Most fitness instructors don't even think about what they are going to do with their fitness class if/when they get injured until the injury happens.
Teaching fitness classes and working with clients can be really hard on your body, especially if you are using your classes for your workout. But please don't use your classes for your personal workout!
Don’t wait to learn this until you absolutely have no other choices.
I want to ask you . . . are you ruining your body?
View the video here or read the recap below to find out.
In this video...
If you are not taking measures to take care of it and maintain it, then it’s going to break down on you. It’s really heartbreaking to have an injury that takes away the thing that makes you happiest—the thing that you are really talented in, that makes your day and erases your problems away when you are doing it—working out, teaching your fitness classes.
Today, I’m going to speak with you about:
√ The simple steps most fitness instructors don't want to learn, that can save your body and keep your classes engaged and getting results.
√ Give you best practices on how to keep your classes going, even if you are nursing an injury.
√ Reveal the three key components of managing your classes while you have an injury (or lay the groundwork so you don't get injured!). That way you don't have to cancel your classes, lose business, and have to stop doing what you love
This stuff is simple—but it’s ongoing. So regardless of whether you are injured right now or not, you have to start this now!
First things first: let’s do triage...
If you are currently injured, of course get some professional help. I’m sure you are doing that. Get all the proper rest, get your nutrition on point so you reduce inflammation, etc.
You can hire a sub to completely take over while you rest, or you can hire an assistant so you can still show up to class and do what you can, without doing all the moves.
You can recruit your best divas to help out, too.
Next, let’s talk about prevention because you have to save your body.
You don’t want to get surgeries, be on crutches, or go through the pain of cortisol shots! Motivating your people isn’t you being the one working out the hardest in the room.
THREE KEY COMPONENTS TO SAVE YOUR BODY:
1. Do not go all out every time you teach
Yes, you are allowed to get your heart rate up and enjoy yourself, but remember it’s their workout. So, stop carrying all the energy for them. There is another side to teaching, and you discover this very quickly when you get an injury! Allow your clients to do more of the work than you.
2. COMMUNICATE
Have you been in the middle of teaching your class and needed to stop—like to get a sip of water or blow your nose or adjust something—and the class stops moving? When you stop, your students stop. The best trick is before class starts tell them, "I’m going to stop moving at some point and when I do, you KEEP GOING."
They have no idea what you are doing so you have to clue them in, and it can be hard to just stop and try and direct them in the moment. They are likely going to follow your visual cues over your verbal cues first.
3. TRAIN YOUR STUDENTS
The goal is to train your students to keep going when you stop. HOW??? You are still in the room conducting them like an orchestra, but they are doing all the work. Training is getting people to go from where they are now to where they want to be, and usually it’s in small steps. You want to start training your students to not stop when you stop and train them to have eyes on you so they get their cues on what to do next.
You want to start this in your warm ups first and then move to routines they already know. For example, in a warm up, do they really need to see you demo a step touch? No. So, get them used to doing this on their own. While they are step touching you can go to the back of the room and support people. Don't do this with brand new routines.
IN CONCLUSION...
You have to think of your classes as growing a garden. They need daily maintenance—you have to take care of them, be gentle with them, cut them back, give them food and water. In this way, these components are very much like taking care of a garden.
It’s very dramatic to go out of the pot into the frying pan. Meaning, There is very little in life where it’s not best practice to take small steps to get from
A to Z! So, you never want to make a big leap with your classes and clients.
