What equipment do I need for fitness classes.
OK, I am a pastor of a church and I want to offer fitness classes at the church. So, I am writing a grant proposal. I want to request enough money to send two people for training/certification and to buy equiptment to hold a class for 10 people.
Figuring how much money traing will cost is easy. I realize that what sort of equiptment depends on what sort of classes are offered, but generally what would be a good start.
I am thinking 10 Yoga mats, some combination of resistance bands, and maybe something else.
What do folks here think? what combination of resistance bands would give me the right assortment to cover most folks? Aside from Yoga mats and bands what else might I consider?
Are there places that sell bundles or sets of equiptment for people starting new classes or facilities?
I suppose I should point out that I can only use stuff that doesn’t need dedicated space, it needs to be able to be put away or stored
I would say you could easily get away with just mats and resistance bands, to start but remember to read the materials on care and storage for your bands. The material can degrade and become no longer safe or effective. This is especially important if you buy the bands used. You can buy cheap and find that you have to buy again if the bands are not in good shape. A different option might be the cloth weights that you fill with sand. More money though.
If you have access to an outside space/walking path, the types of equipment you might use would be different from what you would use to be only indoors.
If you want to do classes for youth it would be different than if they were for an older group, or mixed classes.
Since my particular area of interest is yoga I will suggest a few things that come to my mind in this subject:I know you are asking about equipment, but those are questions that occur to me in reading the question, as my eye was caught by the mention of the mats.
Do you plan to train members of your staff and then to offer the classes for free to parishioners and/or the community, or to use it for fundraising for the church? Do you have an agreement with the people you train that they will teach for free for the church for a period of time in exchange for their training?
If you are buying yoga mats in order to do yoga you should know that a group exercise certification by itself will not really train someone to be a yoga teacher. The standard within the yoga community is to start with a 200 hour training, and at a higher level to do a 500 hour training. There are shortcuts for such training, if you have someone with a lot of experience and a long standing practice of their own. And sometimes, if what you are going to do is offer a class for an underserved population you may find someone to volunteer to teach this fairly specialized class. I teach twice a month at my church a donation based class where the donations go for our youth group for example.
That aside, if you are going to do yoga I would suggest blocks in addition to the mats. If you want the class accessible to those who are less flexible the blocks are very helpful. I use them with certain core exercises as well. If you want to do chair classes, for those who have balance problems, or are significantly overweight, and need some support for their joints, or are elderly and somewhat weak, folding chairs are helpful. You may already have some at your church, you just want to have them where your teacher can access them.
You want a good ipod dock if you do not already have a sound system. I have a portable one I carry in my yoga bag. I do not use if for every yoga class, but sometimes, and for things like aerobics and core it is really helpful. Make sure whatever you get has the power for the room you are using. Also remember, even if you are a church, if you are charging money you need to look into music licensing.