CREDIT: CLAUDIA BERGMAN
Group exercise has come a long way throughout the decades. People shouldn't be afraid try a class or two and see just how much fun and fulfilling they can truly be.

“Try group fitness? No, not me, I can't dance”. I hear this almost daily when I suggest to our members at the Student Wellness Centre (SWC), to check out our group exercise class schedule. It mostly comes from men, but some women too and then I go into my speech of how great it is and how there is something for everyone; blah, blah, blah. It's too late, they've already made up their minds long before I try to convince them.

You'll notice in the first statement I said “group fitness” and then I said “group exercise”. This is because classes offered in a Wellness / Fitness Centre setting have evolved so much over the years. Pre-1970, it was just referred to as calisthenics or exercise class and was offered to special groups like the armed forces, sports teams, some high-end colleges and universities, or at specialty community clubs (think: old school men's only clubs where they smoked a pipe and exercised or women's clubs where they did the class in high heeled shoes). In the mid-late ‘60s, Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, developed the concept of aerobics as a means to get people exercising with little to no equipment as he noticed the rise in obesity, diabetes and other issues related to people not getting adequate exercise and adopting unhealthy diets. Aerobics started to gain popularity in some high-end workout clubs and via exercise how-to videos throughout the ‘70s.

Then, the 1980s celebrity fitness craze came in. People like Jane Fonda, Olivia Newton-John, and Richard Simmons put exercising in a group on the map. Why was it so much better than pre‘80s? The formula for success was: celebrity outreach + telling of participant success stories + fun upbeat music to match moves to = engaged and active people. The industry started to wane however toward the early ‘90s as many people perceived this format to be too cheesy and some of the moves and combination of moves became too complicated and seemed to require dance experience or the ability to move rhythmically and in time with everyone else. This alienated many participants and so the personal training phase started in the ‘90s.

Personal training and especially celebrity trainers were popping up everywhere in the ‘90s. It was giving group exercise a bad name in some cases. Group exercises still existed, but attendance was low and it was predominantly female. With the celebrity trainer phase taking the newly found Internet by storm, people, mostly men, wanted to have the customized experience to reach their individual goals. Group exercise was perceived as being too easy and didn't meet the needs of those who wanted to develop strength and athleticism.

Then in the early ‘2000s, group exercise started to make a comeback. People stopped referring to it as aerobics and started to say group fitness. This was huge and it meant something very different. It meant that people could take their fitness goals and work on them in a group. We also saw many programs get a big make over and I like to call the 2000-2010 or so the boot camp and indoor cycling era. These were definitely two of the most popular programs in North America and beyond during this time, if not the two that were on the rise. Boot camp appealed to both men and women and required no dance experience: just exercising to timed goals and performing as hard as you could. Indoor cycling was appealing to those who felt safe and secure on a bike, riding to their own choice in speed and resistance.

These programs are still popular today, but what has happened in the last seven to 10 years is the shift from group fitness classes to group exercise classes. I know it sounds the same, but there is a difference. Group exercise now includes literally everything offered in a group. It takes the stigma further away from the celebrity endorsed cheesy aerobics and it is all encompassing, to the way we have evolved in our offerings now. In recent years, we have seen more of a shift to very specific programs like, TRX, kettlebell, barbell classes, Insanity, P90x, Pilates, Zumba, yoga, Piyo, core training and more. We still have the old favourites like Step, but now Step class has a re-boot and is athletic (i.e. side hurdles over the step) vs. incorporating dance steps (i.e. mambo step touch).

The vibe of group exercise now is to come and enjoy working out in this 30-90 minute class, get your sweat on, meet new or hang with old friends and have a blast while listening to great music and a dynamite instructor. We are seeing more and more men come out to classes as they realize it is crucial to cross train to avoid injury and see that many of these programs fit very well with their goals: yoga for flexibility, posture, core and stress-relief; barbell (i.e. Glutes Gut Guns at the SWC) or dumbbell classes for building strength, muscular endurance and range of motion; step and circuit (i.e. Body Blast or Insanity at SWC) classes to improve athleticism and cardiovascular health; boxing (Power Punch at SWC) or cycling (Spin at SWC) to work on very specific goals.

I hope that giving a little history lesson helps you see how group exercise has changed and has something to offer to everyone. While not every class works for all, there is at least one in the bunch that can suit your needs in some way. The best thing to do is to attend all classes, at least three times in a row, with the same instructor, before you make a decision to give up on it. It takes at least three to four times to get comfortable with the language terms, the instructor's style, as well as let your body adapt to trying new moves. Pick up a group exercise schedule today and have some fun!