--- title: How Group Exercise Is Becoming Our New Religion description: How crossfit and yoga might be replacing religion, an easy way to reduce student loan debt and more canonical: https://time.com/4342923/group-exercise-new-religion/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-20T16:01:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:58.908Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Group Exercise Is Becoming Our New Religion og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4342923/group-exercise-new-religion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Group Exercise Is Becoming Our New Religion twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Group Exercise Is Becoming Our New Religion by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 20, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 20, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Is group fitness replacing organized religion?**](http://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/is-group-fitness-replacing-religion) By Derek Beres in the Big Think **2\.** [**What if lowering student loan debt was as easy as sending students a letter?**](http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/05/19/what-happens-when-you-warn-students-about-their-loan-debt) By Sophie Quinton at Stateline **3\.** [**Think you’re a pretty ethical person? That might be your selective memory at work.**](https://hbr.org/2016/05/were-unethical-at-work-because-we-forget-our-misdeeds) By Francesca Gino and Maryam Kouchaki in Harvard Business Review **4\.** [**Why is health care still segregated?**](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/americas-health-segregation-problem/483219/) By Vann R. Newkirk II in the Atlantic **5\.** [**Here’s why you need to be lonely sometimes.**](https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160510-loneliness-center-in-the-brain/) By Emily Singer in Quanta  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4342923/group-exercise-new-religion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4342923/group-exercise-new-religion/"},"headline":"How Group Exercise Is Becoming Our New Religion","datePublished":"2016-05-20T16:01:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:58.908Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4342923/group-exercise-new-religion/","keywords":["Innovation","Racism","yoga","Student Loans","Ethics","loneliness"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4342923/group-exercise-new-religion/","name":"How Group Exercise Is Becoming Our New Religion"}}]}] ```