We love SoulCycle. It’s fun, upbeat and extremely motivational. However, the entire experience hinges on your instructor and whether or not you connect with them, their vibe, their music and the nuggets of inspiration they offer along the way. If you really feed off of all of those things, you need to find who you connect with and stick to that instructor – not all Soul instructors are created equally. We see that as a positive though because not all riders are the same either. Having a range of personalities and teaching styles in the instructor line-up diversifies who SoulCycle connects with.

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

Overall, the ride was moderate in terms of difficulty. There were a couple of hills, some fast-paced sprints and some good choreography. Parker focused on tap backs, push ups, oblique crunches and standing crunches so it didn’t feel too “all over the place,” which was appreciated! We thought the arms section was the best part of the class. We did punches with the weights, bicep curls, overhead triceps and pullbacks to really get into the back muscles.

INSTRUCTOR

By now, you tend to know what to expect from a SoulCycle instructor. You may not always like their playlist, or the ride may or may not be as hard as you expect but you know you’re going to have fun and leave with those Soul endorphins….or at least that’s what we thought.

We didn’t connect with Parker on any level. He sang to every song like he was onstage at a karaoke bar (which was extremely distracting) and on top of that, his music was awful. We did an informal poll at the lockers after class and we were not alone in feeling like the class was a train wreck. Parker didn’t have any inspiration to pepper into class, he had no form corrections or comments and didn’t try to motivate us to push harder. These are all things we’ve come to expect in a Soul instructor. We do have to say that the arms section of class was good, though. It was challenging and well-thought out and it finally felt like he realized there were other people in the room beside himself who were trying to get in a good workout. In all honesty, this class could have been any old spin class, just transported into a Soul studio.

To give Parker the benefit of the doubt, we checked in with the front desk after class. We were so disappointed with the experience and knew we had to write this review, so we felt it was only fair to verbalize that feedback in person as well. Kevin, the Manager, could not have been nicer. He was sincere and empathetic and urged us to try more instructors and to find one that we connected with. He described Parker as having a “trance vibe” and when we asked if he was popular, Kevin said yes but for a specific group of people. At the end of the day, this was the experience we had in Parker’s class at Soulcycle SoHo, so take it for what it’s worth.

SPACE

The SoulCycle in SoHo feels small but that is to be expected because space is at a premium downtown. It’s spread across two levels, with the retail area, check-in desk, a large bathroom, and the studio on the main level. They didn’t have too much Soul gear but what they did have was cute and curated. Downstairs is where you’ll find the lockers, showers, and more bathrooms. A lot of the lockers seemed to be broken, which can be a pain in the neck but we found one that worked after a few tries. There were only two toilets in the women’s locker room, making it harder to change in private after coming from work. There were four showers, which was decent given that it’s one of the smaller locations. The locker room had the standard Soul amenities – and we love how on brand everything is, even in the bathroom.