ChaiseFitness’ huge new Financial District studio comes with fitness surprises

ChaiseFitness, home of the sweaty sculpting Reinvention Method, is about to reinvent itself in a big way, with a huge, swanky new location in Manhattan’s Financial District, where it’s moving way beyond its signature Pilates-based chair-and-bungee workout.

The studio, officially opening next week, is housed inside gorgeous new South Street Seaport-adjacent building 180 Maiden Lane and covers 3,000 square feet (nearly triple the size of the brand’s other locations). And fill that space they did, with more Pilates chairs—plus an indoor cycling studio, several new classes (hence the cycling studio!), and full locker rooms for the first time.

“It’s definitely our grandest studio yet,” says former professional ballerina Rachel Piskin, who created ChaiseFitness (formerly Chaise 23) with her mom, Lauren, a former competitive figure skater, almost four years ago.

Here’s what you need to know about the new ChaiseFitness studio before you head downtown to pedal, plié, and perfect your posture.

The mega studio space

ChaiseFitness Fidi is expansive, almost like a spa, with a long, spacious, white hallway connecting the Core Room, the cycling studio, and the locker rooms. Both workout studios have floor-to-ceiling windows that allow you to see straight out through the building’s glass facade, but they can be fully shaded to let multi-colored lighting systems go into effect.

The Core Room has 20 chairs (previously the largest studio held 13) and a multi-layered foam-cushioned floor to protect your joints, while the cycling studio has 25 bikes with lots of space between them (yay!) and a gorgeous photo print spanning the back wall of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges from the Seaport. “We took all the design elements from the other studios, but this is definitely the most state-of-the-art,” Piskin says.

The locker rooms are also super spacious and luxe, with eight showers for women and plenty of room for primping before walking to work on Wall Street.

The workouts

In addition to ChaiseFitness’ popular existing classes, like Reinvention Chair and Ballet Bungee, the FiDi studio will offer brand-new ones, too.

I tried Chaise Bands, which is done with just a resistance band and a mat and includes sculpting and toning moves with cardio intervals. Piskin said it was a natural outgrowth of the at-home workouts she was creating, which clients were responding really well to. “I wanted to create something new and fun but also a really great complement to the chair,” she says. “It’s a different way of moving, without the chair and bungees, but still all core- and Pilates-based.” Expect challenging moves and lots of sweat, in a slightly more accessible format (AKA no piking on the chair pedal).

Perfecting your posture while you pedal

Then, of course, there’s ChaisePedal, which will be offered exclusively in FiDi. While it might seem a little out of left field for the brand, Piskin says they’re applying Chaise principles, like signature arm movements and core focus, to their own spin style. “We’re going to focus on the posture, the technique, and bring all the elements we focus on on the chair onto the bike,” she says. Which could be interesting since Chaise could really add something to the indoor cycling posture discussion.

In other words, Chaise is becoming a one-stop shop in a neighborhood that’s attracting more and more fitness openings lately, like SoulCycle, BFX, and Pure Barre. “[We] want to offer….clients coming here as much as possible, so it can really become a gym they’re coming to five times a week and they can change it up throughout,” Piskin says. At this new studio, that seems like a distinct possibility. —Lisa Elaine Held

ChaiseFitness Fidi, 180 Maiden Lane, 3rd Floor, Financial District, New York, NY, 10038, (212) 741-0417, chaisefitness.com

(Photos: ChaiseFitness)