The Best Group Exercise Class For You—Even With Your Tricky Shoulder, Sore Knee, Or Tense Spine.
Group fitness classes have been trending for decades for good reason. They offer us so much:
motivation,
camaraderie,
a reason to get off your screen for a few hours each day, and
a team achievement feeling that’s hard to get by yourself in your living room.
But how do you pick the right classes?
You want safety, but not boredom. Challenge, but not so much that you can’t do the things. Plus, no injuries please, especially if you’re already dealing with some tender body parts.
Most of all, you want to feel good (confident, strong, independent, energized, pain-free) every single time you participate.
*Be sure to check out the Balance for Life Fitness website for all of our class updates. We refresh our schedule every Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer with your old favorites and leading-edge innovations that help you get exactly where you want to go with your body.
What holds us back from the exercise classes that get us exactly what we want? (Hint, it’s you, but you’re completely normal.)
Here’s how to overcome your hesitancy and jump into group exercise with both feet (without flinching, cringing, wincing, or failing.) You got this!
A learning curve
Hard truth. New behaviors and activities are hard the first time you do them—frustration and challenge are how we learn. Being awkward, feeling silly, thinking you’re surely flailing around while everyone else has the movements down cold–that’s just being new at anything. Keep the following in mind:
Allow yourself this essential beginner’s-mind process, because you can’t bypass it. No matter which class you choose, if it's a new type of movement for you, you'll always have a period of acclimation. You must embrace that and not resist it.
The most you can do is surrender to the learning, allow your brain to be as open as it can be, and try to absorb about 50% of the material the first time you go to an exercise class.
If you can perform a few movements with some proficiency, that's a total win. Run with it. Even just showing up and staying in the room for the whole time is a champion move.
You get to pick which movements you do or don’t do—taking care of your body is priority #1, no matter what everyone else is doing.
Guess what? All the other folks in that class were new once too. They remember. Most people in your class are helpful, not critical, because you remind them of their own beginner’s journey.
Outcome: What result do you want from your Group X class?
Want to feel stronger? Lift and carry heavy luggage for travel? Manhandle your groceries from the car to the kitchen in just one trip? Build bone density so you can avoid a broken hip or wrist?
Get in a weightlifting or resistance training class.
Choose one designed for your:
experience level (newbie/beginner or experienced exerciser),
condition (especially if you have osteoporosis or osteopenia), and
other goals you want to hit (function for daily life, sport-specific advancement, or any other result you seek.)
Want joint health and resilience for long hikes with besties, an injury-free ski season, or endless miles on your bike?
Find a class that limbers you up and targets balance, like Pilates, yoga, or circuit-style strength.
Pick a class format that sounds enjoyable and inviting—and then give it at least 4-6 tries before deciding if it’s for you or not. It takes that long to feel success and proficiency take hold.
Think about what you’ve always wanted to try, what you’ve always admired in other people, what looks like the most fun or adventurous way to move for you. And then commit to staying the course for a little while.
Class size: Small helps you accelerate.
It's tempting to want to hide in a room packed with people.
You can easily slip into the back row unnoticed, exercise in your own little corner while you work through your awkwardness on your own, and then slink out the back door right after cool-down.
There's nothing wrong with that, except you'll get stronger and more confident faster if you allow yourself to be seen by the trainer in a SMALL class.
Good trainers know how to correct and guide their students without being critical or making anyone feel like a failure. (And spoiler: We only offer small classes at Balance for Life Fitness—6 people in a class is our max.)
The key here is to allow yourself to be open to feedback—the kind that helps you succeed swiftly and keeps you safe as you're exploring movement and various new challenges.
Plus, if you have some tricky body parts or conditions that make you hesitate to begin a class, an expert eyeball helps you stay safe and pain-free as you learn new-to-you movements.
Speak up, you deserve to take up space
You paid for the class. You deserve to be heard and served.
Good trainers can read the room and offer lots of movement options, but we can’t know everything. Ask for what you need. We love that, and we often have a simple movement solution for you right on the tips of our brains.
You can request a different body position, a different weight load, or an alternative exercise that you can swap in easily. The more empowered you feel to do that in class, the more you enjoy what you’re doing, and the more likely you’ll stick with it.
Get specific
If you have a particular body challenge (like osteoporosis) find the class that addresses it.
Finding a class that fits your unique needs gets easier and easier every year in the expanding fitness industry.
We offer classes like Strength and Conditioning for Osteoporosis at BFL. There's a particular set of "rules" that we follow in those classes to strengthen muscles and bones without risking fragile bones or joints.
Limiting deep spine twists (Yes, you should do functional twists like checking your blind spot and gently strengthening your abdominal muscles—we show you how.)
Hinging from the hips when bending to lift an object without rounding the spine (so that you always lift without placing potentially dangerous pressure on weakened vertebrae.)
Gradually increasing weight loads to stimulate bone growth (because our bodies respond to increasing weight-load challenges, creating more bone tissue and strengthening connective structures like tendons and ligaments.)
Adding impact to key movements to make bones stronger without damaging joints. (Because balancing impact with joint protection is a skill you can learn and adapt to your own body.)
We also help you improve your balance to avoid falling down in the first place (the most common cause of fractures.)
The fun factor
Here’s another truth-bomb: If you don’t enjoy exercise, you won’t do it.
Your group exercise class should entice you into coming every week because:
it's fun,
it's a relief to be in there,
you feel successful, or because
It’s a calming, stress-relieving, confidence-building community you can’t wait to be part of.
Sometimes it takes a little while for that fun factor to come out, especially if you feel awkward or like a fish out of water for your first few times in class. But if you like the instructor, the format, and the other students, give it a good chance (remember, 4-6 classes!) before abandoning ship.
It's the right Group X class for you if…
You look forward to going to it every week.
The instructor and the community are warm and welcoming; they know your name and face quickly.
You don't get the evil side-eye from somebody if you plunk your mat down in
”their” space. (In other words, no one in class has “real-estate” and everyone can have the space they need.)
Your teacher introduces you to the rest of the group, finds out something about you, and creates a sharing environment while staying focused on the exercise at hand and the goals of the participants.
The next level
Can your group exercise class feel light? Can it feel transformative? Can it feel purposeful? Whatever turns you on is what keeps you coming back, so definitely look for that.
There is no better feeling for a group exercise teacher when they hear words like these:
“Your class got me through my grief over the loss of my mom.”
“I never would’ve survived my divorce without this group and these workouts.”
“I finally discovered what relaxation actually means.”
“I want to teach yoga too someday.”
“My doctor said I would need hip surgery for sure, but after 6 months in this class, she said we can put that procedure off indefinitely.”
“I went back to running after having my baby, and my shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore. I couldn’t have done that without this class.”
Just imagine how the countless students who’ve shared similar stories after years in their favorite classes feel! (You could be one of them, starting this week.)
Bottom line? Get yourself into a group exercise class. And be sure to check out our group exercise schedule at https://www.balanceforlifefitness.com/group-fitness-classes
We schedule our classes with YOU in mind (and heart!) Enjoy all your favorites as well as continual, seasonal updates with all the innovative options that meet you exactly where you are.
Be well, enjoy your body, and see you soon.
