Gen Z’s solution to loneliness? Their gym’s group workout classes. – The Boston Globe

“It was a nice break from everything going on in my life,” said Hardiman, 21, a senior studying global public health at Boston College. “Being able to rely on an hour or two every day where I wasn’t focusing on anything else … definitely helped a lot.”

Hardiman’s experience is representative of many young people whom gym owners and fitness instructors expect to flock to their facilities during the first couple of weeks of January. But unlike previous generations, Gen Z isn’t trying to jump-start their New Year’s fitness resolutions, get ripped, or slim down. Data shows the generation is swarming gyms because they want to improve their mental health, and are packing exercise classes because they’ve figured out that group workout sessions are a salve to their loneliness, a way to connect after the twin malefactors of a pandemic and social media have fractured their in-person relationships and left them desperate to make connections.

Dr. Eugene Beresin, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the MGH Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, said Gen Z is incredibly aware of the importance of caring for their mental health. Yet, a nationwide dearth of therapists and counselors are “not readily available” to assist in the numbers they require.

“Getting help is a nightmare right now,” said Beresin, who added that as a result, young people might be inclined to seek support through other means, with local gyms as one possible beneficiary.

“It’s not because they [want] a really good six-pack, or that they think they’ll become thinner,” he said. “It’s so they’ll feel better and they’ll be healthier.”

An epidemic of isolation has disproportionally plagued Gen Z even prior to 2020, with persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in high school students increasing 40 percent between 2009 and 2019, according to a Center for Disease Control and Prevention report. Their symptoms of depression and anxiety doubled during the pandemic. Beresin said 73 percent of young people report significant loneliness around the time they start college.

Experts say this is part of the reason they’ve headed to gyms, and particularly group fitness classes, in droves. A recent “Wellness Watch” report published by ABC Fitness found that Gen Z exercisers made up 29 percent of new fitness memberships between January and March, driving a 60 percent increase in overall membership acquisition compared to the year before.

Maevis Pair, a 20-year-old ecology and evolutionary biology major at Northeastern University, didn’t fully recognize the benefits of the dance classes she grew up taking at her performing arts high school in North Carolina until she graduated. Now, Pair sees group fitness as a method to stay healthy in a way that has little to do with numbers on a scale.

“A lot of people who go to these classes really frequently say that they don’t even talk about their physical health, but they talk about the way their mental health is affected,” said Pair. “And I think that a huge part of why these classes are so popular is because the teachers talk about motivation and self-love.”

Hailee Helfrick, a senior studying anthropology and sociology at Boston University, started signing up for workout classes last summer after spending most of her college career working out alone or walking around the city.

“I have a considerably different mental experience when I’m going regularly and really committing to it,” said Helfrick. “It really allows me to focus on a different part of my brain and calm down in a way.”

Chris Leighton, 27, who’s been working in the industry for eight years at studios including SoulCycle and solidcore, has seen an explosion of young ClassPass users in his studio. Many of the users of ClassPass, a monthly multi-gym membership that allows users to attend a fitness class at one of the thousands of studios that participate in the program, are recent grads working corporate jobs, now required to return to the workplace after years of remote employment.

“A lot of people will come up and just start a conversation with the people by their side. And even if it’s the only place that they talk to each other … the thing is, they already have something in common,” he said.

Despite the recent popularity of working out for mental health, an emphasis on exercising to achieve certain beauty standards is still ingrained in many aspects of gym culture. Nowadays young people, especially young women, can watch their favorite influencers workout on their social media pages. Anna Sweeney, 39, a Concord-based registered dietitian, said many of her Gen Z clients feel obligated to enroll in classes now that online influencers they compare themselves to are back to attending them in person.

“I am seeing so many young people filming themselves and sharing content of their bodies moving in gyms,” said Sweeney, who has worked in the eating disorder field since 2008. “We are social creatures, and social comparison exists. It’s not necessarily about sustainable health practices.”

Pair, the Northeastern student, agrees that her social media has been packed with content detailing what other people are doing at the gym, but she views her algorithm as a helpful tool that gives her new workout ideas and guidance that makes the fitness world less intimidating. Inspired by the positive effects she’s experienced in her group classes, Pair spent the last semester training to become an instructor herself so she can facilitate the same healing that she’s benefited from.

“You’re doing something kind for yourself by showing up to exercise,” she said. “It kind of creates a guiding framework for the rest of your life.”

Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at lila.hempeledgers@globe.com. Follow her on X @hempeledgers and on Instagram @lila_hempel_edgers.