Get Fit Together, Build a Fitness Habit and Reap the Healthy Benefits!

The following is a post sponsored by LES MILLS. For our sponsored post policy, click here.

We are huge fans of group fitness classes—they’re fun, they get you out of your comfort zone, and they get results. In fact, they’re one of our favorite ways to mix things up, try new moves and make new fit friends! So when we recently had the chance to partner up with LES MILLS (you know, the creators of the amazing group fitness classes BODYPUMP and BODYCOMBAT, among so many others) for a series of sponsored posts, we were super duper excited. We’re such fans!

And while we know that LES MILLS classes work at getting people fit and healthier, turns out, Les Mills has been doing some research to prove that their workouts, well, work. The Get Fit Together study conducted at Pennsylvania State University and published in the Open Journal of Preventive Medicine had 25 sedentary people take a 30-week program made up solely of LES MILLS group fitness classes. This program was based on the American College of Sports Medicine’s physical activity guidelines that suggest an hour of cardio exercise two to five days a week, eight to 10 strength exercises two days a week, and flexibility exercises once a week. Research participants were able to eat whatever they liked, and participation in the program was voluntary.

And here are a few of the results from the study…

Pretty amazing, right?! LES MILLS classes work! We are particularly smitten with the study’s 98.8 percent compliance rate. The average compliance for a study like this is 63 to 88 percent, so this shows that when beginning any fitness program, you need to do it gradually to ensure that you stick with it and build a real habit of fitness.

Other fun facts from the study:

• Ease in for best results. Beginners should start with LES MILLS classes like BODYPUMP and RMP, which aren’t quite as intimidating as, say, their more advanced and choreographed classes. Then, once feeling comfortable, beginners can branch out to more more technically demanding classes, such as BODYSTEP or BODYATTACK.
• You can get huge gains in health by working out, even if you don’t change your diet. The people taking LES MILLS programs had their HDL Cholesterol (the good kind) increase by an average of 16 percent (most studies see an increase of 8 percent) and LDL Cholesterol (the bad kind) decreased by 8 percent (most studies see an average decrease of 2 to 4 percent). Overall, the Get Fit Together study lowered participants’ cardiovascular disease risk by 3 percent, which equates to adding 2.1 years to their life expectancy!
• You can lose weight and build muscle with just group fitness. Over the course of the study, participants’ body fat decreased by an average of 8 percent for men and 5 percent for women—and their muscle mass increased by an average of 5 pounds for men and 2 pounds for women. Dang!
• Taking regular group fitness classes boosts fitness—and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. People who began the Get Fit Together study with an “inadequate” level of fitness ended the study with “above average” fitness levels. The average cardiovascular increase over the course of the study was 57 percent (comparable studies have an average increase of 33 percent). This means participants, on average, effectively delayed the onset of cardiovascular disease by three years.

Our favorite part of all of these results though is that the LES MILLS classes are FUN! You want to do them. And when you do? Man, amazing things happen, as was shown in the research!

What’s your favorite benefit of group fitness classes? —Jenn