As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to exacerbate burnout and fatigue, many people are eager to take a deep breath and find a more balanced lifestyle — at home, in the office and in the gym.
There are signs that the mental health benefits of exercise are now even more sought after than physical health. The top two reasons Americans are exercising right now are to reduce stress and feel better mentally, according to a 2022 trend report from online fitness class scheduling platform Mindbody. That’s a striking change, even compared to the recent pre-pandemic past; weight control and looking better were the top motivations for many exercisers in 2019, according to Mindbody’s report that year.
Similar trends are emerging in the scientific literature, said Genevieve Dunton, director of health behavior research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “People are reporting slightly different motivations for wanting to be active than they were before the pandemic,” Dunton said. “The reasons are of course more to reduce stress, release anxiety and improve sleep”.
The link between physical activity and mental health has been proven. Mood-boosting “runners’ highs” have been talked about for at least half a century, and countless studies—including one Dunton conducted during the pandemic—confirmed that exercise can improve mental health and mood, and even May prevent or reduce depressive symptoms in some people. But the pandemic appears to herald a cultural shift in the fitness world, as it has in many other places. Mental health is no longer a happy side effect of a workout regimen designed to burn calories or build six-pack abs. For many, it’s all about it now.
“When the world is turned upside down, everything changes,” Dunton said. “If a person is dealing with sleep problems or is feeling very anxious or stressed, that becomes the number one priority, while other priorities shift down.”
Fitness brands have already seized on the change, says Natalia Melman-Pezra, associate professor of history at the New School and author of the forthcoming book “Healthy Nation,” about the history and culture of American exercise: “You More sports are now seeing themselves marketing themselves as [promoting] mental health or self-care rather than [having] a competitive, hard-driven spirit,” she said.
Ultra-intensity fitness studios are even adjusting to the era. Chief Operating Officer Elvira Yambot said Tone House, which offers exercise conditioning classes often called the hardest workouts in New York City, recently lowered the intensity. The brand recently started offering intermediate and introductory versions of its signature workouts, recognizing that “you probably don’t [always] want to hit 500 percent intensity in advanced classes” — and that many have been overly sedentary over the past few years after , a little out of shape, Yambot said.
More people are now booking recovery services than before the pandemic to help them stay healthy, such as treatment at Tone House’s NormaTec compression therapy facility, Yambot added. Both Mindbody and fitness startup ClassPass have pointed to “recovery services” — such as massages and sauna sessions — as a growing trend in recent reports, and The Wall Street Journal has also reported on the number of rest and recovery classes popping up in traditional gyms.
Yambot said Tone House is considering adding more wellness services, possibly even yoga classes, to its schedule. That might be surprising given the brand’s reputation, but “it’s back to a more balanced wellness program and a bigger lifestyle,” Yambot said. “It’s not a trendy term anymore. Work-life balance is something that even New Yorkers are looking to incorporate now, more than ever.” (For the record, Youngbot said that Tone House was never intended to be Hardest gym in NYC.)
Does this mean the days of intense physical activity are over? uncertain. According to ClassPass’ 2021 Fitness Trends report, 60 percent of people prefer high-energy workouts on stressful days, while 40 percent prefer calming activities like yoga. Barry’s CEO Joey Gonzalez said some of his studios are actually seeing higher attendance now than they were before the pandemic. “I don’t think there’s going to be this big shift from high intensity to low intensity,” he said. “There’s always a time and place for different types of sports.”
This may be true, Petrzela said. “What we may see is not a change in the actual sports that people engage in, but their attitudes toward those sports,” she explained. Take CrossFit, which features sports like Olympic weightlifting and cardio, and some people claim that the intensity of the exercise has made them injured. Workouts are still intense, but the brand’s new CEO recently told TIME that he’s committed to making CrossFit a healthier company, culturally speaking.
At Barry’s, even without major changes to its core product, mental health is becoming a higher priority for the brand, Gonzalez said. Every year, Barry’s sets up a challenge for members: basically, push members to take a lot of classes over the course of a month. This year, the theme of the challenge is mental health. Participants who sign up get a free trial of the treatment platform BetterHelp, and Barry is hosting virtual conversations about mental health.
A softer, slower pandemic-era mindset — with an added focus on mental health — may have softened the brink of some tough workouts for now. But Pezra suspects that new discoveries about mental health aren’t the only things motivating people.
“Even with meditation and gentler mindfulness practices, there are a lot of people who engage in these practices to ‘self-optimize’ and get better at other things,” Pezra said. In American culture, she says, mindfulness is often just another way of working, “improving your work, not taking a break from it.”