People Who Exercise in Groups Get More Health Benefits

Any form of physical activity is beneficial to your health, but exercising alongside other people may provide you with an additional boost.

Do you enjoy going to the gym, running on the road, or hiking by yourself?

Or are you the type of person who thrives in a crowded group fitness class where everyone is breathing, moving, and toning at the same time?

No matter what type of physical activity you prefer, there is no disadvantage to maintaining a regular exercise routine, especially considering the fact that the majority of Americans do not meet the minimum requirements set forth by the national exercise standards.

However, research reveals that if you prefer to exercise alone, you could be losing out on some of the health benefits that come with participating in group exercises.

Group versus solo exercises

It is already common knowledge that exercise has several benefits, including the enhancement of sleep and mood, the promotion of sex desire, and increases in both energy levels and mental acuity.

Researchers recently conducted an investigation to see whether or not medical students, a high-stress population that may likely benefit from regular workouts, could benefit from participating in group exercise.

For the purpose of the study, there were a total of 69 medical students who participated in one of three exercise groups.

At least once per week, participants in one group engaged in a core-strengthening and functional fitness training program that lasted for thirty minutes. Participants in this group were also free to engage in additional physical activity.

Another group consisted of people who worked out on their own or with up to two companions at least twice a week. These people were considered solo exercisers.

The pupils in the final group didn’t get any other form of physical activity save walking or riding their bikes to get where they wanted to go.

At the beginning of the trial as well as every four weeks thereafter, the researchers assessed the students’ levels of perceived stress in addition to their mental, physical, and emotional quality of life.

At the beginning of the study, these mental health markers were all approximately at the same level among all of the students.

After a period of 12 weeks, people who participated in group exercise saw improvements in all three aspects of quality of life, in addition to a reduction in their levels of stress.

In comparison, those who exercised alone had only an improvement in their mental quality of life, despite the fact that they worked out for almost an hour more each week than those who worked out in groups.

At the conclusion of the trial, neither the level of stress nor the quality of life significantly altered for the group that served as the control.

The study had a few flaws, including its limited scope (it only involved medical students), its relatively small sample size, and so on.

Students had the option of selecting their own exercise group, therefore it is possible that there are physiological or psychological variations between people who exercise in groups and those who exercise alone that could influence the findings.

As a result, the findings need to be evaluated with caution. However, the findings of the study suggest that it is beneficial to exercise with others.

The research article may be found in the edition of The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association that was released in November.

Keeping time during workouts

Other studies have investigated the effects that working out in a group has on social bonding, pain tolerance, and athletic performance. In particular, they have looked at the effects that working out in sync has.

In a study that was published in 2013 in the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, the researchers recruited participants to rowing machines for a period of forty-five minutes.

People who had rowed in groups during the exercise and had coordinated their motions showed a higher pain tolerance after the session compared to individuals who had rowed alone. Rowing alongside other individuals, whether they were teammates or complete strangers, boosted people’s pain tolerance.

Researchers believe that an enhanced release of endorphins, sometimes known as the “feel good” hormones, may be responsible for the higher tolerance to pain. Endorphins are produced when people get in sync with one another when exercising.

Behavioral synchronization is the term used to describe this kind of coordinated movement. It is also possible for it to take place during other activities that involve groups of people, such as play, religious rites, or dance.

Additionally, it has the potential to improve your performance, particularly if you are already close to the other members of the group.

Researchers observed that rugby players who coordinated their motions during warming up fared better on a follow-up endurance test. The findings of this study were published in PLoS ONE in the year 2015.

These athletes were already a part of a tightly knit rugby team before they joined this group. The researchers believe that the synchronized movements that took place during the warm-up served to strengthen the already present social relationships between the participants.

According to what is said by the researchers, this “may have modified athlete’s perception of the pain and discomfort associated with tiredness… This enabled the participants to put in more effort, which resulted in improved performance.

Therefore, you may be able to tap into the power of synchronicity when you are surrounded by other cyclists who are spinning in time to constant beats or when you are CXWORXing as if it were a synchronized dance.

Or not.

There isn’t parity between all of the different group classes.

Paul Estabrooks, PhD, a professor of behavioral health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discovered that “exercise environment” determines how much of an effect exercise has on quality of life, social interactions, physical advantages, and people’s ability to persist with their workout routines.

In a review that was published in 2006 in the journal Sport and Exercise Psychology Review, Estabrooks and his colleagues examined and contrasted the results of 44 earlier research that looked at the benefits that exercise can provide in a variety of settings.

The scenarios comprised the following: working out at home, either by oneself or with contact from a health professional; standard exercise courses; and “real group” classes, in which specialized approaches were employed to create social bonding among persons who were participating in the class.

The greatest advantages were derived from actual group classes.

Regular exercise courses were very similar to working out at home with assistance, despite the fact that there was no opportunity for socialization.

The last place on the list was working out by myself at home.

In general, the amount of interaction or social support that people experienced during exercise — whether it was from researchers, health professionals, or other exercise participants — was directly proportional to the magnitude of the advantages that they received from the activity.

According to an interview that Estabrooks gave to Healthline, she stated that “group-based fitness sessions are often only more effective when they incorporate group dynamics tactics.”

Incorporating “activities to help people feel like they are part of something — a feeling of distinctiveness” and creating goals as a group are all aspects that fall under this category.

It is possible that not all of your workout classes will offer this.

“This is typically not the case in the vast majority of group-based fitness sessions,” said Estabrooks. “In most of these classes, people show up, follow a teacher, don’t communicate to one another very much, and then leave.”

Even though group exercise classes like spin, body sculpt, and power yoga may provide additional benefits, not everyone is cut out to participate in these types of classes.

According to the findings of one piece of research, extraverts are more likely to have a preference for high-intensity physical activities that include groups of people than introverts are.

Not a huge surprise there.

Even though I’m more of a loner, I lead group yoga courses. On the other hand, I practically never enroll in classes taught in a group setting.

My preferred method of practice is to do it by myself at home. To speak like a true introvert, I’ll say that for me, yoga is all about being alone and turning within.

On the other hand, for some people, yoga is more about the community and the connections they make with others.

In the long run, maintaining an active lifestyle is better for your health than leading a sedentary lifestyle.

Find some kind of physical activity that you enjoy doing and commit to doing it regularly, whether it’s sweating it out in a crowded fitness class or venturing off into the woods on your own to go camping.