Zumba Fitness

Exercise

| cheriarmour

So update on today.  On yesterday.  Ugh I don’t even knowwww my sense of time is completely nonexistent right now.  But I returned to work for a partial day – and dropped Liam off for his first day of care.  I scrambled for hours – filling bottles and packing lunches, and woke up beyond too early for the morning, and ultimately, did okay.  I cried when we dropped him off, to the point where a little girls’ mother told me she’d felt similarly, and that I would be okay.  She advised me to come a few times next week, hang out, nurse him when I could, and that he would be okay.  To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure how I’m going to do with a full work day yet, but more than a few people have reminded me that no decision is permanent, and that I have a decent enough skill set that I could stay, or take a break, or maybe work from home, or freelance, or whatever.  Nothing is final at this point.

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So, I was cleared at six weeks to exercise, which, looking back, was maybe not okay.  Thankfully, I’m not training for the Olympics or appearing on a magazine cover anytime soon, so I really eased into things, and didn’t get too crazy about immediately returning to exactly what I was doing prior to having Liam.

As a side note, we really need to talk about that six-week clearance mark, but we’ll do that later.  I have a lot of words on that.  

Being active is really important to me.  Not necessarily being in a bikini, or looking hot, but being active for the sake of a little energy boost, for the way it makes me feel, and for the fact that it makes the after-workout shower so much more rewarding, it’s really important to me.  So I’ve done a little bit of everything since I’ve felt okay to do so, and I’ve slowly started building back to some level of the strength that I had, while slowly taking off the last of the weight I gained when I was pregnant with my sweet boy.  Here’s what I’ve done, and how it’s felt.

Running

I think the week I was cleared, I went for a short “run” (really, a shuffle), of just a mile, up and down the street we live on.  It was ok, and very clear that I wouldn’t be running 20 miles anytime soon.  Because it because pretty clear after that mile that though I could do it, that it wasn’t perfect, I’ve sort of only run once a week, and have really relied on walking with some hill intervals or repeats on days I’m looking to sweat.

Circuit Training

One of my first workouts back was a circuit at a local studio, Core, located just outside of downtown Raleigh.  Again, I tried to play it safe and smart, and modified anything that didn’t feel great.  A full plank still was painful in the pubic bone region, as were mountain climbers, and instead of crunches, I did some modification on a modified plank, and worked it that way.  What I really, really enjoyed was getting my heart rate up, which we did with the treadmill, some sled pushes, and some very modified burpees.  This was one of the first times I found myself sore since I gave birth.

Gentle Hot Yoga

This was my first formal yoga class in a long while.  This class, taught at Indigo Hot Yoga, is really nice because it’s a good workout, but the supportive and sweet instructor provided plenty of modifications, which I needed.  I am really surprised by how much strength, upper body strength especially, that I lost after having the baby, and this has helped me get it back.  Another unexpected benefit of this class is that the sweating and heat forces me to drink more water, and I think that, plus some love hormone gives me a little milk boost.

Barre3

I took this class at the suggestion of the dietitian at work.  She had a favorite instructor, one who had a wait list for her class.  So I signed up four or five days in advance, and went at 6am, when I knew I could go and get back home before the baby woke up and I could feed him.  The class was really good.  Not a ton of cardio, and I like cardio, but the strength and toning were good, and this class actually got me pretty sore!  I will be signing up for this one again, budget permitting.

Zumba

I hit this old trusty class on Black Friday, and it was good.  It wasn’t my favorite instructor, but she did a good enough job, and it was a decent amount of cardio after I stuffed myself at Thanksgiving.  Some things still don’t feel great, so I kept the higher impact stuff, like little hops or jumps, to a minimum.

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A little heart rate info after Zumba.  Zumba is uniquely one of those things that really gets you to your peak a few times, sort of like interval training.  You won’t get that with gentle yoga or barre generally.  

Orangetheory

This workout was really interesting.  So, I went with a few friends the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving in North Raleigh.  The visit started off well enough, because I called to set up my class, and the woman that answered the phone was so friendly, that I was really excited to go.  Class started at 9:30am, and they asked that as new people, we get there at 9.  I was admittedly running late, and I got there at 9:10am, and I thought I’d be walking into the coach demoing moves, or a safety talk, but what I walked into was a repeat of the questions that I’d answered on the phone, and a sales pitch.

Once class started, it became clear that this would be one of the harder workouts I’ve done, and by the end, I was sweating a ton, especially since we ended with treadmill intervals.  The workout was monitored with a heartrate monitor, and since I’m breastfeeding, I had to do a wrist strap, which seemed to not work for most of the class.  One of the friends I was with experienced the same with her chest strap, which was disappointing.  But by the end, I think it was clear to all of us that this was a really good workout, despite some of the sales pitchy weirdness at the beginning.

Here’s what was kind of off-putting.

Upon class ending, I was on a high.  The coach and a desk manager person held us back in the studio, and then the manager was on us like a cheap suit to talk to us, mostly me since I was local, about packages.  I made it pretty clear that I was planning on dropping in once in a while since I’m still recovering, and I still felt like I was being pushed into buying a package.  I had a baby weeks ago.  So I was pretty weirded out by that.

