Confessions of a Group Fitness Instructor: 5 Reasons why I'm over Group Fitness (Part 1)

I've been holding this confession back for a long time but I feel like I'm ready to spill the beans:

I am pretty much over Group Fitness Classes and I am almost ready to quit teaching altogether.

My Reasons are as follows:

• Lack of Standards with Group Fitness Instructors
• Pointless Workouts with no goal or purpose
• No attention to programming or programming to what most members need
• Ineffective classes that do nothing but get the instructor and participants into worse shape
• Unsafe classes that lead to member and instructor injury

Group Fitness is how I got into the industry

I was a big fan of Group Fitness Classes.  In college I attended spin classes weekly and also kickboxing classes. My life changed when Billy Blanks came to teach Tae Bo on our campus.  I knew then that I wanted to do something like that.  Post graduation, I came home got a job working the front desk at my local gym and within 10 months I was up teaching my first Cycle Class.

I taught a lot of classes over the next several years and I go into detail in this blog post about what that did to my body.

I loved Group Fitness because of the fun, the community, and the awesome high you got from working out in the group.  When one of the class regulars passed away, most of the people at the service were from the gym. There were about 4-5 instructors there and also his fellow spin classmates who took 6 a.m. class with him for years.

During my time teaching Group Fitness, there was a lot of community amongst instructors and participants.  Members would travel from class to class and instructors would get to know regulars. I can remember the cycle room would be jamming every day as people would give their best in class. Bodypump Relaunches were an event that we would practice for and team teach to really bring our best energy and I loved it all.

Something Changed

I took about a year off of teaching to do management (which I hated) and when I returned to class I realized that something changed.  Group Fitness was no longer the same.  I went into the room with a plan and I designed workouts that I thought were challenging and had purpose.

Something changed.

I even began to hear people saying my classes were too hard.  I went in to the class and was shocked at what I found: people not putting forth any real effort, on their phones, and there was no longer the intensity and energy that I used to have in my classes.

I started watching the Group X rooms and I began to see that this wasn't an isolated incident.  I also heard from other instructors that they were experiencing similar.  I believe the following reasons may have contributed to what I observed in the Group X rooms.

Reason #1: Low Instructor Standards

In the last few years it has become really easy to become a fitness instructor. All it takes is a selfie, youtube, and an Ipod.

One of the things that has changed about the fitness industry is now EVERYBODY thinks they should be teaching a class because they look great naked.  They took a selfie, watched a "bro" on youtube, and now they are up teaching classes doing THE MOST RIDICULOUS AND UNSAFE "EXERCISES" EVER.  

I followed one "Fitness Professional" on Instagram and this person was bragging about making someone do Box Jumps who is 380 pounds (no lie) and this person just started working out.
WTF?  But this person posts pictures of herself in her bikini competitions so she must know what she is doing right?  I think Judge Judy here says it best.

Another problem is that you get people up there in front of classes who know NOTHING about the human body and they are posturing as experts on fitness because they took a weekend certification.  I've heard some terrible things from instructors due to a lack of knowledge and they are leading the people astray.

The most recent was an instructor telling participants that they need to get skinny before they do anything close to strength training.  Come take his class 3x per week and eat 1000 calories per day to get skinny.

Even worse are people who are involved in Multi Level Marketing who get up in front of the class and have anointed themselves as health coaches.  Their entire goal is to sell something and the nonsense that I have heard from these people just baffles my mind.

Because of such low standards, people are not getting workouts that they deserve.  Instead they are getting people who take selfies, can dance around to the music, want to be popular, and want to sell magic beans.

Reason #2 Pointless Workouts with No Goals or Purpose

This drives me nuts.

Many participants come to class year after year because they are looking for the instructor to lead them.  In my class I tell them: Class today we are going to be working on your power and strength. Even when I taught Bodypump I would tell people, today I want you to add on weight to get your personal best.

Now what I see in classes are people just doing things with no purpose.  Without purpose, there is no passion.  One of the reasons I like Les Mills classes (Bodypump, Bodycombat, Bodyattack) is because they clue instructors in that there needs to be MEANING behind what they are doing.

Without Goals and Purpose the workout becomes drudgery and boring and people stop caring.

It's just instructors up there yelling, screaming, looking in the mirror, and dancing to the music.

