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A great group exercise class delivers far more than a workout.
There is the exercise itself, of course. But there is also the energy of the room, the instructor who knows your name, the people you expect to see each week, the shared effort of getting through the difficult part together and, for many people, simply having somewhere they belong.
Research is now giving group exercise a clearer framework for success.
A major 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis compared group-based physical activity interventions with individual approaches across seventy-one studies and 523 effect sizes. Its overall conclusion was reassuringly balanced: both individual and group-based approaches can be effective (Kritz et al., 2026).
But when the researchers looked more closely, two factors stood out.
And both point directly to the importance of the instructor.
The first factor was whether participants were simply exercising alongside other people or were part of what the researchers described as a true group.
A true group deliberately uses group-dynamics principles. There is structure, interaction, a sense of identity and a reason for participants to feel that they are part of something rather than simply occupying the same room.
These “true groups” produced larger effects for health outcomes than ordinary face-to-face groups.
Only fourteen of the seventy-one studies met that definition.
The second finding was particularly relevant to us working in the fitness industry. Studies led by trained instructors showed larger effects favouring group delivery than those led by health professionals (Kritz et al., 2026).
Which changes the question.
It is not simply whether group exercise works better than individual exercise. Both can work extremely well. The more useful question is: what makes group exercise work at its best?
The evidence points towards deliberate group design and skilled instruction.
Putting twenty people into a studio creates the opportunity. The instructor turns them into a group.
Exercise professionals are already used to programming the physical dose of exercise.
Frequency. Intensity. Time. Type.
A narrative review published in Frontiers in Psychology in May 2026 proposes another variable that can sit alongside them: the social dose (Yu et al., 2026).
The authors describe this as structured exposure to opportunities for social connection embedded within the activity itself. They identify four dimensions:
It is a useful concept because it takes something instructors often think of as atmosphere or chemistry and makes it something that can be deliberately designed.
A welcoming class does not have to happen by accident.
The review suggests practical approaches including keeping cohorts relatively stable, greeting people at the door, using names, pairing newcomers with somebody during their first few sessions, introducing peer mentors, creating shared goals and making expectations around inclusion and non-shaming explicit.
For larger groups, it can even mean creating consistent smaller units within the class so that people become known rather than remaining anonymous.
The review is a narrative rather than systematic review, and the authors acknowledge the potential for selection bias, so it should be treated as a useful framework rather than proof that every recommendation will independently produce a particular outcome.
But as a way of thinking about class design, it is powerful.
We programme the exercise.
Why not programme the social environment too?
That is important because social connection is increasingly recognised as part of health rather than simply a pleasant extra.
The World Health Organization established its Commission on Social Connection in 2023 and published its report in June 2025. It estimates that around one in six people worldwide experience loneliness and links loneliness and social isolation with substantial health consequences.
UK research adds another important dimension.
Researchers at UCL followed participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing for a median of almost ten years and distinguished between temporary and persistent loneliness and isolation. Chronic loneliness was associated with a greater risk of developing functional impairment, that is, difficulties with everyday activities such as washing, dressing or climbing stairs. Chronic social isolation was associated with higher all-cause mortality (Gao et al., 2025).
The important word there is chronic.
This is not about suggesting that a fitness class is a treatment for loneliness. It’s about recognising that regular, sustained participation in activities that bring people into contact with others can form part of a much wider picture of physical, psychological and social health.
This in turn, gives retention a different significance. Keeping somebody engaged with exercise for months or years is not simply good business. It gives them repeated exposure to physical activity, routine, other people and a community they may value.
Social connection is not only an issue for older adults. The UK Community Life Survey for 2024/25, based on more than 175,000 responses, found that around seven per cent of adults reported feeling lonely often or always. And rates were highest among younger adults.
Among 16 to 24 year olds, the figure was nine per cent. It was eight per cent among 25 to 34 year olds, compared with five per cent among 50 to 64 year olds and four per cent among 65 to 74 year olds.
The people most likely to benefit from the social environment of a well-run class may already be in the studio, doing strength sessions, cycling classes and weekend workouts.
Now to be clear, this is not about us becoming therapists. It is to recognise that a class can be a valuable regular point of contact in somebody’s week, and to design it accordingly.
One of the clearest demonstrations of what a group environment can add comes from a Danish crossover study published in 2025. Twenty recreationally active adults completed the same forty-four-minute indoor cycling session twice: once as part of a group of around twenty people and once alone with the instructor.
The exercise itself was virtually identical.
Average power was 167 watts in the group session and 169 watts individually. Peak power, heart rate and cadence were also similar. But enjoyment was significantly higher when participants exercised as a group, with a moderate effect size of 0.67 (Beck et al., 2025).
That is an important result as the class did not need to make people work harder to add something valuable. They just enjoyed the same workout more.
An exercise programme only gets the opportunity to produce long-term results if somebody wants to keep doing it. To keep doing it, they have to enjoy it. The absolute enjoyment scores in this particular study were already extremely high, and the authors caution that the result may not necessarily generalise to people who are completely new to the class.
