Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
- More companies are opting for group fitness classes as a way to promote team building.
- Employees say working out with colleagues helps them connect in a different way.
- From pop-up classes to swanky office gyms, wellness culture has officially infiltrated the workplace.
Joseph Dube, 40, is not a gym rat.
“I went to art school,” he told Business Insider. “‘Buff’ is not a superlative I would give myself.”
Despite this, Dube recently braved the gym for a bootcamp-style HITT class with his coworkers at NY-based investing firm KraneShares. By the time he was done rotating through the 45-second stations, he was shaking. He said he was sore for days after but enjoyed the experience and learned more about his colleagues.
“Even after we were done and everyone was out of breath and tired, then we just hung out and got the protein drinks,” he said, adding that he came out of the class feeling better than he would have if they’d gone out for drinks.
KraneShares, a roughly 30-person firm, isn’t the only company leaning into fitness. Staffing agency Woods & Co. recently held a wellness day in New York, which included a walk in Central Park followed by pickleball. In Orlando, the founder of fintech company Biller Genie hosted about 80 employees for a field day at her house, complete with a three-legged race, tug-of-war station, and wakeboarding.
From team bonding to swanky in-office gyms, the message is clear: Wellness culture has officially invaded the workplace.
“Instead of happy hours and traditional team-building exercises, people are opting to take Pilates together, or a fitness session, a spin class,” Nic Wilson, an F45 Training athlete and trainer, told Business Insider.
A boost to corporate bookings
While companies are investing in movement in different ways, fitness studios told Business Insider they’ve seen a notable uptick in corporate demand.
HIIT studio chain Barry’s has seen a surge in companies booking private classes for employees. Firms are also reserving spots for employees in public classes, or paying to bring instructors to conferences or other events.
The fitness brand told Business Insider its corporate events and bookings business saw a 55% increase this year compared to 2024.
F45’s Wilson said he’s also seen an increase in corporate interest since the pandemic, especially from entertainment and media companies, since he’s based in Los Angeles.
In addition to teaching classes in offices and studios, he travels to lead workouts at conferences and corporate gatherings, ranging from 30-minute team-building sweat sessions to full wellness programming built into multi-day conferences.
Wilson said F45 has gone from booking an average of one corporate fitness event a month at an off-site or conference, to as many as four.
Barry’s executive VP of brand and communications, Vicky Land said that HR departments started to recognize that not everyone wanted to go to dinner and drinks with coworkers.
“People are much less likely to actually cancel a workout than they will be to text you that they’re not going to come to drinks,” Land said, adding that employees see a personal benefit to attending a workout class — not just a networking opportunity.
Plus, amid employers’ push for RTO, Land said “pop-up workouts” at offices have become yet another way to encourage workers to show up in person.
“How can you make it even more appealing and more valuable for the organization when the people are together?” Land said.
Finding new ways to connect
Squatting next to your boss may sound like an odd way to break the ice, but working out alongside colleagues can actually help fuel a deeper connection. A 2016 University of Oxford study found that moving energetically or in sync with others can help people feel closer to one another.
That was the case for KraneShares employees.
“When exercises got difficult or workouts got really tough, we pushed each other through,” KraneShares office manager and HR associate Nathalie Perez told Business Insider.
Perez said the fitness initiative helps with retention and employee engagement, and ideally, “translates into better performance as a company.”
Companies that embrace health and wellness are also investing in the future of their workforce. McKinsey’s Future of Wellness survey report, published in May, said that while other generations are embracing health and wellness, Gen Z and Millennials are leading the charge.
Barry’s Land said Gen Z and millennials have “flipped the script” on social activities, pointing to an increase in day spas opening up and TikTok trends involving people opting for first dates at workout studios, rather than at a bar.
“Twenty years ago, all we were doing was going for drinks and food,” Land said. “You’d never be like, ‘hey, this Friday there’s a cool DJ playing at a fitness studio, and they’re doing N/A drinks afterward — like, let’s go.'”
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