Would you feel comfortable working out in a room full of Stepford wives and men with six-pack abs huffing and puffing away in skin-tight leotards and Spandex?

Exercise classes that put a premium on overall health benefits rather than toning up actually do more for women who feel bad about their bodies, fitness experts say.

In fact, such women will keep on taking exercise classes if they experience good feelings the first time around, especially if they suffer from “social physique anxiety”—the chronic worrying that other people are critiquing their bodies, says Brian Focht, a health promotion expert at Ohio State University.

Coming back

“Women who have this disorder usually are interested in exercise to improve their appearance, but an instructor who emphasizes physique during a workout may deter such students from coming back,” says Focht, in the latest Psychology of Sport and Exercise. “We want to design the most beneficial exercise programs for different groups of people, and understanding how people respond to different approaches to exercise is the key to doing so.”

Focht’s comments come at a time when the numbers of new health clubs, which include exercise classes, are growing by about 15 percent a year and membership this year topped more than 43 million, market research indicates.

The spurt is fueled by clubs departing noticeably from the "hard bodies" of advertisements and focusing on "real-world" success stories to woo folks of all body types, For instance, Curves International, a chain of 9,000 no-frills women’s workout centers based in Waco, Texas, bans mirrors, according to Mintel International Group, a market research firm in Chicago.

More 'engaged' in workouts

Meanwhile, in Focht’s project, 100 college-aged women, whose body mass indexes were well within the ideal range for their sizes, took part in 45-minute step-aerobics classes taught by the same instructor. Despite having normal body sizes, the women suffered from social physique anxiety.

In classes that emphasized health over appearance, the teacher wore a loose-fitting. T-shirt and gym shorts. She also sprinkled health-oriented comments throughout the session, such as “Work it, let's get healthy!” In classes that pounded home physical appearance, the teacher wore tight-fitting aerobics attire and commented, “Stand tall, you'll look five pounds lighter,” “Work it, let's get your legs toned so they look good!”

Focht says women in the health-oriented class felt more engaged in the workout, revitalized, and less exhausted after class than women in appearance-oriented classes. They also enjoyed the workouts more and would likely take similar classes in the future.

But Focht adds he was surprised that mirrors in the exercise room didn't influence how the women felt during class.

“There is a fair amount of research that suggests that mirrors in a workout room can negatively affect how someone feels, particularly a woman who is concerned about her physical appearance,” he says. “We expected the mirrors to have some effect on these women, but it was the instructor's leadership style that had a direct effect on the students' attitudes.”

Check these out!

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•   Healthy Weight Management Blog—Mary Little, editor for Nubella’s popular health, nutrition, and recipe e-newsletters, shares her experiences with managing her weight.

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