Even so, it gives us a useful illustration of the social dose operating alongside the exercise dose.
The physical session can remain the same while the experience of doing it changes.
It is also important to know what group exercise can reasonably be expected to achieve. Research involving older adults has found improvements in aspects of social functioning from physical activity interventions, with some of the strongest results appearing in group settings (Shvedko et al., 2018).
A large UK trial of Gentle Years Yoga involving 454 adults aged sixty-five and over with multiple long-term conditions also demonstrated some encouraging practical findings. The twelve-week chair-based yoga programme was safe, acceptable and well attended. Participants attended an average of nine of the twelve classes, while 92.5 per cent attended at least once. The intervention also had a seventy-nine per cent probability of being cost-effective at the usual NHS threshold (Tew et al., 2024).
Neither study demonstrated a significant reduction in loneliness itself. But that does not diminish the value of the intervention. It helps define it properly.
Group exercise can create opportunities for interaction, improve aspects of social functioning, provide an enjoyable activity and make structured physical activity accessible at scale. Fitness professionals do not need to promise that a class will solve loneliness in order for the social side of exercise to matter.
There is another experience that group exercise is particularly well placed to provide, and that’s synchrony.
Moving in time with other people is fundamental to many forms of group activity, from indoor cycling and exercise to music to dance, circuits and team training.
One of the earliest studies in this area involved rowers from Oxford University. Participants completed forty-five-minute rowing sessions either alone on an ergometer or synchronised in a crew of six. After solo training, pain threshold increased by 5.63 millimetres of mercury. After synchronised crew training, it increased by 11.04, with a significant difference between the two conditions.
Pain threshold was being used as a proxy measure consistent with endorphin activity rather than a direct measurement of endorphin release, and the study included only eleven rowers, so its findings need to be interpreted appropriately.
But later research has continued to investigate synchrony as a potentially important part of shared physical activity. In one study using silent-disco headphones, only full synchrony increased pain thresholds; partial synchrony did not.
The interesting possibility is that moving with other people may influence the experience of exercise differently from simply moving near them. That is something a well-designed group class can deliberately create.
Music is another powerful tool available to instructors.
A large meta-analysis covering 139 studies, 600 effect sizes and 3,599 participants found that music’s largest and most reliable effect was on how people felt during exercise. The effect on affective valence was 0.48, compared with 0.31 for physical performance and 0.22 for perceived exertion. Heart rate was not significantly affected. Faster-tempo music generally produced larger effects than slow-to-medium tempo music.
The analysis did not find a statistically distinguishable advantage for synchronising movement precisely to the beat compared with asynchronous music. But that does not make music less useful. Quite the opposite.
Its value lies strongly in its ability to change the experience of exercise. For an instructor trying to create a session people look forward to repeating, that is an extremely useful tool.
The potential advantages of group exercise is only possible if people feel able to enter the class in the first place. For somebody who is confident in gyms, walking into a studio full of strangers may seem unremarkable. For somebody new to exercise, it can be one of the biggest barriers.
A 2026 theory paper from Robert Gordon University argues that gym anxiety can often be understood as a response to the environment rather than simply as a problem within the individual. The paper highlights how factors such as layout, dominant users, unfamiliar equipment and perceived social comparison may make some people feel particularly exposed.
Its recommendations are: attending with other people, creating more inclusive layouts, stating inclusive expectations clearly and encouraging newcomers to view themselves as learners rather than people who are failing to keep up. It is a theoretical paper rather than an empirical trial, so those ideas remain proposals rather than demonstrated effects.
But they fit closely with the social-dose framework.
A beginner-friendly class is not simply one with easier exercises. It is one where somebody feels comfortable being a beginner, which is something instructors can influence from the moment a person enters the room.
Clients sometimes ask whether they should attend classes or work individually with a trainer. And the evidence does not require us to choose a winner as they are different tools.
One-to-one coaching provides individual attention, precise exercise prescription, close observation and the ability to adapt every part of a session around one person’s goals, ability, medical considerations and progress.
Group exercise adds something different: shared activity, repeated contact with other participants, synchronised movement, group identity and an environment that can make exercise more enjoyable.
Many clients will benefit from both at different stages.
| Client | Useful starting point | Coaching opportunity |
|---|---|---|
| New to exercise and looking for more social contact | Group | Pair them with somebody during their first few sessions and make introductions |
| Post-injury, post-operative or managing a specific contraindication | One-to-one | Use individual coaching for precision, with a route into suitable group activity where appropriate |
| Training towards a specific event or performance test | One-to-one supported by group sessions | Use individual work for specificity and group training for volume, variety and enjoyment |
| Older adult with several long-term conditions and low confidence | Appropriate group activity | Prioritise safety, accessibility, consistency and a welcoming environment |
| Highly self-conscious or anxious about exercising around others | One-to-one initially | Build confidence and introduce an appropriate group gradually |
| Experienced solo exerciser whose motivation has flattened | Add a group session | Keep the successful existing routine and add variety and social contact |
| Referred through social prescribing or a link worker | Group with an individual induction | Explain the environment, equipment and session expectations before the first class |
The skill lies in matching the format to the person rather than assuming one model is universally superior.
