Strength in numbers

Strength training may be an essential part of a fitness program, but it also can be boring, bewildering or even intimidating to those who see the weight room as a place for muscle-bound hulks.

The alternative to going one-on-one with a weight machine is strength-training classes. Offering full-body weight workouts in a group exercise setting, classes such as Body Pump, New Definitions and Powerflex use relatively lightweight barbells and dumbbells, plus resistance equipment. Participants do high repetitions on bench presses, squats, lunges, biceps curls and upright rows.

“Usually, unless you’ve worked with a personal trainer, you don’t have a good idea of what to do,” says Keli Roberts, group fitness manager for Equinox in Pasadena. “In a class, you’ve got the music and the whole group energy that really motivates people to work harder. They get a little competitive with each other.”

Classes can serve as an entree to strength training for the uninitiated, says Charles Little, assistant director of fitness education for Bally Total Fitness, which offers Straight Up Strength and Powerflex classes. “It’s especially true for women, who may be intimidated. It gives them an opportunity to try it in an environment they’re familiar with, with a teacher who will ensure they’re doing the right thing.”

After taking classes consistently, he adds, many women see positive changes in their bodies that prompt them to go into the weight training room by themselves. “It’s a steppingstone,” Little says.

“One of the biggest stumbling blocks is convincing women that they’re not going to bulk up when they do weights, but they need to add muscle mass, especially as they age.”

New on the group strength scene is the Gravity System, which uses machines adapted from ones designed primarily for knee and hip replacement rehabilitation. In a class setting, each student has his or her own machine, which has an adjustable, gliding incline bench, plus cables and pulleys used for resistance training.

Using music to set the pace, the teacher leads the class through a variety of exercises that work everything from the quadriceps to the triceps.

The Hollywood-Wilshire YMCA began offering such classes in November, and they’re almost always full.

The gliding motion of the bench and the smooth action of the cables are designed to be a little easier on the muscles, says Colleen Foughner, the Y’s personal fitness director. She adds that the incline and the cable system both take pressure off the spine.

“People like doing strength training this way because they don’t have to lug the weights off the rack, and they’re just working on one piece of equipment the whole class,” Foughner says.

Although group strength-training classes are beneficial, fitness experts agree that they have limitations and should be done in addition to, or as an introduction to, working out with heavier free or machine weights, which increase bone density and muscle mass.

“These are great for functional-fitness everyday-life activities because you are working the musculoskeletal system,” says Len Kravitz, senior exercise physiologist for San Diego-based IDEA, an organization of health and fitness professionals. “But when you have a one-type-for-all training program, it doesn’t take into account differences in age and gender and body composition.

“I like to work out in a weight room, but most people can’t keep it up. If [these kinds of classes] mean people could keep up consistent workouts, who knows in years to come how much more beneficial it will be for them?”

Roberts suggests that weightlifting novices start with low weights -- 5- or 8-pound dumbbells, or a 15-pound barbell. She cautions, however, that students sometimes get too used to a light weight and won’t push themselves to lift more. “You never really allow yourself to progress,” she explains. “That, and having a limited amount of equipment, are the downfalls of a class.”

The continuing national demand for group strength training is inspiring teachers to come up with variations; the Hollywood-Wilshire Y plans to adapt the Gravity machines for use in Pilates classes, and later this year, Bally will introduce Powerflex Extreme. That, according to Little, is strength training done on an unstable surface, such as a Bosu ball, to further strengthen the core muscles. “We’re going to turn up the intensity,” he says.