91: 5 Life Lessons Learned From Group X Classes (Beyond the Workout)

What If Group Fitness Was Never Just About Fitness? The Hidden Life Lessons Taught Inside Group X Classes...

What if every burpee, every stretch, every challenging moment in class was actually teaching you something that could transform your entire life? 

In this eye-opening episode of Group X Appeal, Kimberly and Terry reveal the five unexpected life lessons hidden inside group exercise—lessons that extend far beyond the studio into your relationships, career, parenting, and leadership.

Discover why showing up matters more than perfection, how community accelerates growth in ways solo workouts never can, and what group x classes teach you about resilience, courage, and doing hard things. 

Learn why energy is contagious (and what that means for instructors and participants alike), how progress compounds like a financial investment, and why the Kaizen principle of one-percent-better applies to every area of your life. Group X is indeed one of life's greatest teachers. 

Whether you're an instructor seeking deeper purpose in your teaching or a fitness enthusiast wondering why class feels so transformational, this conversation connects movement to meaning.

📣 Plus: Kimberly and Terry are calling for YOUR stories for an upcoming special episode, "The Class That Changed My Life." What moment in group fitness changed you? Send your story to groupxappeal@gmail.com - you may get a shout out on episode 94!

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube - @groupxappeal.

Questions or topic ideas? Email us @ groupxappeal@gmail.com

Get your FREE Guide To Holistic Well-Being here: https://gxaguide.com/

Stay Connected with Kimberly:
- @kimberlyspreenglick on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
- email: kimberly@theinspiredlifeuniversity.com
- website: www.theinspiredlifeuniversity.com

Stay Connected with Terry:
- @terryshorter on Instagram & Facebook
- email: terry@rippedplanet.com
- website: www.rippedplanet.com

Transcript

What if group fitness was never just about fitness? Yes, what if every class you've ever taken has actually been teaching you something about life? Well, today we are breaking down the unexpected life lessons hidden inside Group X.

Kimberly & Terry (00:17)
Hey there, hi there, ho there. Terry Shorty here with Kimberly Spreen Glick. This is episode 91, and we're going to be talking about how group exercise teaches us life lessons. You know, right? Group fitness may look like movement on the surface or from the outside, right? Looking in, but underneath it's so much deeper. It really does teach us things like resilience. It teaches confidence. It teaches discipline, vulnerability, and the power of.

definitely the power of community for sure. You know, the lessons that we learn in class, they don't stay in the studio. No. They follow us into our relationships, our careers, into parenting, into leadership and everyday life. And this episode is about the deeper meaning behind the movement. So we've got five life lessons that we've learned from Group Fitness. Yeah. ⁓ so you want to kick us off with the number one? Let's kick it off. The first one, the lesson that

both of us have learned is knowing that showing up is half the battle. Actually, I think more than half the battle. I would say 99.9% of the battle, right? Right. Just showing up. That's it. When you show up, that's when the magic happens. especially when you're surrounded by those like-minded, those like-spirited people who want to become more, right? And so ⁓ by showing up,

on a consistent basis, that's what beats perfection. We don't have to show up and try to be perfect every single time with every single movement that we're doing, every single rep. It's just about doing the best that we can when we, you know, get into the studio, when we step into the studio or in yoga, when we step onto our mats, just doing the best that we possibly can.

You know, I just had in class this morning, shout out to Fred. Ooh, who's Fred? Fred in my fit class this morning, he came up to me afterwards. He's like, I don't know if you noticed, but I I just didn't quite have the energy I usually have today. Right. We had just had surgery last week and he is back and one week later. Yeah. I mean, y th sometimes things in life take a toll and he said, But you I still wanted to get here and he's like, you know, it was really hard today and I'm like, It's okay. I'm like, You showed up. Right.

And showing up, it matters. Absolutely. So even if there may be those days where you don't feel like you're able to go all out, you know, showing up and being consistent, that's a that's a powerful lesson that doesn't just apply to group X, that is for sure. Absolutely. Yeah, great life lesson. And I as an instructor, I know you hear stories like that quite frequently, right? Someone may come up right before class starts and tell you exactly that. I can't give it my all today because of this injury or

you know, this life ⁓ experience that I'm currently going through. ⁓ but yeah, just giving them props, giving those them the kudos just for walking into the club, getting into the studio and ⁓ stepping in with the courage and stepping in with the resilience, right? Is is everything. Yep. Keeping a priority. Love it. For sure. So the second lesson is that carries over for sure beyond group fitness is you can do hard things. Wait, what? I it's true.