What is the POINT of the workout?  What are you trying to ACHIEVE?

Every workout needs to have an intended outcome and not simply filling 50 minutes.

Reason #3- No Programming or Programming to what members need

Many of the gym members are not in the best of shape.  They hate working out on their own so they come to class.

I love classes such as Bodypump and even Cycle that offer options for people but I think there are too many high impact classes on schedules which do not serve member needs.

I also am tired of these bootcamp, get crazy, and extreme workouts.  In most cases those workouts are too hard on the joints, people do not have enough strength to support the joints, people already have terrible posture from sitting all day and then they go to those classes and make things worse.

Many members need classes that focus on improving Range of Motion, learning exercise form and technique, and lengthening and strengthening their muscles.

Also where are the movement based classes and loaded movement classes?  So many people sit every day, they need classes where they can move their bodies with and without added resistance.  This doesn't have to involve jumping, impact, etc.  I'd like to see classes where people's postural imbalances and tight musculature is addressed.

Reason #4 - Ineffective Classes that do nothing but get the instructor and participants into worse shape

I've talked about this on the blog before but I have observed people going to the same classes every week for years and they don't improve.  In fact both the participants and instructor get into worse shape every year.  Is this solely because of the class?  Of course not, but it is a big part of it.

Most classes do not reach threshold for participants so people are doing the same classes every week and they have plateaued. The body loves to adapt so these people taking the Kickboxing class for 50 minutes in 2014 are burning 200 calories in 2014 when in 2013 they may have burned 300 -350 calories.

Not working Hard Enough

I recently went to a training for Indoor Cycling and the entire class was based around the console.  The presenter said that when people begin to use the console in their workouts, they start realizing how hard they have NOT been working in class.  

I see way too many people in Group Fitness Classes who are texting, phoning it in, and giving minimal effort.  I would say that is up to the instructor/coach to motivate people to work harder.  I also think this goes along with having intended outcomes for your class.  People are a lot more likely to take the class seriously and work harder if you give them an intended goal.

Unsafe and Misguided Classes that lead to member and instructor injury

I feel like I need my soapbox and microphone for this one.

I have seen so many instructors and participants get injured in these classes and a LOT of this could be avoided if people were able to be honest with themselves.

Member Injury

Most members that begin workout programs are deconditioned, have postural issues due to sitting all day and using computers, and many have no clue about proper form and technique.  So these people are PRIME candidates to attend the latest throw up your lunch classes at the gym or the hottest new bootcamp.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Deconditioned

A deconditioned client has no business in some high intensity class because they have not built that foundation of strength and recovery.  A deconditioned client in one of these cray cray classes is a recipe for disaster.

They may think they are going "beast mode" but talk to me in about 6 months when they end up getting injured and their bodies start breaking down because they were not properly conditioned for whatever trendy class was hot at the moment

Postural Issues

Most of the clients that come to see me need to improve their Range of Motion and begin to activate the muscles that become weakened due to sitting and sedentary lifestyle.  A client with poor posture performing 3500 squats and pushups is just asking for an injury because they are performing repetitive movements with postural imbalances.

Form and Technique

In many of the Group Fitness Classes people are not being instructed on proper form and technique and even if they are it is hard to watch EVERYONE which leads me to my next point.

Unsafe Moves in Classes

The Hang Clean and other Olympic lifts should not be in any Group Fitness Class and ESPECIALLY not for a high number of reps.  Why?  Most of those Olympic moves are for Powerlifting which requires maximal effort for a low number of reps.  One also needs strong core stabilizer muscles and a solid foundation for doing such moves.  There is no way those types of moves should ever be in a group class.

Plyometric centered classes should not be taught to large groups and limited to small group training and one on one training so that the instructor can watch for form and give modifications.  I train clients on reactive moves like squat jumps and frog hops but only after we've worked on strengthening their butts so they can stabilize in the jumps.  This process takes time and involves flexibility and opening up the hips.  Jumping around over and over again in a Group Fitness Class can be unsafe.  Most people I see doing these plyometric moves in class should not be doing it.  Falling forward, not able to stabilize on the landing, and poor balance would lead to major problems.

The Main Reason I'm Over Group Fitness

There is a big reason why I'm over Group Fitness and it has to do with an epiphany I've had through my own training and fitness journey.

Stay Tuned for Part 2!