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The Changing Face of Group: From Then Until Now

Among the changing aspects of the fitness world, perhaps the most rapidly-changing face is that of group fitness.  About twenty years ago, clubs printed what they called “Aerobics Class Schedules,” and these read quite differently from what appears in the clubs of today across the globe.  To be sure, gyms still provide rooms where groups gather to seek gains in strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness, but the types of classes today surpass those of the past.  Research, current trends like fusion fitness, and educational resources contribute to the fact that the group experience today surpasses anything clubs offered before now.   Group experiences now are quite different from back in the days of the seventies and eighties workouts for several exciting reasons including class length, clothes, titles, and disciplines.  A step back in time to look at the evolution of group fitness yields a much greater appreciation for where we are today.

In many cases, the sixty-minute land or aquatics class dedicated to one mode has diminished in popularity.  Before the millennium, classes used to be sixty-minute experiences dedicated to improving either strength of cardiovascular gains, with few classes (if any) dedicated exclusively to flexibility.  For example, a sixty minute step or strength class was the norm.  Instructors led participants through one hour of many variations on a theme from week to week (such as step combinations), developing specific, repeated skills for that chosen discipline.  Today, however, directors have adjusted schedules to reflect the changing market that finds busy members with even less available time than before.  They have realized that, in an effort to capitalize on the most important commodity of time, offering shorter classes attracts more people.  Maureen Hagan, Director of Fitness/VP Operations for Goodlife Fitness Clubs in Canada, created shorter “express-type” classes.  Hagan says that “shorter classes attract more people whose most valuable commodity is time.  We can do in 30 minutes what others may do in an hour with a more intense, concentrated experience, trimming the fluff.”

Class types themselves have changed.  Today we see not only shorter classes, but we also find more of an emphasis on flexibility, use of equipment, the crucial role of music, and hybrid classes that fuse different types of disciplines.  Consequently, where years ago the “Instructor Substitution Lists” of clubs used to show specific instructors for specific disciplines, today more instructors have become more diverse in being able to teach a wider variety of classes.  Because of this new face of group fitness, even the AFAA Primary Certification itself underwent a facelift recently to update examination procedures and testing protocol to address the vast variety of classes that instructors teach.

We are not dressing the same way as years ago, either!  Little, if any, research proved the validity of hot pink leg warmers in land-based classes, and the use of these waned.  New synthetic materials maximize body breathing and perspiration evaporation without leaving the exerciser bathed in sweat   Students used to come to class without shoes in the first callisthenic days.  Later, research such as published by Reebok University in its first Walk Reebok manual promoted the important physical reasons for wearing proper shoes.  Ironically, the cyclical nature of trends shows that the barefoot class has returned with such an emphasis on mind-body group fitness experiences.  .  To be sure, the days of high impact with no shoes has disappeared—and rightly so—but the fact that we have many classes now with a barefoot emphasis remains. 

Whereas most clubs used through the 1980s used to name their classes “Aerobics Classes” and “Water Aerobics,” this nomenclature evolved at the turn of the millennium to “Group Fitness” and “Aquatic Group Fitness.”  Lately, however, an even newer development evolves: as more and more class schedules start to include mind-body fitness, lifestyle coaching, healthful nutritional approaches, and motivation, the title “group fitness” also proves lacking.  The schedule title shift to “Group Wellness” from “Group Fitness” at such clubs as the Golden Door Spas in the USA, and O₂ Spas in Spain, shows how establishments change terminology to reflect their ability to improve the quality of peoples’ lives through more than just dance, for example.  The better clubs of today empower their members through education.  “Classes shouldn’t just train people to do something,” states Ankie Feenstra, AFAA Examiner, owner, and wellness instructor of Bodywork Gym in Greece.  “Classes have to teach people how to improve the overall quality of their lives.  That’s wellness, which encompasses something more than fitness moves alone.”   To this end, clubs today offer different types of group experiences towards total body wellness.   To some of these specific class types we now turn.

Over the years, two approaches to leading group fitness classes developed.  Sometimes, instructors taught the same class for years with a successful following.  Other instructors always reinvented their classes with a more creative, constantly-changing approach.  The first technique is now called “canned,” “blueprinted,” or “pre-choreographed” programming, such as the immensely successful Les Mills Body Training Systems which exist in clubs around the world with great popularity. The second approach has evolved, also quite successfully, to fusion fitness.  A great advantage of the first is how members appreciate the predictability of format and intensity.  A great advantage of the second is how members look forward to change.

