CorePower Yoga - Fremont — Local services in San Francisco

Negligent in hygiene After a happy year with the studio, attending 4-6 classes/week, in May’22 I got a severe skin infection… and subsequently discovered that CorePower Yoga does not use professional cleaners. All cleaning is apparently done by teachers and volunteers. My overall isolation combined with the facts that my spouse never got infected and that my infection started at my feet – the feet that are bare in the studio! – pointed to CorePower Yoga. However, learning that they do not see cleaning as their basic responsibility made me think that my horrific experience – I lost nearly a week of billable hours and 3 months later, still have scarring from the blisters that covered my whole body – was not an unfortunate accident but rather the product of willful negligence by a corporation.

Like me, many may assume that hot-yoga studios, like gyms and other places where people sweat and shed lots of skin cells, engage commercial cleaning. Learning that CorePower Yoga does no such thing concerned me so deeply that I could barely focus. I suspended my membership and contacted Core Power’s regional management for clarification. 7.5 weeks and several follow-ups later, still nothing. I am very sad. I miss the teachers I love. I miss hot yoga. But I simply cannot expose myself and my family to who knows what risks. Neither can I make it okay for CorePower Yoga to rake in fees and pandemic stimulus money – let alone profess to care about our wellness -- while putting our health at risk.

CorePower Yoga is negligent and should not be in...

This studio and the classes/teachers used to be better, but it has changed a lot in recent years... and not for the better.

Most recent experience: The last time I was at this CorePower was such a frustrating experience! There was a group of us waiting outside the studio for class, but no one ever showed up to open the studio nor teach the class, and no one was answering their phones (we also tried to reach out to their support center). On top of that, the weather was wet and awful (obv don't blame the studio for that, but waiting outside for so long with no contact from anyone at CP wasn't great). When they finally responded to my support messages, they reimbursed my booked class and gave me an extra class that expires in one month, but it was still very unprofessional that this happened at all.

Classes: After pandemic, the studio is less busy which is admitted kinda nice sometimes as there isn't a struggle to find space in class even during "rush" times; however, this also means that a lot of their classes have been getting cancelled. It's unclear why, though I suspect a combo of lack of signups and the inability to find a substitute if the scheduled teacher is unavailable at short notice.

Teacher Training: They're always pushing their teacher training programs and it seems like teachers graduate often. When taking class at the same time a training is going on, the student teachers often socialized in the lobby during their break, making it more challenging to get through...

Update 4/14: CP reached out to me to offer me a complimentary class after this incident. Still frustrated I wasted my time the last time I went but appreciate the gesture and looking forward to giving them another shot!

Original Review 4/9: Beware of doing a "free week" here. I just woke up early on a Sunday and walked 1.5 miles with my heavy yoga gear for a 9:30 am class only to be turned away when I got to the studio unless I wanted to pay a $37 "drop in" rate for the class that appeared to be part of my free week. Their online system apparently still allows you to book classes past your free week so I thought mine ended today since it let me book. I would have booked a class for yesterday had I known that was when it really ended. I only got to take 2 classes here the past week and feel like I completely wasted it. I did enjoy the classes I took and was thinking of buying a package here but I was not able to experience enough to commit, especially since their women's facilities were out of order both times I came so I did not get the...