Last week, I wrote about my journey from fitness performer to coach in my blog Be a Coach in Your Group Fitness Class. This week, I want to expand upon this thought and introduce you to the three C’s of success. These three tips will help you grow as a fitness professional, earn the respect of your students, and continue to expand your impact on your clients. Here are your three steps to success in a group fitness class.
The Three Steps to Success in a Group Fitness Class
Coach
As I wrote about last week, we should be acting as coaches not performers in our group fitness classes. Coach your students to be their best and assist in alignment when necessary. They will benefit so much more from this than watching you be your best.
Cue
There are hundreds of ways to cue in a group fitness class. Please cue verbally, visually, and tactically; Everyone learns in a different manner and you should respect all of those methods.
Connect
Connecting with your students can be as simple as making eye contact. Direct eye contact can only happen when you are facing your participants. Learn your participants’ names and injuries. Be personable, and lose the ego.
Putting to Together
If you focus on those three steps to success in your group fitness class, you will be able to forget your ego and become a more efficient fitness professional, not performer. If you did not love the fitness industry, you would not be in it. Give to your clients by coaching, cueing, and connecting! Not only will you preserve your own body, but you will still get the amazing high by empowering others to do their best.
If we are being honest, we can admit that we live in a plastic, superficial world in which looks outweigh talent. A lot of people become group fitness instructors to satisfy a vain yearning; they like the applause, they like the attention, and they like the mirror. Don’t be one of those instructors. Make a positive impact on people by creating effective classes that take your physical performance out of the equation and allow you to coach, cue, and connect. Personally, I love the down-to-earth, know-my-name fitness professionals whom give unconditionally to me, and ask for no applause. I wish we had many more of them. They are certainly empowering others to be better and that is what the fitness industry needs to become.