Marissa Hart thought she was joining a fitness club. Instead, she ended up with a reason to keep calling New York home.<\/p>\n
It all began on a sunny morning in August 2020, when she spotted a pack of runners in matching \u201cWest Village Athletics\u201d T-shirts bounding down the West Side Highway. <\/p>\n
The recent transplant was eager to break into the city\u2019s group fitness scene, but was struggling to find a class she connected with. After finding the crew on social media, she reached out \u2014 and was invited to join them on a run that ended with a trip to a nearby caf\u00e9. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought to myself, \u2018I\u2019ll go to the workout and I\u2019ll leave before coffee. Like, I have my own friends,\u201d Hart, 34, told The Post. \u201cBut I stayed, and honestly, it\u2019s the reason I\u2019m still going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six years, three name changes and one tight-knit community later, the Manhattanite remains a devoted member of what is now known as Club Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Members of Club Athletic have a fixed crew they workout with twice a week at the same time with the same coach. Instagram\/mlhart13<\/p>\n The New York-based social fitness brand has built a loyal following with its \u201csquad-based\u201d approach to training.<\/p>\n Instead of dropping into random classes with strangers, members train in consistent, 20-person groups with the same coach at the same time every week. Fans of the model say it offers both a high-quality workout and a built-in community of like-minded people.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I wanted to be really fit and challenge myself in new ways, but what I didn\u2019t know I needed was this social component,\u201d said Hart, an account executive at Uber Eats. <\/p>\n \u201cI had been thinking about moving to LA, but I ended up staying and making all of these friends,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s been such a foundational piece of my life in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the fitness-meets-friendship formula is heading beyond the Big Apple. <\/p>\n With more than 2,000 members in the New York\u2013Newark\u2013Jersey City metro area, Club Athletic is kicking off a national expansion with two Chicago locations opening this month. More cities are planned for 2027 as it rolls out its community-first workout model nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe everyone deserves a squad,\u201d said Dane McCarthy, founder of Club Athletic. \u201cThis next chapter is about bringing that sense of belonging to more communities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Fans of the \u201csquad-based\u201d training method said it\u2019s helped them make new friends. Courtesy of Club Athletic<\/p>\n Members also say the model has helped them stick to workouting out consistently. Courtesy of Club Athletic<\/p>\n Getting fit and finding community<\/p>\n In the US, fewer than a quarter of adults<\/a> meet the federal government\u2019s recommendations<\/a> for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity each week.<\/p>\n And while millions sign up for gyms with good intentions, consistency is where things tend to fall apart<\/a>, with only a small fraction of new members<\/a> still going regularly within a year.<\/p>\n \u201cI ended up signing up for a marathon that was never on my radar. It\u2019s pushed me to achieve goals I never even thought to set for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Marissa Hart<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But there\u2019s evidence that training with others can help. In one study<\/a>, 84% of participants in a group fitness program were still exercising regularly at six months, compared to just 63% of those following the same regimen at home.<\/p>\n Even in a class full of gymgoers, though, it was still difficult for Kaise White to stay consistent when he was surrounded by strangers.<\/p>\n Club Athletics is going national, opening two new locations in Chicago this month with more cities planned for 2027. Courtesy of Kaise White<\/p>\n \u201cI found it easy to skip workouts when nobody noticed,\u201d the Brooklyn-based software engineer said. \u201cThe accountability part of the squad model is what drew me in.\u201d<\/p>\n White has been a Club Athletic member for four years, meeting his squad twice a week at 7 a.m. for a 55-minute strength and conditioning session.<\/p>\n The membership costs $295 a month and includes additional sculpt, Pilates and mobility classes, along with coach-led runs and community events.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving a set workout group and a set coach and a consistent schedule makes you feel like you\u2019re more part of a team as opposed to a regular gym membership,\u201d White, 34, said.<\/p>\n Members also get personal training and progress check-ins with their coaches to track their performance over time.<\/p>\n \u201cA dedicated coach who sees you every week can actually push your performance, because they know where you were last month and where you\u2019re trying to go,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people training next to you matter just as much. When you\u2019ve built a real connection with them over time, you train harder, you enjoy it more and you get more out of it,\u201d he added. \u201cThat connection doesn\u2019t happen in a room full of strangers cycling through a class schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not just showing up for you \u2014 you\u2019re showing up for the other people in your squad,\u201d Club Athletics member Kaise White (bottom right) told The Post. Courtesy of Kaise White<\/p>\n Hart confirms the model has helped her get in the best shape of her life \u2014 and set her sights on new fitness challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve competed in three Hyrox races<\/a> in the past year \u2014 before, I didn\u2019t even know what Hyrox was,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause of the run club<\/a>, I ended up signing up for a marathon that was never on my radar. It\u2019s pushed me to achieve goals I never even thought to set for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Hart has trained for both the marathon and Hyrox \u2014 an indoor fitness competition that combines 8 kilometers of running with eight functional workout stations \u2014 alongside fellow squad members she\u2019s worked out with for the past six years. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are four people in my squad who have been with me since the beginning, and it\u2019s one of the reasons I continue going, because it\u2019s so nice to wake up and work out and see them all the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She\u2019s even set to be a bridesmaid in one of their weddings later this year.<\/p>\n White, too, credits the model for helping him stay active and build a lasting community.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople notice when you aren\u2019t there,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re not just showing up for you \u2014 you\u2019re showing up for the other people in your squad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marissa Hart thought she was joining a fitness club. Instead, she ended up with a reason to keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[278],"tags":[20906,7944,18,4500,539,525,3695,135,19,17,3521,710,542,2555],"class_list":["post-563891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-clubs","tag-community","tag-eire","tag-exclusive","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-friendship","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lifestyle","tag-metro","tag-running","tag-wellness"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116846305372172594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n