Communication Articles

It’s not hard to retain confident exercise enthusiasts who love your classes. The greater challenge is to keep timid, anxiety-ridden individuals, the ones who may need movement the most—and who may become new “followers” if given half a chance to gain a little confidence. As a group fitness instructor, how do you accomplish this? One way is through understanding mindset. Do you know, for example, why some people don’t bound into your class, eager to take on the front row? It’s not uncommon for people to have exercise phobia or feel ashamed or embarrassed.

I was a new group fitness instructor taking someone else’s muscle-toning class. “You’re not going low enough,” the instructor yelled at me from across the crowded room. As flames of embarrassment burned my cheeks, I dropped lower into the Romanian dead lift even though I had just come from teaching my seventh cycling class of the week and my body was spent. But this was what the class required, I rationalized, and I was fit—I should be able to keep up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep up, and as a result, I gave myself a nagging lower-back injury.

New technologies, products and services are boosting the exercise-recovery business. What’s going on here? The rising popularity of wearable devices is making people much more aware of their performance. High-intensity interval training remains one of the most popular kinds of exercise. Everyday exercisers can now afford treatments that were formerly reserved for pro athletes.

When you were new to teaching yoga, you had a lot to focus on. You navigated the room, demonstrated poses, gave hands-on adjustments, held space for emotions and skillfully managed time. In the early days, it may have felt like a victory just to make it through a class successfully!

Over the course of writing this column, I’ve had the opportunity to interview 60-plus experts from a variety of fields, including medicine, nutrition, exercise science, fitness and psychology. In this, the final installment of the series, I highlight major themes and key insights that professionals across the healthcare continuum use to help clients bridge their personal gaps and challenges.

Fitness facilities compete to offer cutting-edge movement trends, but what about cutting-edge technology? The fitness world is becoming ever more virtual, and incoming clients are looking for more than a fun indoor cycling class or a cool cardio machine; they want to play a game!

Steve Boyle is the CEO of the National Association of Physical Literacy (NAPL) and principal/founder of 2-4-1 Sports, a national organization that teaches children physical literacy using sports sampling through camps, clinics and school-based programming. Recently recognized by the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program as one of eight model programs in the United States in the original Project Play report, 2-4-1 Sports embodies its motto, Life’s 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport<™. NAPL offers programming, certification and training in physical literacy.

Getting people to move more begins with shifting the fitness conversation from tomorrow's gains to today's joy, experts say.

I try to prepare clients for this occurrence. I have seen this situation more often with "friends" who feel threatened by the success of someone in their circle. When the resistance comes from a partner, it is a very difficult situation, but social interactions can be altered more easily. I often ask clients about their social habits and suggest, for example, that "girls' night out" could be replaced by a fun activity that does not revolve around eating. Discussing strategies with clients in preparation for events like that is often helpful.