No discussion of change would be complete without referencing the many recent published research studies which continue to show the importance of changing up training modes to maximize benefits.  Because research published by Len Kravitz and others on the principles of “Sustained Adaptations to Imposed Demands” (S.A.I.D.) and “General Adaptation Syndrome” (G.A.S.), we know that, the more we train in the same mode in the same way at the same intensity, the less our body will continue to respond because the body’s systems become highly efficient at adaptation to change (Block and Kravitz).  Instructors and trainers also know that participants oftentimes get bored with sixty minutes of the same repeated class activity extended over a long calendar period.  For these reasons of the physical need to change up modalities, coupled with the human nature desire for new things, fusion classes now figure among the fastest growing class types in the world (IDEA).   

Two types of fusion classes exist.  The first type, called a “mini-fusion,” finds a combination of two different techniques for the same purpose.  Examples are “Step and Cycle” for the benefit of cardiovascular endurance, or “Pilates and Yoga” for the benefit of muscular flexibility.  The second type, called a “meta-fusion,” fuses different modalities within the same experience for a combination of purposes, such as cardiovascular gains plus strength.  Examples are “Step and Strength” for the benefit of cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength/resistance, or “Cardio BOSU Bounce and T’ai Chi” for the benefit of cardiovascular endurance and muscular flexibility and balance betterment.

Whichever the type, fusion classes blend different techniques, music, equipment, and exercises to give the participant a plethora of neuromuscular stimuli pathways to which reactions must be learned and trained constantly.  Fitness improves each time that learning pattern of adaptation occurs.  Manuel Velázquez, Lead Instructor of the Golden Door Spa Wellness Program in Puerto Rico, says: “Fusion classes allow me to unleash my creativity.  Teaching 36 classes per week, I could get bored easily with the same music and formats.  I prefer fusion because I always get to do something different.  The equipment always changes, too, and my clients love the constant change.  I can’t imagine going back to teach an entire hour of just step.” 

Unique examples of fusion flood the planet these days.  Recently, Condé Nast Traveler magazine rated the Golden Door Spa in Puerto Rico #1 for its cutting-edge fusion programs.  At that property, this author created a class called “Desperate House-somethings: 20/20/20,” which gives guests with limited time the ability to pay attention to everything they need in fitness contained within the experience of one hour.  Class consists of 20 minutes of cardiovascular work, 20 minutes of strength work, and 20 minutes of flexibility work.   24 Hour Fitness has “ON-Core” classes which fuse cardiovascular and strength gains in a choreographed thirty minute intense class on the Reebok Core Board to improve both proprioception and reaction time.  Helen Vanderburg, Canadian 2005 IDEA Instructor of the Year, created “Fitness Fusion” programming which combines all types of mind body disciplines in one workout experience so participants do not have to take one yoga class, then Pilates, then T’ai Chi, for example.  Jeff Howard of Equinox in Chicago created “Evolution” classes that fuse traditional high-repetition group strength training and Pilates-based exercises on the BOSU trainer.   Deborah Puskarich, Group Exercise Director of Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s new Aerobics Center at Craig Ranch, created "Step UP and Calm DOWN" which fuses cardiovascular benefits of the step with flexibility postures from yoga throughout the cool down.  Dimitris Kandris, AFAA Examiner in Greece, has created “NRG,” New Rhythm Gliding, using hi-lo movement and Gliding disks for clubs in that country.

The equipment available to instructors today proves far more diverse than ever.  Labile (unstable surface) training challenges all traditional exercises by putting the BOSU (www.bosupro.com), Reebok Core Board, foam roller, wobble boards, and inflatable disks under different parts of the exerciser.  Perhaps the most popular piece of equipment now is the Resist-a-ball for all forms of training: strength, flexibility (including Pilates, T’ai Chi, and yoga), and even cardiovascular training!  Even if the participant executes traditional exercises, their instability demands more neuromuscular recruitment and therefore gives greater training benefits.  Group strength equipment like the Core Pole (http://www.corepole.com/), FreeMotion Towers (www.freemotionfitness.com), or the EFI Gravity Training System (http://www.efisportsmedicine.com/) allow groups to train for strength benefits with cutting-edge machinery and heavier loads than usually available in the group class format with light dumbbells.  Smartbells (http://www.smartbells.com/) have replaced traditional dumbbells, and multi-planar and versatile Gliding disks (http://www.glidingpro.com/) have replaced the uni-dimensional slide.  In aquatic fitness, more props exist than ever before for group classes: hand buoys, webbed gloves, paddles, aquatic shoes, resistance cuffs, water “noodles,” and even waterproof microphones and sound systems.

Teaching group fitness today means being part of the most exciting time in the history of group movement.  Versatility in class type, equipment, and approach means that now, more than ever, there is some type of group wellness experience waiting for everyone.