The benefits of group fitness training

Group fitness training offers a fun, affordable way to get fit.

It’s one of the fastest growing areas of the fitness industry and has become immensely popular in Australia, as it has around the world.

Let’s take a look at the many benefits this style of training offers.

The many benefits of group fitness training

• Affordable. Group fitness training is much cheaper than working with a personal trainer one-on-one.
• Motivation. Exercising with other people can spur you on to work harder and get more out of your session. For some people it’s their competitive streak that makes them strive harder; and for others it’s feeding off the energy in the room that boosts their performance.
• Fun! Group fitness sessions can be a lot of fun, with activities such as warm up games and team challenges.
• Variety. There are so many different group classes on offer: you could smash a quick HIIT session; blow off some steam with a ‘Fighting Fit’ class; or find your happy place with some yoga.
• Social. With increasingly busy lives, many of us struggle making the time to socialise or form new friendships. Group fitness training is a great way to socialise and make friends.
• Accountability. You’re more likely to turn up and to make a concerted effort when you’re held accountable not just by the instructor, but also your fellow participants – they might be counting on you for a team challenge!
• Support. In a group fitness setting, you’ve got the support of not just the instructor, but also your fellow participants. They might spot you on a tricky lift, cheer you on to get that last rep, or be a friendly ear for a chat after the session.
• Health and fitness. Group fitness training offers substantial health and fitness benefits. Of course this is the case for all kinds of fitness activities, not just group fitness training; but it would be remiss of us not to mention it!

The benefits for fitness businesses or sole trading instructors

While there are many benefits for participants, group fitness training can also be very beneficial for the fitness businesses or sole trading instructors delivering the sessions.

The one-on-one approach of personal training means that you need one personal trainer for every participant; and they can only provide services to one client at a time for that time period (e.g. a one hour time slot). This puts a hard limit on the utility that can be derived from your resources (i.e. your staff or in the case of sole traders: your time). If you wish to increase your revenue for a given time slot, then you need to add an instructor for each additional client.

Every additional instructor increases your administration overheads (payroll, staff training, uniform, etc); which means that the costs of running a two person business are vastly different to running a business with 20 staff.

Group fitness training is far more scalable, as one instructor could be delivering a session to 20 participants. If you wish to increase your revenue, then each additional instructor can deliver sessions for another 20 participants. This scalability means that group fitness training can be a more lucrative approach than personal training.

Although personal training has a higher per person fee, a single client session is unlikely to generate more revenue than a group fitness session of 20 participants. Broadly speaking, there’s a limit to how much most people will pay for a one-on-one session with a personal trainer. The fitness industry is highly competitive and justifying a top-dollar rate will require an exceptional reputation; and of course finding clients that are actually able and willing to pay premium rates.

Article image credit: Andy Steven, Flickr.