Sweating in the company of others has never been more popular, from yoga and spin classes to CrossFit and mud runs. While some of us like to go it alone, headphones in, millions of people use group exercise to stay fit and healthy. And is it possible that working out with others has advantages? Take a run through the research and it would seem so.
Do group workouts motivate us more?
Studies have found that group exercise can be motivating in a way that solo workouts aren’t. It also appeals to a broader set of people, bringing out the eye of the tiger in even the slouchiest of house cats.
And a number of fitness companies have duly turned communal calorie-shifting into big business. The likes of CrossFit, Peloton and Les Mills are marketed as much for their community atmosphere as the effectiveness of their workouts. All three have gyms or sold-out classes the world over.
It’s a similar story with Parkrun, the volunteer-run charity that organises 5km runs every weekend in towns and cities all over the world. Parkrun began with a group of 13 runners in Bushy Park, London, in 2004. By 2013, researchers were studying its appeal for a paper in the Journal of Public Health, which found that it’s particularly attractive to people who wouldn’t describe themselves as runners.
Is that it? Could the main benefit of group workouts be the mere presence of other people in sportswear? Training with others – making it a social experience as much as a chore or something performance-driven – is a big motivating factor, says Dr Alex J Benson from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
A psychologist and kinesiologist, his work looks at group dynamics in sport and beyond, including the benefits of group exercise.
“Group exercise can be an effective lever to help motivate, sustain and promote enjoyable physical activity,” he says.
“However, not all forms of group exercise are created equal and it's important to consider which group environments people will benefit the most from.”
Do group workouts make us work harder?
Stationary bike classes are one type of community Sweatathon found to increase people’s threshold for exercise. Researchers at Kansas State University found that women who exercised with a teammate on stationary bikes increased their workout time and intensity by as much as 200 per cent. This is especially true if you exercise with someone you perceive to be better than you.
“There are motivational gains under certain circumstances, such as the Kohler effect,” says Benson. “This is where less-capable individuals expend more effort to keep up with more capable members."
"Also, research on running groups has shown that people can, to some extent, outsource their self-regulation to the group, such that the same intensity of exercise feels less effortful in a group.”
Unsurprisingly, when we find exercise easier and more enjoyable, we also do it more often. Researchers have found that group exercise can be habit-forming with the buddy approach helping people to stay motivated over time.
For example, when people commit to weight loss programmes with friends, they are more likely to stick to them than when they try to shift weight by themselves.
One of Benson’s studies found that when people have a greater sense of “groupness” in an exercise class or setting, they are more likely to have enjoyed it and pushed themselves to greater exertion. Benson puts it down to people having “a sense of shared interdependence, interaction with one another, and identifying as a member of the collective.”
What effect does the class instructor have?
Benson says that a workout instructor can help create a sense of togetherness. “An instructor's ability to create a sense of 'we' and cultivate a sense of a shared experience can help satisfy some of our basic psychological needs, such as relatedness (the need to feel connected to others), autonomy (sense of control over), and competence.”
It might explain why certain Peloton instructors have millions of followers across social media or why Joe Wicks (aka the Body Coach) was able to motivate millions of people to work out from home to his live YouTube classes during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Is it always better to exercise in a group?
Of course, exercise is a very subjective thing. There are plenty of solo runners, lifters and cyclists who prefer to sweat in solitude and only want to compete against themselves. There are also others that feel intimidated by group classes, especially if they’re inexperienced and entering a more advanced class.
But most of the available research suggests that when you work out with people in your own demographic and at your own level, with shared goals and a shared mentality, more likely than not, you’re going to enjoy yourself.
A 2017 study from the University of New England found that compared to people exercising alone, those in a group class reported higher stress reduction, plus better physical, mental, and emotional quality of life.
“One of the most challenging aspects of exercise for many (and why many interventions fail) is adherence over the long-term,” says Benson.
“As we are social animals and have a fundamental desire to connect and belong, group-based exercise interventions can help sustain adherence when people develop social connections with others.”
About our expert, Dr Alex J Benson
Alex is a psychologist and kinesiologist based at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. His research is focussed on group dynamics in sport and has been published in the journals Psychology of Sport & Exercise and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
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