Group Class vs. Personal Training: Who Gets the Most Success?

Are you trying to decide between a large group fitness class and one-on-one personal training? In this episode of Strong Principles, Zach, Rob, and Larry break down the two main training models at VeroStrength.

They reveal the truth behind group class programming: while it's fantastic for community and general strength, it's designed for the majority. You'll hear candid stories about the type of personality that gets discouraged in a large class setting, and why the coaches believe your mindset is more critical than your physical ability when it comes to long-term success.

Discover why an individual assessment is vital, how a strong foundation and comfort are non-negotiable, and how many people eventually find their sweet spot with a hybrid approach. If you're nervous about starting your fitness journey or just not seeing results in your current setting, this episode will help you choose the path that will keep you motivated and progressing!

Zach (00:01)
All right, guys. Welcome to Strong Principles. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Zack Bragg.

Rob (00:05)
And I'm Rob Dela Cruz.

Larrt (00:06)
I'm Larry Medina.

Zach (00:08)
And today we are talking about a group class programming, or a large group class programming. Who is it for? Who is it not for? What's the benefits? Would it be good for you to be in that type of environment or not?

Rob (00:20)
Yeah, because what we run here at Barrel strength, we have a large group. It's basically a strength and conditioning program that uses all different principles and methods that we combine. And then we have personal training, which is a really big... It's grown over the years. It's gotten quite a bit bigger. Then we have a small group, and then we'll do small teams and stuff here and there, intermittently. Zack does a lot. One, Zack heads all the personal training, but he does a lot of personal training. We all do. Most of the coaches do some personal training. But the thing is, we wanted to have basically at least a two-prong approach, because what we were seeing is at one point in time, we were all a large group. And what I mean large group is it could be anywhere from 10 up to 24 is the biggest. That's what I mean by large group on there as far as class. We have had them get bigger, but the average is the biggest it gets is 24 is what we handle. We used to be all large group back in the day, but I saw a group model.

Rob (01:21)
The way it's programed, it's set in a bell curve, and you're trying to program for the majority of the people. Okay? I saw certain personalities get lost in it, and it was very dependent. It's not for everybody. And then that's when we decided, Hey, we really want to make a bigger push into the personal training.

Larrt (01:45)
When you say-And that was years ago. Yeah. When you say personalities get lost, you mean they would just leave or they would become vocal about, Hey, this isn't really working out for me?

Rob (01:59)
Yeah. And so all of it, all of it we could see. So what you see in a large group model is the programming is set at a certain spot as far as people's abilities. You can regress and progress or whatever you need to do. So What we saw with people when they come in is they're not at a certain level, so then they can get lost. Coaches are there to help, but it's not designed for them personally. And so what we tend to I see what was happening here and there, and it still does. We'll quickly be like, Hey, we do not think this group. One, you want to be in a certain spot as far as your abilities, but it's not just your abilities, it's understanding the abilities that you're at and how to deal with things when you run into them that you're not able to do. We really try to teach that if you're doing a squat, let's say it's a back squat, and that movement doesn't work well for someone, we try to go and empower them to understand, okay, most people are doing this back squat, but these three people throughout this class need to do a different version of the squat.

Rob (03:12)
Don't get upset that these people can do it. It could be like, you have a former injury, your anatomy set up not right for... I mean, there could be multiple different things that are going on, why this movement doesn't work for you. But you're still doing a squat pattern. And that's That's why we're not married to exercises, and we tell people not to be married to exercises. But we try to empower you to know what to do ahead of time. So you're not so reliant on us and you're not lost. We tend to see people that judge yourself against other people.

Zach (03:47)
Not do well. They don't see.

Rob (03:51)
Not do well. They get upset when other people can do things, and they feel like they should, but they don't realize those people started at a certain place. Those people should be a little more in personal training where where we can design the actual workout for them.

Larrt (04:04)
What's the saying? Comparison is a thief of joy. Correct.

Rob (04:06)
We see it all the time. So I'll give you a statistic. 100% of the people that have cried because of something they couldn't do never stayed.

Zach (04:17)
Yeah.

Larrt (04:18)
Yeah. And I get that too, right? Because I say it to people all the time. If you walk into a gym, somebody's making fun of you, that guy's problem, right? Yeah.

Rob (04:30)
And nobody's making it funny. Nobody's really looking at you. Nobody's really looking at you. They're worried about what they're doing.