It's true. You know, the beauty of of being able to go into group fitness is that you're in this community environment. You have, you know, this group of people with you. And I think it actually encourages us to further get outside our comfort zone. And that is where growth lives. It grows just beyond or it grows. Growth lives just beyond your comfort zone. And so often I know in class when I'm teaching, I always tell people like, don't be afraid to get uncomfortable.

If there's anywhere in the world you're you're free to get uncomfortable knowing you're supported, it is right here. So sometimes we have to recognize that it's not always going to be easy, but that's okay because growth lives on the other side of the effort, of the hard. And so you know, I take that into life in in so many ways, both you know, in business and relationships, like things aren't always easy. Right. But when you are

feeling challenged, whether it be in a relationship or in the work that you do or whatever the case may be, and then you persevere to the other side of that challenge, you know, we're better for that effort for sure. For sure. Yeah. Just a growth, growth opportunity for sure. Love it, love it, love it. I love seeing other people do hard things 'cause it's it's inspiring. Makes me want to step up my game, makes me wanna ⁓ venture to ch ⁓ you know, kind of

Go find my edge wherever that may be and ⁓ take things to a different level. Cause ⁓ doing it by myself, I I can do it by myself. No problem, but it's not ne it's not nearly as fun, that's for sure. Not as fun. I don't think it's as fulfilling. No. Yeah. No. So yes, so you can do hard things. You can. So we can all do it. Yeah. And it's much more fun than soft things. So in any event, energy, it's contagious, right? Energy is contagious. You're

You're contagious right now. Your energy, your laughter right now makes me want to laugh for some reason too. But I'm not gonna do it because I don't I don't want my makeup to run. So I'm gonna keep it together. Yeah, he leaves that to me. He just lets my makeup run. It's fine. Yeah. So when we talked about stepping into a group exercise environment, we've talked about this before in so many past episodes. The people around you, they not just influence your movement and your energy, they ⁓ they influence your mindset. Yeah. You know, like I said, ⁓ you know.

Seeing other people truly does inspire me. I'll look around and see, you know, a woman who's pregnant, seven, eight months pregnant, getting the push-ups, lifting, you know, lifting heavy weights. They're going for it. I'll see someone who's 20, 30 years older than I am, doing burpees and you know, just crazy. Like living, living life, man, just on fire. ⁓ that energy is definitely inspiring. It's contagious and makes me want to be better. So I love that.

It's so true. Energy is something that we talk about as instructors a lot. And in fact, in the the five star program that we teach at Lifetime, one of the things we talk about is the fact that when you walk into a room, so this is, you know, certainly for instructors listening, but when you walk into a room, it's important that you check yourself because if you walk in before you do what? Wreck yourself. Yeah, check yourself before you wreck yourself.

But whatever attitude, whatever energy you walk in, like it's it's going to spread. Yeah. You know, and if you walk in happy to be there, others are gonna feel that and they're gonna be happy to be there. If you walk in they're like, ⁓ gotta be here. That's going to spread. Yeah. Actually, actually magnified. Yeah, okay when it comes for you from you as a leader. Sure. like it like it's coming through a megaphone. Absolutely. When I first stepped into a management role

I had a sign above the instructor office door that said, ⁓ attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching? ⁓ So and that's your energy, your attitude. So yeah, that one's huge. I love it. That's that's a good sign to have up. I know, right? Is yours worth catching? And by the way, that applies to ⁓ participants too. Yeah. Your attitude can be quite contagious as well. Your energy can be quite contagious. For sure. Yeah. So come in, happy to be there because we sure are happy to see you. Mm-hmm.

So the fourth lesson, this kind of, you know, is an expansion of that second lesson we talked about and the idea of community. Community can help us do hard things that sometimes would be s more of a struggle to do on our own, but community as a whole is its own lesson. And that that is that community changes everything. When we have support in anything in life. And so group X is no different than when you're going through any other challenging time in your life.

When you have the support of people who care about you, the supportive community, not only does it feel like a a more fun and a more fulfilling experience, but it accelerates the growth that we're there to accomplish. a hundred percent. So a community, I mean, you and I both for both of us, I think the commun community is probably the number one draw for group fitness. For sure. ⁓ for sure. So important. Yeah, and ⁓ you know, when you are in the community and you're looking to

Let's say for example, you want to get stronger, you wanna get leaner, you wanna improve your cardiovascular health, it expedites when you're around those those those people that are looking to improve themselves as well. it happens a lot faster and like you said, and also in a more fun fulfilling way, but it helps move things along a lot faster than trying to do it on your own. I just feel like ⁓ again.