Following that, I got a phone call from the studio checking in, presumably to sell me stuff, and then I got an email after.  I finally sent an email back, and explained that though the workout was great (one of the better HIIT ones I’ve done in Raleigh), that the pushiness was really quite off-putting.  To which that manager replied that she was sorry, but they just wanted to inform me of their membership options.  GAH.  It’s like it didn’t sink in, at all.  People love to be checked-on, but not sold to from 78 different angles.

That said, the workout was really good, and I will most likely visit another location, Morrisville or Wake Forest before I go to North Raleigh again. I know these guys are pretty much all over, so if you get a chance, I would try this workout out, especially since I feel like these kinds of workouts are really effective for building muscle and losing weight.

So these classes, along with the Fitbit update that encourages you to get 5 days a week of exercise in, has really helped me get my activity levels back up.  Again, I’m taking it nice and easy.  There’s no sense in hurting myself or my milk supply for the sake of saying I did it.  Rather, it’s just really really nice, and a nice way for me to take a short break from momming at 99 mph.

How have you exercised this week?  

 

Getting the hang of it.

| cheriarmour

So, back in November, I went again for my BodyPump certification.  I went for it like the July before I got married, in ’14,  but I let it lapse…in the hustle and bustle of us getting married, I never did my video (I did, but that’s another story), and sort of let it lapse.

[I recorded the video, and we discovered that the camera shut off midway through, and I never refilmed.]

But I went back, did the course again in November, passed, turned in my vid, passed, and started picking up a few classes here and there.

And let me tell you, even though I’ve been teaching for over 6 years at this point, that shit was/is hard. 

When I started teaching, I started with all freestyle classes.  Zumba, then I moved into Toning, and Cycle.  All things I went to trainings for and received credit, but things that really gave you the freedom to play with BPM, music, adding cardio pieces, and generally, screwing up with minimal detection from your class.  Seriously.  I actually restarted a song last night because I blanked.

[Enter Les Mills]

About two weeks ago, I had a mortifying experience with an early morning class.  The class starts at 5:45am, and due to a music disaster, and a late start, I ran into class 3 or 4 minutes late.

First (huge)  mistake.

To my horror, one of the best Pump instructors I’ve ever taken from in my life happened to be in the class.  She had started the warmup, and for that I was grateful, but immediately, I started shaking.  I’d barely had time to shower, I was late and already making a terrible impression, and suddenly, I had the feeling that I was doing to forget everything I knew.

And I did.

I blundered through every. single. track. My music was off.  My counting was off.  I forgot huge chunks.  And I was mortified.

Never, in my entire life, have I struggled so much with a format, and now, never in my life have I wanted to prove myself to myself so badly.  So, I’ve started by attending more classes (something that falls by the wayside sometimes when you’re directing a group fitness program), team teaching more, and subbing more (which exposes you to a new group that you can talk to, and if you’re really good, they’ll ask for you back when your teacher can’t be there. If you suck, you’ll hear it).  But this is hard. And in it being hard, it is 100% infuriating, since I’m strong in other formats.

All that said….how was your Monday?  What did you work out?

What Koh taught me.

| cheriarmour

I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving.  I went to Charlotte to have Thanksgiving dinner at my mother-in-law’s house, and spent a few days hanging out.  I’m actually writing now from the kitchen table in her house!

So, Thanksgiving day, I manged to not do a ton of damage – I ate a good bit, but broke up the day with a lot of walking, so I didn’t feel AS slobby as I could have, but nevertheless, I went ahead and poked around on some of the local Y sites to see what classes they were running on Black Friday.  I stumbled across a super familiar name – Koh – for Zumba, and immediately set my alarm so I could go to hear class on Friday morning.

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If you sorta remember that name, it’s because I ran into Koh at DCAC, and she was the first person in the history of the world that I ever took Zumba with. I went Zumba->get licensed->teach at State->teach at camp->decide I wanted to do something with my life that involved group fitness->the Y, which I love, so as I planned to go to this class, the weight sort of started to hit me, that all of this was coming full circle.

I got to the Harris Y, about 30 minutes from Sharon’s house, about 10 minutes before class started.

First, as an aside, the Harris Y is the most monstrously huge Y I have ever seen in my life. And I’m very familiar with Siskey. But this Y had a separate building for youth programs, and the grownup side kinda seemed like a small city. But in a good way, because the guy in membership who helped me come in and get settled was absolutely as sweet as pie.

Anyhoo, I got to class, and once we got started, I felt completely in my element. Koh really likes to pump her music, so once you got into each of the songs (that she ended on a pose, mind you), it was sort of like being lost in your own fitnessy world. I smiled, clapped, and at one point when we were dancing salsa, she pulled me to the front of the room with a few folks, smack-dab in the middle, to dance, while she attended to the other side of the studio.

I left that class sweaty, happy, and ready to go for a little longer. In fact, we were able to convince her to let us repeat a Michael Buble song because we’d all enjoyed it so much and felt like we could do it better than we had the first time. So she obliged!

I think the cool thing about returning to a teacher that you went to way back is that you begin to remember how it feels to be a student, and you remember the subtle nuances that you’d like to incorporate into classes to make people feel as good as your instructor is making you .

