Equinox Members Are Paying to Lie Down
At first glance, it sounds ridiculous: people paying hundreds of dollars a month to… lie down. But spend enough time at Equinox, especially at the flagship Equinox Hudson Yards in New York City, and you’ll see it. First, it seems ridiculous. But then, it might start to make sense…
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Equinox at Its Peak: Hudson Yards
Equinox is already known as the gold standard of luxury gyms, but the Hudson Yards location is in a category of its own. It’s massive, beautifully designed, and stacked with amenities: spa services, cold plunges, saunas, steam rooms, recovery tools, rooftop pool access (seasonal), and some of the most comprehensive class programming in the city.
The class schedule alone reads like a wellness menu, including:
MetCon and Athletic Conditioning
Precision Run and Precision Walk
Pilates and Body Sculpt
Vinyasa and Power Yoga
Meditation and Breathwork
Ballet with the American Ballet Theater
Stretching and Mobility
We’ve tried almost all of them, but one stands out…
The Most Popular Class Isn’t the Hardest One
Despite all the high-intensity options, one class consistently books up first: Restorative Yoga.
No burpees.
No elevated heart rates.
No sweat-soaked towels.
Just mats, bolsters, blankets, and stillness.
What Is Restorative Yoga?
Restorative yoga is a slow, passive practice focused on deep rest and nervous system recovery. Poses are fully supported with props and held for long periods of time, often 10 minutes each. The goal isn’t flexibility or strength. The goal is downshifting your body out of fight-or-flight mode.
In practice, that often means:
Lying down in supported poses
Controlled breathing
Minimal movement
Occasionally drifting very close to sleep
And yes, sometimes it looks like a room full of people paying to lie on the floor because that’s exactly what it is.
Why This Makes Perfect Sense in New York
Here’s the thing: Equinox Hudson Yards members are not casual gym-goers. This is one of the most expensive gym memberships in the country at over $400 per month, and the people who can afford it are, more often than not, working extremely hard to do so.
Long hours.
High-pressure jobs.
Constant stimulation.
In that context, restorative yoga isn’t indulgent, it’s corrective. It’s a counterbalance to overtraining, chronic stress, poor sleep and being “on” at all times. The popularity of restorative yoga isn’t a fluke. It’s a signal.
What This Says About Modern Wellness
For years, fitness culture equated progress with intensity. Harder workouts. More sweat. Less rest. But Equinox members (especially at Hudson Yards) are voting with their calendars. They’re choosing:
Recovery over exhaustion
Regulation over adrenaline
Longevity over burnout
Paying to lie down isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about doing what your nervous system actually needs.
The Good News: You Can Do This At Home
We took what we learned and decided to incorporate Restorative Yoga into our home routine. It’s surprisingly easy to do. All you need is the equipment and a YouTube video and you can create the same effect. Here are the exact products used at Equinox Hudson Yards:
You can improve the experience even more with some add-ons:
Final Thoughts
Equinox didn’t accidentally build a restorative yoga empire inside a luxury gym. It reflects a broader shift in how high-performing people think about wellness. In a city like New York rest is no longer the opposite of productivity. It’s part of it.
Sometimes, the most valuable thing you can do… is lie down.
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