Why Group Classes Might Be Just Spinning Your Wheels, And What To Do About it

You've been showing up three, four times a week. You're sweating, you're sore, you feel like you're doing something. But when you look in the mirror or test your lifts, nothing's changed.

Six months in, it's the same body. Same weights. Same frustration.

Here's what nobody tells you: group classes aren't the problem. The problem is thinking they're a complete training program.

Classes Are Great. They're Just Not Programs.

I see this pattern constantly at the gym. Someone signs up for a boot camp or HIIT class membership, shows up religiously, works hard, and genuinely believes they're "on a program." They're not. They're getting workouts, which is not the same thing.

A workout is what you do today. A program is what you do over the next 8, 12, 16 weeks with a clear progression in mind. Workouts make you tired. Programs make you stronger.

Group classes are designed for whoever walks through the door that day. That means the programming has to be generic enough to accommodate the 55-year-old who hasn't lifted in a decade and the 28-year-old who played college sports. The result? A workout that's challenging enough to feel hard but not specific enough to create meaningful adaptation for anyone.

And that's totally fine, if you know what you're signing up for. But most people don't. They think consistent attendance equals progress. It doesn't always.

And I'm also not saying that you won't see any progress at all by doing them. If you're someone that hasn't been exercising at all then starts doing them, you will see some changes for sure. How long you will see changes for before hitting a plateau is the main point. (and not all gyms are like this. I know a few that actually take the time to create good programming)

Progressive Overload Doesn't Happen By Accident

Here's the uncomfortable truth: your body adapts to demand. If the demand never increases, neither does your capacity.

Progressive overload is the principle that you need to gradually increase the stress placed on your body during training in order to continue making gains. That means more weight, more reps, more sets, shorter rest periods, something that systematically ramps up over time.

Most group classes can't deliver that because they're not tracking your individual performance week to week. The instructor doesn't know if you squatted 135 pounds last Tuesday or if you hit 10 reps or 15. They're not writing your next session based on what you did in your last one. They're writing a session that works for the room. And if you're in one of the large group exercise classes limited to smaller weights and with formats based on time, then yeah you're going to cap out on what you can do when you get to a more advanced level.

So you end up doing roughly the same difficulty of workout every time you show up. You might use different exercises or formats to keep it interesting, but the actual training stress stays flat. And flat stress means flat results.

What I See In The Gym

I watch this play out all the time. Someone who's been in classes for months finally decides to work with a coach or follow an actual program. Within 4-6 weeks, they're shocked at how much their lifts have moved.

It's not because they weren't working hard before. It's because nobody was managing the variables. Nobody was saying, "Last week you deadlifted 185 for 8 reps, so this week we're going for 185 for 10, or 195 for 6." Nobody was building in deload weeks when fatigue accumulated. Nobody was adjusting based on how their body was responding.

The structure was missing. And without structure, that's where wheels just spin.

So What Do You Actually Need?

You don't need to abandon group classes. If you enjoy them, keep going. They're great for conditioning, community, and accountability. But you need to pair them with something that actually builds strength week to week.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

You need a progressive strength program, ideally 2-3 days a week, where you're tracking your lifts and intentionally adding load or volume over time. This doesn't have to be complicated. A simple linear progression on a handful of key movements (squat, hinge, press, pull) will get most people very far.

You need to track your performance. Write down what you did. If you can't remember what you lifted last week, you can't beat it this week. Period.

You need to manage fatigue intelligently. That means deload weeks, auto-regulation based on how you feel, and understanding that more is not always better. If you're doing five high-intensity group classes a week and trying to add heavy lifting on top, you're going to burn out or get hurt.

And you need patience. Real strength takes months and years to build, not weeks. The people who see the best results are the ones who commit to a process and trust it long enough to work.

Group classes are a tool. They're not a complete solution.

If you've been stuck at the same weights, the same body composition, the same level of strength for months, it's not because you're not working hard enough. It's because you're not on a program that's designed to take you anywhere.

Effort matters. But effort without direction is just expensive sweat.

Your Next Step

If you want to test this yourself: pick one thing to track this week. Write down the weights you use for your main lifts, or how many reps you hit on a key exercise. Next week, try to beat it by even one rep. That's simple progression. Do that for 8 weeks and you'll be somewhere different than you are today.

But if you're tired of figuring this out on your own, that's exactly what I help people with. I work with busy professionals who don't have time to waste spinning their wheels on programs that don't work. We build sustainable strength without the guesswork, without the complexity, and without demanding your entire life revolve around the gym.

If that sounds like what you need, let's talk. You can reach me at thesecondrep@gmail.com or check out the link below to learn more about how I work with clients.

Or keep doing what you're doing and hope it works out differently this time.

Talk soon,

Chris Clarke, CSCS