Zumba with Ona-Marie - Chester, NJ

11/01/2025

11/01/2025

Halloween at Fred Astaire studio in Chester. Every Tuesday & Friday at 9:30am. My OGs 💕

11/01/2025

Hallows Eve at Golds gym in Flanders. Every Thursday at 9:30am. Such a fun group!

01/01/2025

https://www.facebook.com/100059682572394/posts/982349750431102/

Group fitness classes aren’t just about exercise, Mikala Jamison wrote in November. https://theatln.tc/z5fhRvrd

When Jamison was teaching indoor cycling, she was the nicest version of herself: “warm, welcoming, and encouraging to the point of profound corniness, despite my usual caustic tendencies,” she writes. People that met in her class started dating; strangers went out for coffee. “These experiences have convinced me that group fitness classes are the best place to make friends as an adult,” she continues, “an idea supported by research that suggests that the glow of exercise’s feel-good chemicals has interpersonal benefits.”

Once, friendships were born in what the sociologist Ray Oldenburg called “third places”: physical spaces that aren’t a home or a workplace, don’t charge (much) for entry, and exist in large part to foster conversation. Group classes don’t quite fit in that definition—they can cost money, and their primary activities are “sweating, grunting, and skipping a few reps when the instructor isn’t looking,” Jamison writes. “But they fulfill many conditions that social-psychology research has repeatedly shown to help forge meaningful connections between strangers: proximity (being in the same place), ritual (at the same time, over and over), accumulation (for many hours), and shared experiences or interests (because you do and like the same things)”—a less awkward way to find people with similar interests than at work or at a party.

Even if you don’t find your next best friend at Zumba class, getting into a fitness habit might help you step out of your comfort zone and make more friends in other spaces.

“A room full of grown adults flailing, shouting, and running miles without ever going anywhere is a fundamentally ridiculous prospect,” Jamison continues. “Ridiculous things, however, play a crucial role in connecting with others: They make us laugh.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/z5fhRvrd

🎨: Debora Szpilman

01/01/2025

Start 2025 with some fun & new friends. First class is FREE!

01/01/2025

Today’s NYE playlist…

01/01/2025

Words will never express how grateful I am for all of you. It’s been a good year. Let’s make 2025 even better! XOXO

11/29/2024

Don’t worry if you ate a little too much today. Zumba tomorrow, 9:30am at Fred Astaire in Chester. You’ll feel better.

10/31/2024

Thursdays are THE BEST with this amazing group! 😘

09/21/2024