WAYS TO FRESHEN UP FALL CLASSES
Feeling stale in choreography? I hear ya! As instructors we spend a countless amount of time creating and planning an effective, fun well programmed class. BUT teaching class after class it’s inevitable we start to feel stale, bored, uninspired and maybe sound like a your fave spotify song on repeat. Even the best of us can suffer from “Fitness Block” when it comes to whipping up fresh moves, choreography, yoga flows, etc.
I mean how many ways can we really teach this push up, right! I hear ya sister! So sharing my ways to channel a fresh fall vibe into your class.
APP IT UP! During covid I joined multiple apps to
Stay in shape and fight the covid 19
Get inspired from professionals in the industry
SO, what happened and which apps did I dig. Well, Most of the time I found myself stopping to take notes, whisper to myself “remember this” and lighting up like a Christmas tree with all the new content I would deliver to members when “Fitness Opened Back Up”
A few I followed and loved
Nike Premium
FitOn
Centr
Class Pass
Beach Body
Peloton
What was I taking notes on? How they cued. How they motivated. How they explained exercises? How they broke down yoga flows? Yoga flow ideas?
PLAN AND BUILD
When you’re trying to be creative, making a monthly plan is likely not the first method that comes to mind in order to get you there BUT taking an approach from the book of personal training programming here that builds on choreography or swaps playlist is easy.
It can be overwhelming to change up classes that in order to stand out and deliver a great product (ahem class) on a consistent basis,” she says. “It was too much to change up my class choreography and music every week for spinning, strength training, cardio, barre and more.
Instead lets pump our brakes with a realistic programmatic approach over 3-4 week span. Let’s take yoga for example. Recently I have created 1 flow and added “flair” so members can see themselves progress, understand the poses and how to get deeper. Each week I would let them know a new spin on the pose would be added and this gave them something to look forward to every single week. By the time they got used to the moves, it was time to switch it up. This not only keeps people coming back week after week, but it gives us (the instructors) some time to be more creative. It’s tough to come up with brand-new stuff every day, but it’s fun to do it on a bi-monthly or monthly basis.”
PUT YOURSELF IN YOUR MEMBERS SNEAKS! TAKE CLASSES!
Curious what works best for you rmembers? Interested to know how cues land or other motivational techniques. Want to know what’s going to work best for your class members? Welp, my dear instructor, one of the best things you can do to spice up a routine is see it from your client’s perspective.
Go to a class at the facility you work at, and then go to some more at other facilities. A big aspect of improving in the health and fitness industry is learning from others. Google similar fitness classes close by and pick the most attended one. At the very least, you can reaffirm that what you’re doing is being done by other instructors. Best case scenario, you learn a completely different way of doing things. Either way you're winning with a workout and fresh ideas, productivity at its finest!
WHAT’S TRENDING?
In this industry at least being in the know of what’s trending is clutch! Not saying you have to execute every trend here (trust I don’t) BUT it’s helpful to know what your students are watching and listening to — especially when you’re selecting new music, or coming up with new dance moves. Sure there are trends in fitness, but what about entertainment? What’s the newest movie coming out and how could you create a theme or playlist around it? Grammy’s night land on the day you teach? Create a grammy’s playlist! Are you in love with a new tik-tok dance or challenge? Draw your members in to create a fun video with you and memories forever.
Where do you look or find what your students love and trends they dig? Talk to them! Have lunch with your athletes, do a spin and smoothie meet up. You will hear first hand how they are trying to transform their body, what shows they love, music that’s hot, etc People are a constant source of inspiration for me!”
KEEP LEARNING!
Even if you’ve been teaching for decades, there’s always something new you can learn. Being an instructor/personal trainer for over 14 years, I have found that one of the most important things is to keep exploring, keep learning and stay involved in the fitness community. I am a huge advocate on continuing education courses. I set new goals for myself every year both physically and professionally. Dip your toe in anything that I am not familiar with. When you get complacent then you stop growing, you stop being inspired and it reflects onto your clients. This will encourage customers to keep coming back for more as they will always be guessing what the next thing is and you will keep the energy going.