How Group Fitness Can Improve Your Mental Health

by Cheryl Haines for Next Avenue

Often overlooked and less discussed, mental health benefits of exercise are potentially even more significant than physical benefits.

Admit it. When someone mentions “group exercise,” you think of fluorescent sweatbands, leotards with leg warmers, and Tina Turner blaring on a boombox. Perhaps you attended and happily donned your own fluorescent leotards to group fitness classes in the past. Or maybe, put off by the image of dancing and bouncing, you vowed never to attend a group fitness class.

But group exercise has come a long way from the dance aerobics and the Jane Fonda workout videos of the past, and there are a multitude of reasons to join a group fitness class today.

We all know about exercise’s many benefits on physical health; weight control, reduced risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease and improved energy levels. But what about the mental health benefits of exercise? Often overlooked and less discussed, the mental health benefits of exercise are potentially even more significant than the physical benefits.

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