Zach (04:35)
That's another thing is that you have to... Yeah. And so maybe people are nervous about coming into the gym. And so that's another thing is you might think that people are looking at you for doing something different or not doing as much weight. You might not suit well in a group class. And so the way we have it, you have to be very intuitive as a coach to realize. And then also not only be able to realize, but then be able to communicate that in a way that they're going to understand and not feel like, well, then I'm being left out of the group class. And they might need personal training or maybe just personalized programming or whatever it is. So the way we set it up, we've talked about it before, but we do an assessment with them, and then we have everybody go through a fundamental, which could be a number of sessions, or it could be just one session or two sessions. And in that period of fundamentals, when you're taking them through those one on one sessions, you're going to get a lot of knowledge about not only the way that person is physically and the way they move, which should be a good indicator of whether they go into classes or not, but also their personality.

Zach (05:27)
Maybe they just won't, maybe they just won't suit well in a Maybe in that class atmosphere, they're not going to progress the most. They're going to compare themselves a lot. Then you have to be very intuitive as a coach to be able to communicate that, Hey, you will get the most out of personal training or the most out of personalized programming. The classes are just not going to suit you very well. And yes, they will just leave. I know you asked that question. They get into a group class and it's not suiting them. Oftentimes, it's better if you can get that ahead of time rather than just putting them into the class and then having them go through that. You might lose that client because then it's like, All right, group class doesn't work for me. The whole gym doesn't work for me. But it's not that case. You could have them do personals. And then sometimes it's harder to get them to commit going personals after that or explaining to them that, Hey, the group class isn't working. So if you can get to them ahead of time, it's far better.

Rob (06:12)
Because I'm going to jump in. So Jack communicated that 100%. Like I said, when you're doing a group class, it's a bell curve. So not 100% of the people are going to be able to do all the programming. It is what it is, so you need to know that. You're trying to get the majority of the audience, okay? If you got a program that everybody can do, then that's probably not a very good program.

Larrt (06:40)
Right. What I was going to piggyback on was, you mentioned losing the client. It's more than that, too, though, right? Because in all seriousness, the way I look at this is like, I'm an individual. I walk into a place. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. The hardest part is walking in, right? And so for me, what basically you don't want to do, besides just losing the client, even for the individual-You're losing the client to fitness. To fitness. Not just the gym. Yeah, exactly. And so 100 %, right? And so as the individual, I hope that somebody listens and you just walk in. And that's the hardest part is walking in. But then once you're in, don't get discouraged, right? Because you're walking in for a reason. You're walking in because you want to better yourself. You want to do something that's good for yourself. And so in reality, what you should do is just stick with it. Don't compare yourself to anyone except for yourself. Am I better off tomorrow than I am today? That's the only thing you should really worry about.

Rob (07:44)
And you're 100% right. And we're here to help. We want to help. Now, from what we've seen, it has less to do with their ability, which you think it would, and more to do with their personality. I have clients that we've had a long time, and they don't have high ability, but they have an understanding of what they need to do, and they're really happy that they're doing some version of what we're doing. And then you get another individual that's upset that they can't do exactly what most people are doing. And so then when you see that, instead of being encouraged, what the group class does a lot of times is encourage people because everyone's together. It's like they get discouraged a lot of times. And I've seen that group class. Now, sometimes we get people and we're trying, and These guys are really intuitive, and all of us are like, no, man, I'm not sure this group class is great for them. And you try to gently keep them. It has nothing to do with the money. It's like, We think this is a better fit doing one-on-ones for a little while until you get more comfortable.

Rob (08:46)
What we run into a lot of times, it is a cost. And sometimes they see that group class and it's like, Oh, this is a lot cheaper, which I understand it is. But no matter what, if I'm setting you up not for success, then I'm not going to do it. I'd rather not make any money at all.

Zach (09:04)
Our goal is to create the safest, most comfortable, and best environment for you to be able to progress. And oftentimes, that's why you see people who come into a gym and they're scared to come into a gym because they maybe had a bad experience before. And there's no personality mold, I don't think. It's not like, Oh, you're introverted, you need to be in personal training. You're extroverted. You can be in group classes. There's no mold with that. It just depends on the person, depends on their past experiences, and depends on what they want out of training, too. But with everybody, we want them, if you're set up in an atmosphere where you're comfortable, you're safe, you're going to progress in your same progression, over time, maybe that'll change, where all of a sudden now you're good enough. You could go into group classes or not good enough, but now you are comfortable enough to where you could go into group classes or any gym, for that matter. It's mainly about not turning them off fitness. So you brought up a good point there is that you got to be in a good environment to be able to be...