We each can do our our workouts and we can work independently on our businesses. But when we work synergistically, like this, right? Cohesively, synergistically, energetically, collaboratively. you know, it so much more magic can happen in that sort of environment. and so

Not to mention we're just simply hardwired for connection. As humans, we are emotional beings. We are hardwired for connection to each other. So it's powerful. Yeah. So stay connected. Yes. Stay connected. If you're looking to change. If not, just just do what you're doing by yourself. Good luck. Don't do that. Don't do that. We're just teasing. So ⁓ a fifth tip or point in, you know, in ⁓ you know, a life changing lesson when it comes to group X is progress happens.

Only one step at a time. That's it. There's no there's no skipping steps. Right. There aren't any quantum leaps. there's no magic potion. There's no, you know, one ticket or or one pill that'll get you there. You know, trust me, if there were, we would be telling you about it. For sure. We'd be the first to tell you about it, right? ⁓ but really transformation is built slowly, it's built consistently. You know, Rome wasn't built in a day. You've heard that adage, you've heard

slow and steady always wins the race. There's so many different adages in there. They're out there and they've stood the test of time for a reason. Even still today, with the best technology that's out there, the best, you know, the best pharmaceuticals out there and supplements that are out there now today, even with those things readily available for any of us and all of us to to to utilize, still nothing will be consistency. Consistency builds discipline. Discipline built hat builds habits, habits, you know. ⁓

Create a lifestyle, right? And that of course builds legacy. And so never try to skip the steps because it just doesn't work. ⁓ it's interesting, you know, I have a have a have a a client who's very well aware of, you know, the fact that he's put on weight. He's put on like 30 pounds, he said. And ⁓ he said, I know it's gonna take time for me to shed this weight because it took

a lot of time to put it on, right? So I realized it's not gonna happen it this week or next week or even the next couple of months. I've got thirty pounds to lose and he was very, very realistic. Thank goodness. Thank goodness, right? That's why I'm sharing the story because there's a lot of people who don't they they're not tapped into reality in that way. They think I I got it, you know, I gotta lose these this these pounds now. I w I need to look better now. I wanna feel better now. Yeah. But it's a process.

And if you're just patient and you are committed to that reason why. You don't get swole like this overnight. Right. I mean look at Kimberly. If you're on YouTube, you can see it. Yeah, and if you can't see it, go to YouTube or come to one of our classes. You'll see these seams busting busting out. Just about to or not. Or not. Or not. RG H Hulk.

I mean progress is so huge. That's why we always talk about Kaizen. Yeah. You know, getting one percent better and and recognizing that sometimes progress is not a straight linear trajectory. It's it is, you know, ups and downs and sometimes we have to go back two steps to go forward again and that's okay as long as over time we're on the path to

To reaching our our full potential is what we're all here to do. Absolutely. So huge. Yeah, yeah. So investing in your wellness is like ⁓ investing financially. Some people think that their investments are going to get them rich overnight. There's no such thing. You know, over time, just like investing money, your wellness will compound as long as you're consistent. Mm, like that. Good analogy. Absolutely.

So those are the lessons we wanted to share with you. And of course, it's not an all-inclusive list. We want to hear from you what are, you know, lessons that you've learned from Group X, because we we get it, you know, group fitness, it might look like a workout, but for so many of us, I'd say for most of us, it's honestly become one of life's greatest teachers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And as we do get closer to episode 94, we would absolutely love to hear.

Your story. Yes. Was there a like a class or an instructor or a moment in Group X that changed your life? Send us your story. You can either DM us, send us a message through Instagram or send an email to groupxapeal at gmail.com.

Because we may feature your experience in our upcoming special episode, The Class That Changed My Life. Yes, I can't wait for that. That's gonna be so fun. Yeah, so please bring it. Your story is golden and we wanna share its value with the rest of the community because you never know who it could possibly inspire and potentially change their life. Yeah. Right. I'm ready to be inspired. So send your stories. How will a group in this change your life? For sure.

Yep. my goodness, we said that together. We did, we did. Unbelievable. So that's it for us. I'm Terry Shorter. I'm Kimberly Spreen Glick And as always, we encourage you to make it a great day. And why? Because it is a great day to have. Yes, it is. Much love.