Thousands of people a day conduct searches for “group fitness classes near me.” They’re looking for workout classes that they can participate in to burn some calories and lose weight.
The question is, why are people so obsessed with group fitness anyway? What’s the big deal and why are group workout classes so special?
If you’re interested in learning more about the many benefits of joining a group workout class, you’re in the right place. Let’s take a look at some of the top benefits you can take advantage of.
Lose Weight
Probably the biggest reason why people get involved in group fitness classes is to lose weight. Considering that nearly 1 in 3 adults are overweight, burning some calories and cutting down on body fat is an important goal.
Group fitness classes are a great way for individuals to lose weight because they get you sweating and burning calories. When you burn calories, you create a calorie deficit.
A calorie deficit is defined as burning more calories than you take in. And, one of the easiest ways to do that is by exercising and burning off calories!
Even though you can cut calories by dieting, you’re less likely to maintain your weight. Exercise helps you maintain your weight loss and stop putting the pounds back on.
What’s more, dieting is relatively difficult. Research suggests that the majority of adults who embark on a diet for weight loss end up failing and gaining all the lost weight back!
In contrast, those who lose weight through exercise are more likely to keep the weight off. Their weight loss results are long-term and lead to better overall health.
Reduce the Risk of Developing Diseases
Exercising isn’t just about weight loss. It’s also important for preventing your body from developing dangerous diseases.
The reason for this is that when you carry around excess weight, you put your body at risk for certain diseases. Heart disease, diabetes, and strokes are all diseases that can stem from having an excess of body fat.
When you get the recommended amount of exercise, however, you help protect your body from developing these diseases in the first place. Your body can shed excess weight that can lead to these dangers later down the line.
For one thing, exercise helps improve your heart’s overall health. The more exercise you get, the easier it is for your heart to perform its functions, reducing your risk of heart disease and cardiac arrest.
Secondly, Type II diabetes can be prevented with exercise. Individuals who are pre-diabetic or who have Type II diabetes can even reverse these risks by exercising and losing weight.
Finally, exercising helps you to reduce the rate at which your bones lose density. This can help provide relief from arthritis and keep your bones healthy and strong in your old age.
Become Part of a Team
Group fitness also provides some serious mental health benefits. One of those is that it allows you to become part of a team.
When you feel as though you’re part of a team, you increase your motivation. Studies have shown that the feeling you get from good teamwork can help you push yourself harder to complete tough tasks.
To prove this, studies placed participants in small groups and then sent them to a room where they had to solve a puzzle on their own. The participants didn’t have a time limit for solving the puzzle.
Half of the individuals participating in the study received a handwritten note from a member of their group. The note encouraged them and led the individuals to believe that they were working as part of a team.
What’s interesting about this study is that out of the individuals who were doing the puzzle, those who received a note spent nearly half as much extra time trying to solve what was an unsolvable puzzle.
The conclusion that researchers drew from this data is that when people are part of a team, they work harder. This doesn’t just apply to puzzles but goes for group workout classes, too!
Keep Yourself Accountable
Let’s be honest. Just about every one of us has made promises to ourselves to wake up early to exercise. However, when the alarm goes off we hit the snooze button or sleep right through it!
When it comes to working out, we need to have a lot of motivation to get in shape. And, it can be tough to find that motivation when we’re the only ones involved in the equation.
Unlike organizing fitness regimes on our own, group fitness classes help to boost our accountability. Fitness classes operate on a specific schedule, making it easier for you to stay motivated to show up on time for the class.
They also boost your accountability because your classmates can help remind you to come to class. You can stay compelled to head to your workout just because you know they’re waiting for you.
Finally, group fitness classes, unlike home workouts, cost money. You won’t want to skip class and lose your investment when you sign up for a group workout. That can help you stay motivated to hit the gym!
Get Professional Support
As fun as it is to work out on our own, we don’t always know what we’re doing. Sometimes we find ourselves bending into shapes that just don’t feel right or we get lost in the workout video.
In group fitness classes, however, you get the support of a professional. Whether you’re in a small group led by a personal trainer or you participate in a large class with a fitness coach, you get a pro telling you what to do.
Professional instructors help guide you through the workout and make sure that you’re doing the exercise right. They also know how to help you make the most out of your workout without overdoing it.