Zach (10:05)
Want to continue to train.

Larrt (10:07)
Get your foundations in. Be comfortable. That's really what it's all about. Just being comfortable. And then being like when Rob is squatting 500 pounds, I'll be like, damn, that's good for you.

Rob (10:20)
And I don't score 500.

Larrt (10:22)
But you see what I'm saying? You're benching X. Don't compare yourself to that person. Just be Be happy for that person. And that's something you can strive for later.

Rob (10:32)
So we really work really hard with the group class is trying to get people to be independent, even though the coaches are there. But the more independent... The more you know how to take care of yourself, I see the more effective programs are with people. And a lot of times, as they get to a place where they almost know as much as a coach. So now you really can take control of your fitness. And then we come in, we provide the workout, we help the coach, and we They come in. But you know, Oh, it's not a great movement for this. It's something feels weird. Or maybe I jumped off a boat, now my back's bothering me. I'm going to do this version. Perfect. Let's do it. You're still doing a squat or a hinge or whatever.

Larrt (11:12)
Yeah. And the one thing I can tell you, about a place like VeroStrength is that you have a good community. I think that's also key. Community is huge. Yeah, because that community will bring up that person if they allow themselves to be brought up. If they allow themselves to be vulnerable a little bit and squat just the bar, and that's okay.

Rob (11:39)
Just to sit down to a bench and stand up.

Larrt (11:42)
Yeah. And then eventually, the person that is squatting 500 pounds is going to come around and be like, Come on, let's go.

Rob (11:49)
They love it. Yeah, we love it. I mean, the coaches are always there to help. They're always there to help. It's the more you're trying to learn, the more It's like a give a take. So the more we see you put in, the more we're trying to put in. But if we see you start pushing back and then we're trying to help, you don't want to be on top of someone all the time. So we're always playing that like, flying game a little bit with people. Yeah.

Zach (12:14)
Our members do a great job. We have a really good community. But again, it's like one of those things where maybe somebody hops into the right class and they really connect with a couple of those members in that class. And it seems like the group class is good for them. But then they jump in another class. And again, you got different personalities, different people in that class, and they feel like they're an outcast. And it's like, I don't belong to be in this class. And that's why you have different times and people come to different times because they fall into that community. But some people it's just, you know what? Personal training is better for them. A personalized program is better for them. You're going to see more results that way. You're going to enjoy your time in the gym more, so you need to go that route.

Rob (12:47)
Yeah, and you want to remember with personal training, and we all do them both, and I love them both, actually. I love our group class, but I love personal training, too. It's very individualized. So now you're never really going to run into a movement that you can't do because the coach is picking that movement for you. That is best for you for your goals. So the personal training is always going to be better in a group. You just don't have the advantages of the group of being there for people to cheer them on. But the group class and being able to not only be an effective, but being able to succeed in it has got more to do with your personality than it does your ability. I say that every time.

Larrt (13:30)
That makes total sense. Yeah.

Zach (13:31)
And then a lot of times people sometimes run into a hybrid. So maybe we tell them we start off with personal training. That's going to be a better suit for you. They get six months to a year into personal training. It's like, wow, you're doing great, doing awesome. Maybe you stick with doing just now one personal training session a week or two, and then you jump into the class for one or two sessions a week. So a lot of people will run into a hybrid then at some point. And so it does change, again, how safe, how comfortable, how much are you enjoying the gym? It gets better and better, and then people turn into a hybrid of the two.

Rob (13:58)
Yeah, we have that a lot.

Larrt (13:59)
Yeah. And so how does that look like? Because you're training for the build curve, and then you're on my personal day. What are we hitting?

Rob (14:09)
We're hitting things that you're most likely telling us. A lot of times, we're personal training. It's a goal. What are the things that you want to accomplish? And then we're going to try to gravitate towards that for you. So for instance, let's say you're coming in a group class, you're getting your general strength, and I'd like to work on a little more conditioning individually, or I'd like to work a little more on my mobility or my golf swing. So then we're going to gear that personal training session to that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Larrt (14:41)
Well, appreciate it, gentlemen. All right. Awesome, guys. Thank you.

Zach (14:42)
Thank you. This has been strong principles.