Sticking to a workout schedule when you’re on your own is not only boring, but often ineffective. When no one is watching you make that commitment, it’s an easy thing to let slide on those days when you’re feeling lazy. Using group workout classes to increase motivation is a big reason people join, but they soon find out that they make a bundle of new friends and meet many new interesting people. This reason alone is what keeps people going to group classes, long after they’ve gotten the killer abs or achieved their weight loss goals.
One thing about fitness is that you have to make vary the routine a bit so it doesn’t get stale. However, what happens when you’ve never done water aerobics and feel dumb going to your first class alone? That’s why making friends at any group workout class reaps dividends even outside of your regular class.
1- You Can Include Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced Friends
Ever try to join with a friend for fitness outside of a group class? This is what happens. Maybe they were not up to your fitness level and struggled to keep up, or maybe it was you that had trouble. Either way, when you try to only do it with another friend, you soon find that you have scheduling conflicts and maybe it becomes a little too competitive. By joining a fitness group, you can include any of your already existing friends, no matter what their skill level – even if they’ve never even been to the gym before! If they can’t make it one time, no biggie. NO one is committing to a set schedule other than to show up to the class when and if they want to. It provides the flexibility needed so that friends remain friends, even when they decide to tackle fitness goals together.
2- Meet New Friends With a Variety of Interests
Just because you go to a weights class doesn’t mean that there aren’t people there who do the yoga class too. The benefit of meeting friends in one class is that you often get to hear what other classes are like and which might be suitable for your level of expertise and fitness goals. Often, you will find when you make a friend in a group class, they will invite you to go with them to another class, and then you don’t have to be alone trying something new. This can open a whole new world of fitness for you, especially if you’re the shy type.
3- You Meet Friends All Over the World Too
Just because you are doing classes in a certain gym in your local area, it doesn’t mean your friends are going to be living in that area too. There are so many ways to do fitness these days that you can use social fitness apps on wearables to track your progress and network with many others who aren’t even in the class, but who share your interest in doing that activity. It’s the social nature of fitness here that’s just as important as hitting those fitness goals. If you get to be really good pals, you may even plan a visit to their locale, either for romance or just for fun.
4- You Could Meet Your Future Partner There
What better way to assess someone’s health and fitness as a future partner than going to a group workout class? Most of these classes are co-ed, too. Romance isn’t far away from any social activity that allows contact between people interested in finding new partners. Plus, you already have had a good look at what they really look like in person, unlike the online dating venues. There’s no way to hide behind a leotard at a group class, unlike people who post pictures that are 10 years old on their current dating profiles. It can lead to very authentic relationships based on mutual interests.
If you’re the type of person that doesn’t want to sit behind a screen hitting “Like” to try to make friends, then a group workout can get you in closer contact with real, live, people. It can open up newer interests and even lead to a potential new romance.
