Group Training: Helpful or Harmful?

Posted February 12, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Denise Musumeci

Section: In The News, His Fitness, Strength Training, Alt. Therapies, His Health, Physical Health

Personal training in groups is a growing trend that has shown great benefits for many people. Joe Duffy and his wife, who are both marathon skiers, work out twice a week in groups of up to nine people. “It’s an hour and a half workout, and if I did it on my own it would seem like three hours,” said Mr. Duffy, 58, the chairman of Duffy & Partners, a design firm in Minneapolis. “When I do it with the group, it seems like it is 30 minutes.”

One of the benefits is the cost. An individual training session can cost up to $100 per session, while a group session only costs as little as $20. People often find that group sessions are more fun, especially if they have competitive spirits. Often, if one person in the group is doing better than the others, the rest of the group will pick up the pace and step it up a notch.

Although the competition may make a training session fun, it can also bring out the worst in people, since some people get upset if they cannot keep up. For example, Case Collignon often performs with her best friend, Emily Ahnell. Usually, the competitive edge helps, but Mr. Ahnell out-performed her one time during a grueling activity and she got upset. “I didn’t want to talk to her so I just walked home.”

Behavior also differs by gender, according to Courtney Samuel, the owner of Bodies by Perseverance, in Denver. Mr. Samuel says that men tend to win by any means necessary and often cut corners to impress the trainers. Sometimes during a round of 20 push-ups, they will go halfway down and come back up in an effort to finish first and prove that they are the best.

Women often work slower, but do their exercises correctly without cutting corners, but their competitive edge will kick in when they see someone else cheating. Not every group session turns into a battle royale, however. Sometimes groups of people work together to motivate each other into getting in better shape. This social facilitation often helps the group to be more successful overall.

If you want to workout in a group session, like-bodied people who are doing the same type of training must be placed together. If you placed a body builder who can bench-press 300 pounds with a beginner who is only able to lift 50 pounds, that just will not work. The beginner will feel like giving up. Although it is impossible to find two people who are equal, the closer they are to each other’s capabilities, the better. The one who is slower and not as strong may end up pushing themselves into bad form in an effort to keep up and may end up hurting themselves.

Group training may not be a good idea for those who are not competitive in nature because if one person pulls ahead, then the other will lose motivation and give up their training. In either case, group workouts are worth trying. If working together doesn’t work out, go back to individual training: you may be better off on your own.

Research sources and for more information: [NY Times]; [picture]