When you work out on your own, it’s easy to overtrain your body. Overtraining is dangerous because it can lead to muscle strain and injury. Professional instructors know how to help you push the limits without going too far.
What’s more, a professional instructor helps you make sure that you’re giving yourself enough recovery time. He or she helps you properly cool down after your workout and spaces the group fitness schedule out so that you don’t overdo it.
Make New Friends
When you’re a little kid, it’s easy to make new friends. You meet kids at the playground, in after-school activities, and in the classroom!
However, as you get older, it gets far more difficult to make new friends. This can limit our social interactions and lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation.
One of the easiest ways to make new friends is to get involved in a group fitness class. Group fitness classes give you the chance to meet people who share a common goal and have the same interests.
Better yet, in a group fitness setting, you have the chance to make new memories. Shared experiences are one of the easiest ways for you to form bonds and build connections with others, and group fitness lets you do that.
Finally, group fitness is great for finding people who live near you. If you’re all going to the same fitness class, there’s a good chance that you live relatively close by. That makes it easier to meet up outside of class!
Push Yourself
Even if you’re already working out at home, it’s pretty easy to go easy on yourself. There’s no one there to get you back up and moving after you take a break, or to encourage you to try a little harder.
When you join a group fitness class, however, you’re more likely to push yourself. Instead of doing the bare minimum, you have coaches and peers encouraging you to work harder and try a little more.
Group fitness classes are a great way to physically push yourself by encouraging you to increase your intensity. Whether you’re doing it to outdo your neighbor or because the coach is cheering you on, it’s a great way to get more from your workout.
On top of that, group fitness gives you a chance to push yourself mentally. That’s because group fitness classes allow you the chance to explore new kinds of workouts that you wouldn’t try at home!
When you try new workouts, you get to learn more about what you like and dislike. You’ll have the chance to discover more about who you are by trying different workouts and challenging yourself to get involved in new types of exercise.
Get Inspired
Even though at-home workout videos can be great, they’re not necessarily the most inspiring workouts. They don’t offer motivation to help you push yourself through your final rep.
However, when you’re in a group fitness class, you are in an environment where it’s easy for you to stay motivated. There are other people around you to help cheer you on during your workout.
What’s more, you’ll see others around you doing their best and get inspired to try harder at your workout. Watching others complete the exercises is a great way to stay on track and stay inspired in class.
Finally, you can stay motivated knowing that everyone in your class is a beginner at some point. When you work out alone, you can feel discouraged if you can’t do the moves.
However, in a group setting, there are people of all levels working out. That can be an inspiration to help you try your hardest and do your best during your workout.
Maintain Proper Form
One of the most valuable parts of joining a group fitness class is that you get access to professional trainers who know how to help you maintain proper form. When you work out alone, you can sometimes be left guessing about your form.
The danger to this is that you can injure yourself. When you don’t maintain proper form during your exercise routine, you can pull a muscle or sprain a limb.
Trainers, however, know the science behind working out. They can show you how to do your exercises using the correct form so that you don’t have to worry about injuries.
Better yet, if you’re doing an exercise incorrectly, they can gently help you adjust your position. By moving you into the right position, they help you learn about proper form and make it easier to replicate the pose in the future.
Be Part of a Community
When you join a group fitness class, you don’t just get to take advantage of physical benefits. You also get to benefit from becoming part of a community.
The reason why this is so important is that it gives you access to a support system. When the going gets tough, your fellow classmates can help provide you with the support and encouragement you need to stick to your fitness plan.
On top of that, many people in a fitness community have good tips and advice. They might be able to give you advice for sticking to your workout or offer up tips for dieting.
Many group fitness classes have community events for you to get involved in, too. This is another great way for you to connect with those in your area, make new relationships, and get the most out of your workout.
Add Variety to Your Workout
When you work out at home, you’re usually limited to a few exercise videos. After a time, doing those same workouts can get pretty old.
Not only is doing the same workout boring but it can also hinder your results. When you perform the same exercises, you are more likely to plateau and stop seeing gains from your workouts.
What’s more, performing the same exercises time after time doesn’t give you the chance to work different muscle groups. Instead, you focus on the same area of the body, losing out on potential gains.
