to a celebrity breakup or a raccoon on a subway.
But Equinox has a choice: keep playing into the “cult” branding and hope it reads as edgy, or actually listen to the people paying $300 a month to lift weights in peace.
Final Thoughts
Right now, it’s doing neither, and the silence is louder than any slogan.