_Corey Davidson is a junior journalism major at MU. He is an opinion columnist who writes about student life and politics for The Maneater._
Victorian-Age individualism was spot-on in its interpretation of the private and public self. Basically, private behavior was heavily valued in that etiquette and manners were above all else at home. However, the workplace was supposed to be a proving grounds for hard work and character.
One would do anything they could to get ahead and rise to the top of the socioeconomic ladder, even if it meant stepping on the competition.
While at the gym, I want to get big or die trying. However, sometimes it’s worth it to take a step back and try something else. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to do yoga sometime.
Group fitness comes in many different forms, whether it be CrossFit, TigerX or anything in between. CrossFit has given group fitness a bit of a negative stigma. For example, a study from the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation found that, out of 132 respondents, there was a 73.5 percent injury rate in CrossFit participation.
While CrossFit embodies many of the downsides, TigerX is a perfect example of group fitness done right. Even before entering the fitness studios, the marketing is fantastic.
TigerX advertises all of the good points of group fitness: growing alongside your friends, eliminating individual anxiety and establishing a good routine.
And when it comes to competing with your friends, a group class is a great place to start, especially if it’s something neither of you know how to do.
For example, I might be better at benching, and my friend could be great at cardio. If we both take a paddle board yoga class, we’d be on a pretty even playing field. Instead of us hitting the pump and having an unclosable gap, we’d be getting better at paddle board yoga at roughly the same pace every week.
Competing with a friend is great motivation to get better and is an effective way to track progress. If you don’t have friends to work out with, fitness classes are a great place to find people with similar interests.
As Thanos once said, “The hardest choices require the strongest wills.” Instead, make the easy choice and try a fun class with a friend sometime.
For a lot of people, going to the gym can be very anxiety-inducing. Either you will timidly try and fail, or you will be savagely thrown into your friend’s workout routine.
As bodybuilder and author Dom Mazzetti put it in a 2015 video, “You never got to be a beginner. You saw a plot of land, and you dropped a house on it like you were playing Monopoly.”
Group fitness eliminates this risk. Instead of being brutally subjected to an already established workout routine, a class will guide you to your own path. Group classes are often filled with other beginners who will know just as little as you, as well as a few advanced gym-goers to help you out along the way.
Not to mention, many group fitness classes are much more relaxing than individual conquest. For example, in a Zumba class, it’s easy to focus on the grooving and to not even realize that you’re doing cardio.
Finally, group fitness is good for establishing a routine. A 1999 study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that group fitness increased accountability, consistency and maintained weight loss for participants.
After all, letting down your classmates in Power Yoga is a lot more damaging than skipping leg day. Instead of just disappointing yourself while wearing shorts, you’re disappointing a group of people who may rely on your participation.
Weekly classes give you something to look forward to and make exercise a priority. Even when the class is over, you could translate these skills to an individual routine. In a sense, group fitness is paving the road so that you may walk down it later.
