Exercising with a group can enhance performance, boost motivation, and ease stress, research shows.
With each Club’s state-of-the-art equipment and spacious floor plans, it’s no surprise the majority of Equinox members checking in each day are there to work out on their own. But if you’re regularly skipping out on Group Fitness classes — whether it be Circuit Breaker, Mat Pilates, or Cycling — you may not be reaching your full potential.
In a class setting, “you’re feeding off of the group energy,” says Equinox Vice President of Fitness Keith Irace. “...There is something about being caught up in the group energy that asks me for more that day than if I was working out solo.”
Consider a Cycling class. You don’t need to maintain your RPMs to stay physically in the peloton, as you would out on the road, but the “pack mentality” still applies, says Irace. “Even though we're riding a bike that goes nowhere, there's still a little bit of that effect going on,” he notes. “You're motivated to just keep pace with the pack.” That means you might keep pedaling even as your legs start to feel like Jell-O. In a yoga class, watching other members flow through more challenging postures may inspire you to push your own limits.
You may also perform better if your class involves a bit of friendly competition. Competitiveness has been shown to increase physical motivation, like motivation to practice a sport. And a 2015 study found that competition can increase attention and lead to faster reaction times during tasks involving physical efforts.
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Just as importantly, training with a group can make movement far less tedious. When exercisers have a high perception of groupness during class, they report feeling more enjoyment, pleasure, and exertion, a 2019 study found.
The mental benefits can transfer outside of the Club, too. In a 2017 study of medical students, researchers found that participating in regular group fitness classes for 12 weeks significantly decreased perceived stress and increased physical, mental, and emotional quality of life. In comparison, the participants who exercised solo saw improvements only in mental quality of life.
Part of this benefit may stem from the idea that fitness spaces are not only opportunities to better your physical health but also to establish a community. “What the millennial generation did was look at the space in which you worked out — like an Equinox Club — as not just a place to go work off calories or do the thing that you had to do, but a place where you could work, work out, play, meet friends, and gather,” says Irace. “[It’s] almost like the Club is a communal space that is a part of your life beyond just going there for the class.”
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That said, some group fitness classes will give you all the benefits of togetherness while allowing you to blend into the background, if that’s what you prefer. “[Cycling, for example,] almost feels like a solitary experience in a group fitness experience,” says Irace. “You're just hidden away in that room and no one really knows what you're doing — the instructor doesn't know how much resistance you're putting on the bike.” You won’t need to watch yourself in the mirror if that’s not your cup of tea. But you can still glance at the instructor or classmates when you feel yourself hitting a wall — a source of inspiration you won’t get while biking on your own.
That’s not to say you need to transform all of your solo training sessions into group activities; exercising on your own or with a buddy certainly comes with its own advantages. But with dozens of classes across modalities at your disposal each week, why not drop a few into your schedule and reap those benefits?