Personal Training or Group Fitness? Find the Best Workout for Weight Loss

Since the start of the New Year, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve been getting bombarded with emails, ads all over social media, and even those sent via snail mail to promote the latest in gym specials. Whether or not you have been contemplating about reigniting your workout journey, joining a new gym is not exactly the worst idea. Folks often connect New Year’s with crazy crowds at gyms because of resolution adopters seeking the most rapid weight loss possible, but it’s more than just looking good in the mirror or at the beach; on the contrary, better fitness is essential for things like stress relief, sleep quality, and general quality of life.

Nowadays, you will find a plethora of different types of training that can help you get in better shape, ranging from conventional weight training exercises you see at most gyms to Pilates, yoga, martial arts, etc. Most of my training expertise is linked to weight training, and today, I am going to compare and contrast two of the most popular workout styles that you might be considering, either right now or sometime in the future. These training styles include one-on-one personal training and group fitness.

Group Training is Better

One of my favorite parts about group training is the camaraderie, which you’re just not going to get from working individually with a personal trainer. In my opinion, CrossFit is the best example for establishing strong, supportive encouragement from the instructors and fellow members. Having this support group around you can be hugely helpful is getting you to push yourself and reach higher heights. While you’re still getting encouragement when working one-on-one with a personal trainer, having a group of people pushing you on might be the motivation enhancement you need.

Accountability is one of the most important traits you need if you’re serious about reaching your fitness goals. Group training is excellent in keeping people accountable because it makes it harder to cheat since you have more eyes watching you. Oftentimes, you’ll be tasked with performing lifts in front of the group, and if the instructor tells you to do 10 reps, you better do all ten because your fellow members aren’t going to let you get away with doing less!

Having an injury, disability, or being completely new to training might lead one to feeling left out of several workouts, but this doesn’t always have to be the case. Experienced and knowledgeable group fitness trainers know that not everybody comes from the same starting line — you’re bound to find a variety of folks in your group that come from different skill levels and abilities, but they’re still able to train together. Trainers are able to do this by scaling the workouts to each individual’s ability level, for example, if push ups are on the workout of the day, the more advanced folks might be doing push ups with their feet on a bench and the newbies might be the other way around with their hands on the bench while the feet are on the floor.

A huge advantage group fitness has over one-on-one training with a personal trainer is its lower price. Since personal trainers are having to dedicate a sizable chunk of time while training and drawing up a single person’s workout that applies to his/her individual traits, capabilities, limitations, and so on, which means the price is going to be higher. On the contrary, with group workouts, a trainer can divide up the value of his rates among the trainees, thus making it less expensive for each member since they’re sharing the cost.

Personal Training is Better

If you’re completely new to lifting weights, I don’t care if it’s just for one month, working one-on-one with a personal trainer might be the smartest decision you make after signing up for your gym membership. I’m not talking about working with a trainer who gives you a brief rundown of the exercises he wants you to do, then moves to a different part of the gym to talk to another client or starts texting, while leaving you all by yourself without offering any feedback about your technique. One-on-one should mean one-on-one.

What makes working one-on-one with a personal trainer the best decision for every person new to working out and those who are just getting back to the gym? Technique, technique, technique. Getting real-time feedback about what needs to be corrected can save you from developing poor habits and reduce the risk of potential injuries. The goal of every good personal trainer is to see their clients become self-sufficient with their training and mirror the lessons taught during each session.

If you have a pre-existing limitation, such as getting the green light from your doctor to workout after knee surgery or some other health condition, the individual attention and personalized workouts that only come when working directly with a personal trainer is what you need. A knowledgeable personal trainer usually has previous experience in working with clients that had similar situations, or they’ve proactively researched and educated themselves about your situation. On the contrary, a group trainer, because they’re having to deal with large swaths of people, it’s literally impossible for the members of the group to get similarly personalized attention, which may pose increased risk of injury.

The journey to improved health and fitness is more than just showing up to the gym and lifting heavy things, it also includes the decisions you make with the foods you eat at home and  work. While I can’t blame folks for overlooking the importance of good nutrition because of all the movies and TV shows with glorified training montages, putting together meal preps for the week is not nearly as sexy. One of the main reasons why I earned my Master’s degree in Nutrition was to get a better understanding of the complicated nuances related to health and a person’s diet, that way I can better simplify it to relay that information to my clients to better help them reach their goals. Even if your personal trainer doesn’t have an advance degree like I do, a good trainer would research the answers to your questions and get back to you about that.

Conclusion

The road to better health is as unique to you as you are to the world, so trying to make the argument that group training is better than individual training with a personal trainer, or vise versa, is misguided. In fact, while both styles of training have a long history of success, neither of the two would work for some. Before you commit yourself to signing up for group workouts or training individually with a personal trainer, take an honest look at your circumstances, from your physical limitations to social desires to financial flexibility. The decision is yours to make, and if you find that one isn’t working well for you, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with changing your mind.