If the social environment of a class is as important as we’ve laid out here, instructors can do more than hope that a good atmosphere develops. They can build it.
Keep some consistency
Where possible, give people the chance to see familiar faces regularly. A twelve-week block or stable cohort offers more opportunity for relationships and group identity to develop than a completely different group every session. In a large class, smaller consistent teams or stations can help.
Use people’s names
A name immediately tells somebody they have been noticed. Use names when greeting participants, when coaching and when people leave. Small actions repeated every week create culture.
Look after the newcomer
The established regulars already understand where to stand, what equipment they need and how the session works. The new person does not. Introduce them to somebody. Give them a place in the room. Explain what will happen before it happens. Their first experience will shape whether they want a second.
Make inclusivity visible
Do not simply say that every ability is welcome. Demonstrate it. Show different levels from the beginning. Explain that people will be working at different intensities. Make adaptation part of the class rather than something somebody has to request after they fall behind.
Create something shared
Give the group a milestone, challenge, identity or collective goal. It does not have to be competitive. It simply needs to give participants something they are doing together.
Notice who is there
And notice who is not. One of the strengths of a regular class is that people stop being anonymous. A good instructor does not just deliver the programme at the front of the room. They know who is in the room with them.
The most encouraging message from this research is not that one style of exercise is better than another. It is that delivery matters.
One-to-one coaching gives trainers the opportunity to build exercise precisely around an individual.
Group exercise gives instructors the opportunity to create something that individual exercise cannot fully reproduce: a shared experience of movement.
But that opportunity needs to be used deliberately. The 2026 meta-analysis found stronger results where interventions operated as genuine groups and where sessions were led by trained exercise instructors. The social-dose literature provides a framework for building connection into the session rather than leaving it to chance. And experimental research suggests that group exercise can make the same physical work more enjoyable.
None of that requires abandoning exercise programming. It adds another layer to it. A skilled instructor programmes the movements, intensity, progressions and regressions. A great one also programmes the room, and when they do, their classes will be full with clients who keep coming back for more.
Beck, K.T., Lowater, K.S., Rafn, J. and Hansen, E.A. (2025). Enjoyment of Spinning Exercise Performed in a Group Session as Compared to an Individual Session. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, 1501862. Click here to review the full research article.
Gao, Q., Steptoe, A. and Fancourt, D. (2025). Chronic Loneliness and Isolation Phenotypes, Incident Functional Impairment and Mortality in England Between 2004 and 2018. Nature Mental Health, 3, pp.667-674. Click here to review the full research article.
Kritz, M., Riddell, H., Olsen, D., Harden, S.M., Burke, S.M., Ntoumanis, N. and Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C. (2026). Individual Versus Group-Based Interventions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Physical Activity, Functional, Psychosocial and Health Outcomes. Nature Human Behaviour, 10(6), pp.1109-1121. Click here to review the full research article.
Shvedko, A., Whittaker, A.C., Thompson, J.L. and Greig, C.A. (2018). Physical Activity Interventions for Treatment of Social Isolation, Loneliness or Low Social Support in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 34, pp.128-137. Click here to review the full research article.
Tew, G., Wiley, L., Ward, L., Hugill-Jones, J., Maturana, C., Fairhurst, C., Bell, K., Bissell, L., Booth, A., Howsam, J., Mount, V., Rapley, T., Ronaldson, S., Rose, F., Torgerson, D., Yates, D. and Hewitt, C. (2024). Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Offering a Chair-Based Yoga Programme in Addition to Usual Care in Older Adults with Multiple Long-Term Conditions: A Pragmatic, Parallel Group, Open Label, Randomised Controlled Trial. NIHR Open Research, 3, 52. Click here to review the full research article.
Yu, L., Zhou, B. and Cai, J. (2026). From Exercise Dose to Social Dose: A Narrative Review of the Components, Mechanisms and Design Principles of Group-Based Physical Activity Interventions to Reduce Loneliness. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, 1843858. Click here to review the full research article.
Everything in this article points at the same place. The instructor decides whether twenty people in a room are a crowd or a group, and that is a skill that’s learnt rather than a personality trait.
Our Exercise to Music qualification is where that skill gets built. Choreography and music phrasing, cueing that works from the front of a busy room, adapting on the fly for mixed ability, and the class-management craft that decides who is still on your register in March. Available as distance study, live-virtual or in-person, so it fits around whatever your week already looks like.
Great Discounts: Get started on the UK's leading Exercise to Music course and save 20% when you pay in full upfront. Use code ETM20 at checkout. From just £499 or £54/month. Offer Ends 4th August!
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