Exclusive | The group fitness trend helping New Yorkers get in the best shape of their lives

Marissa Hart thought she was joining a fitness club.Instead, she ended up with a reason to keep calling New York home.It all began on a sunny morning in August 2020, when she spotted a pack of runners in matching “West Village Athletics” T-shirts bounding down the West Side Highway.

The recent transplant was eager to break into the city’s group fitness scene, but was struggling to find a class she connected with.After finding the crew on social media, she reached out — and was invited to join them on a run that ended with a trip to a nearby café.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’ll go to the workout and I’ll leave before coffee.Like, I have my own friends,” Hart, 34, told The Post.

“But I stayed, and honestly, it’s the reason I’m still going.”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.The New York-based social fitness brand has built a loyal following with its “squad-based” approach to training.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.“I knew I wanted to be really fit and challenge myself in new ways, but what I didn’t know I needed was this social component,” said Hart, an account executive at Uber Eats.

“I had been thinking about moving to LA, but I ended up staying and making all of these friends,” she continued.“It’s been such a foundational piece of my life in New York.”Now, the fitness-meets-friendship formula is heading beyond the Big Apple.

With more than 2,000 members in the New York–Newark–Jersey 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 nation...