how many times shall i change my group exercise class, i teah cicuilt training ,boot camp , body conditioning
I agree with Harris. You have many options, and can change up your exercises by the class, week, month, etc… Sometimes keeping a few of the same exercises in the program is good to see gains in strength over a period of time. Changing it up keeps muscles guessing and participants from getting bored. It’s all good!
Just make sure to prepare your class in detail and follow your plan/goals.
Christine
I never teach the same class twice.
It gets boring for ME and for the students to constantly repeat
Mix it up/as long as it makes sense and the progression works!
Start by changing the order of things: for instance if you always do cardio first, do it last.
If you do the same warm up/change it!
If you do abs last, do them first etc.
How advanced are your participants, and how often do they attend your class?
While variety is nice, sometime changing too many things at once makes it hard for participants to get a good workout because they’re trying to figure out what you’re asking them to do.
I like Sue’s idea of changing the order of exercises for variety. Another thing I’ll do for a class that I want to keep simpler (not necessarily less intense, just easier for new participants to understand) is to change the exercise timing without changing the exercise. For example, two sets of 45 seconds versus three sets of 30 seconds.
Another thing I’ll do before switching out an exercise is offering a different variation of the same exercise. For example, there are many ways to do push-ups:
1) Regular push-up at client’s own pace for time
2) Push-ups to the count of the instructors’ voice, down 1,2,3 up 4
3) Push-ups to the count of instructor’s voice, down, up 2, 3, 4
4) Slow push-ups
5) Push-ups with wide hands
6) Push-ups with narrow hands
7) Push-ups with right hand at 2:00 and left hand at 8:00, then left hand at 10:00 and right hand at 4:00
8) Push-up with wide feet, jumping jack the feet, push-up with wide feet…
9) Push-up, adduct left foot to touch right heel. Push-up, adduct right foot to touch left heel
10) “spiderman” push-ups
So, you can keep the general class plan the same, but tweak a variation.