When you participate in group workouts, you give yourself an easy way to mix things up. Different instructors will teach your classes differently, meaning that even if you’re taking the same class, you’ll be getting a different experience depending on the instructor.
And, most organizations that offer group workouts have a variety of different classes. They’ll provide you with different ways to work out, even if the classes fall under the same category of exercise.
For example, a yoga studio might offer hot yoga, asana yoga, or aerial yoga, to name a few. You can try all these different types of yoga and mix up your workout while still enjoying your favorite style of exercise!
Reduce Stress
One major mental benefit of group fitness is that it helps you reduce your stress levels. Stress levels can run rampant, especially in a society where we’re loaded with work and responsibility.
In fact, studies show that roughly 23% of workers are burned out. With so many people dealing with stress and burnout, it’s extra important to find ways to relax and unwind.
The more stressed out people are, the more prone they are to health problems. Issues such as mental health disorders, high blood pressure, and heart disease can all arise due to high levels of stress.
What’s more, high levels of stress can prevent you from successfully losing weight. That’s because stress causes your body to release cortisol, a hormone that controls your immune responses and your metabolism.
When you have too much cortisol in the body, your body can react by causing you to gain weight. That’s particularly true for abdominal weight, which is some of the most dangerous fat out there.
Finally, when you have long-term stress issues, you can increase your blood sugar levels. That puts you at risk for developing Type II Diabetes.
When you work out, however, you lower your cortisol levels. This helps you to relax and prevent yourself from running into bigger issues farther down the line.
Boost Confidence and Self Esteem
Let’s face it, most of us have at least one part of our bodies that we’d like to change. Perhaps it’s a little bit of cellulite around the thighs. Or, it could be some post-pregnancy weight in the mid-section.
No matter what it is, one easy way to get rid of that is to work out. When you work out and participate in group exercises, you improve your self-esteem and boost your confidence.
As you notice your body changing, you feel better about the way that you look. As you notice yourself shedding pounds and toning up, you’ll improve your body image which improves your overall confidence.
Plus, you get a sense of accomplishment and success just for hitting the gym, which can give you some added confidence. By showing up to work out in the morning, you make yourself feel as though you’re taking control of your body, which leads to better confidence.
On top of that, the more often you attend your workout classes, the better you’ll get at exercising! Seeing your progress can help encourage you and improve your confidence.
Finally, exercising offers you the physical benefit of improved posture. Better posture means that you stand up straighter, which boosts your self-belief and increases your confidence.
It’s Enjoyable
One benefit of group fitness is pretty straightforward: it’s fun. Participating in group fitness classes is a great way to just have some fun and get some energy out after a long day of sitting in the office.
The environment in group fitness classes is part of what makes them so enjoyable. Instructors usually play bouncy, upbeat tunes that get you excited about working out.
On top of that, the group environment is positive and encouraging. You can laugh and joke around with your workout partners in a group fitness class.
There are tons of different kinds of group fitness classes out there, making it easy for you to find something you like. And, once you do, that exercise quickly transforms from a chore into a hobby!
Whether you’ve settled on Yoga, Zumba, basketball, or something else entirely, there really is something for everyone when it comes to group fitness.
When you find something that you love, you’re more likely to stick to your workout. The more fun you have working out, the easier it becomes to continue your fitness regime and take care of your body.
Improve Muscle Endurance
Finally, when you work out in a group you can improve your muscle endurance. Just like how group fitness helps you boost your cardiovascular fitness, it’s a great way to improve muscle endurance.
Group exercise helps you to push your muscles and stick to your workout. Both of these features of group fitness exercises help you to improve your muscle endurance.
That’s because the more consistently and the harder you work out, the more your muscles can tolerate. They improve their endurance and are able to perform better in future workouts.
Having good muscle endurance is also important for completing daily activities. When you have strong muscles, you can last longer in physical tasks around the house or office.
Group Fitness Classes Near Me: Join Today!
As you can see, it’s worth your while to get on Google and search for “group fitness classes near me.” Group workout classes are a great way for you to boost your health, make friends, and so much more!
If we’ve got you convinced that you need to get involved in group fitness, good! Get in touch with us today and sign up for some amazing workout classes in your area.
