Get Fit: Are Group Exercises For You?
A study by Stanford University shows that 40% of people prefer to exercise in groups. Esther Tam discusses the history of group exercises and suggests why the other 60% should join in the fun.
"Working out in a group provides support, accountability, and structure," says Lynne Vaughan, Chief Innovation Officer of YMCA USA, during an interview with Everyday Health. Do you agree? Many experts agree that group exercises are beneficial. Statistics show that people involved with group exercises are more likely to stay on track with their exercise routines than those who workout alone.
The most popular group exercise programme to date is the Les Mills workout which are group workouts driven by the beat of modern music. Phillip Mills founded Les Mills International. It is based in New Zealand. Currently, they are the world’s largest provider of choreographed exercise-to-music group fitness classes distributed to health clubs. According to their website, they now have 18 different workouts and these workouts can be found in 15,500 clubs spread across 80 countries.
Mills named the company after his father, Lesley Mills, who is a four-time Olympian. He is the founder of Les Mills World of Fitness chain of gyms in Auckland, New Zealand. Mills joined his father full time in 1980. That was when he, together with his friends from the entertainment business, took a risk and started developing exercise-to-music workouts for use in his father’s gym. They launched Pump(TM), which is now known as BODYPUMP™, in 1990. When they saw its success, they brought it to Australia. In 1997, Les Mills International was born with a vision to develop more workouts and to license them for use around the world.
The 18 different types of workouts are, namely BODYPUMP™, BODYCOMBAT™, BODYBALANCE™, CXWORX™, BODYATTACK™, RPM™, SH’BAM™, BODYJAM™, BODYSTEP™, BODYVIVE™, LES MILLS GRIT STRENGTH™, LES MILLS GRIT PLYO™, LESS MILLS GRIT CARDIO™, and lastly five BORN TO MOVE™ classes catering to different age groups. These workouts are different in the sense that they help with different goals. Some help with building your strength, flexibility and core. You can also choose exercises with different bases ranging from dance, yoga, and cardio, to cross training and high intensity workouts. There are even different purposes for the children’s classes. BODYBALANCE™ and BODYCOMBAT™ are my favourites because I have a history with ballet and martial arts, and my goal is to be lean and learn defense techniques.
Some of the gyms in Singapore that embrace these workouts are Fitness First, True Fitness, California Fitness and VivaFit. Only 9 of the Les Mills workouts are available in the gyms in Singapore. However, there are also other group exercises provided by the gyms owned by other companies. Some of these are Hot Flow™ yoga, which is like doing yoga in a sauna, Zumba™, which is a dance fitness programme created by a Colombian dancer in the 1990s involving dance and aerobic elements, Freestyle™ Group Training Hiit and Power by Fitness First, and many more.
According to a study from Stanford University on 218 people, small amounts of social support, ranging from friends who encourage each other by email to meetings with a fitness instructor, can help with one of the biggest problems we all face – fitness. Participants who received check-in calls on their exercise progress increased their exercise by about 78% on average. This continued for longer than 18 months. Meanwhile, the Department of Kinesiology at Indiana University found from their study that only 6.3% of people who work out with their partners are likely to quit their exercise routine while 43% of people who work out alone are likely to drop out of their exercise routine.
These classes are good for unmotivated people who are not able to find fitness partners with similar goals and determination to gain an exercising drive. Ask yourself these questions - Are you having difficulties finding the motivation to get off your butt and get fit? How do you want to get fit? What kind of exercises do you enjoy doing? Look at all the different classes that are available in the gyms. Most gyms provide trials, so go down and try the classes. Find a few that you enjoy and are beneficial for your goals. Once you have found them, go regularly, you are bound to meet a friendly face more than once. Then, make friends and enjoy getting fit!
On the other hand, if you are shy, you do not have talk to anyone, it’s enough to just quietly enjoy the company of others while absorbing the energy given out by the enthusiastic class instructors. If you are lazy and refuse to leave home, you can also look for videos of group exercise programmes on YouTube. Follow them at your own leisure, it might not be entirely the same, but if you enjoy it, well, good for you! As long as you exercise and keep fit, you will feel great both physically and mentally. That is the exercise goal we all have in common!
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