Koh Taught (still teaches!) me:

  • Be happy.  Every movement she hits, Koh acts as if it’s the most wonderful thing she has ever done.  This spreads to the class.  Maybe it’s a complex movement.  Maybe not.  Maybe it’s really really silly and might look a little funny.  She still executes it with the best attitude ever.
  • Keep it simple.  Koh is great.  BUT, she waves her wand over the classes, and it lets you know that you don’t have to be the best dancer for this class to work its magic on you.  But just in case you do want to be the best, she communicates through really really simple movements.  Things are logical – a move for the verse, a move for the chorus, and a move for the bridge.  No real rocket science there.  But it works!  So no one feels like an idiot in class because things are SO ridiculously easy to follow!
  • It’s not about you.  I’ve phrased this 60 million different ways irl and on the blog.  And I’ll say it some more.  But there is no one on earth more entitled to a big fat head than someone like Koh, who was a master presenter for Zumba® Fitness for a long time.  Her classes are consistently packed.  She could regard it as the Koh Experience.  But instead, she has made it so that you leave the class feeling like you were the star.  She’ll dance with students.  Point out when someone is doing awesome.  Allow the veterans to lead class for a little while.  Mingle during.  And generally, make it an unspoken point to communicate that she’s here for your workout, not her own.

Of course, I totally wanted more after because I was just buzzing with excitement, but I checked the schedules of the 3 Ys around, and there’s nothing super interesting going on.  Which means I’ll have to bite it and actually pay for a class and run tomorrow instead of getting into a class at the Y.

And with all that sweating, I’m not absolutely terrified to look at a scale sideways on Monday.

How did you stay fit this Thanksgiving?

Stevie Wonder part trois!

| cheriarmour

This weekend, I celebrated my 28th birthday.

The weekend was absolutely bananas though, and it’s not entirely my fault.

So months ago, I got an email from Loretta Bates’ assistant to see if we’d be willing to schedule a training on the weekend of November 14th.  Of course, right?  We have a great relationship, and I’d love to have Loretta at our facility for the Zumba B1 Training.

So then, I’d scheduled my Body Pump training for the weekend FOLLOWING.  (I did it again because I really haven’t used the skills from my first training).

Also, I got word that Stevie Wonder was going to be in Charlotte on the 14th. No worries, I can make this all work.

Well, long long story short, the Body Pump training was inexplicably moved back to the weekend of the 14th.  So on Saturday morning, I woke up early, set our folks up for the Zumba training, ran OVER to State to take the Body Pump training, got OUT of the training, and drove down to Charlotte to see Stevie wonder with my dad.

I was exhausted, but the concert was so worth it.  It started off a little – and I don’t want to say annoying because that’s not the right word – but it was a little nerve-wracking.  Because of the horrible tragedies in Paris on Friday night, security was really nuts, and we ended up standing in a HUGE crowd for a while before the concert started.  I actually tweeted the venue, and begged them not to start the show, and they didn’t.  I think that’s more on Stevie though.  [Before you start to think I’m really narcissistic, the reason why the security was nerve-wracking was because we were standing in a really antsy, quasi-angry crowd, and I was SO afraid of either being trampled, or something else horrible happening.  But perhaps that’s just my anxious mind speaking.]

But the show did not at all disappoint.  I think my favorite part was when…well dang.  I don’t think I can pick a favorite.  But I loved the feeling that I was completely lost in the music.  I could have stayed there all night, and not noticed.  But instead, I had to wake up around 4am, and head back to Raleigh to finish my Pump Cert.

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I think it was the love of Jesus that got me through Sunday. I rocked my tracks, passed the cert, and got one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten in life.

I was told that I had a magnetic personality. Ugh. That makes me freaking tear up. I don’t know why. But it’s nice to hear nice things about yourself.

After I got home (and this is the actual day of my birthday), I poured a glass of wine, noshed on some chips and salsa, and laid down on the couch. Austin came in, sweetie pie that he is, and dropped off some more wine, some kombucha, and a really sweet card for me. But the sweet thing was that he let me SLEEP off the weekend, and sort of tiptoed around the house.

Later, he and my brother took me out to froyo, and later, dinner at a Coquette, a french place here.

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I’m not huge on birthdays, but it was so good, and it felt good, throughout the weekend, to be acknowledged. I think it’s really easy to sort of get down on yourself. My house is messy, I can’t get everything I want to get done done in a day, my clothes are rumpled – but it’s so so nice to remember that you’re enough.

You might not have seen Stevie Wonder for the 3rd or 4th time, but what did you do this weekend?

Elon Homecoming.

| cheriarmour

I feel like…there are just not enough hours in the day.  I can’t be the only one who feels this way.  In fact, I know I’m not, because my mom tells me all the time that she needs more time to do stuff.  And I’m 100%, completely in agreement.

Anyhoo, moving right along.  My weekend.

So, the weekend started off furiously.  Because of a little hiccup at work, I had to pull together a Zumba/Cardio Dance party within a matter of like 5 days. and surprisingly, it came off without a single hitch.

So Friday at 6:30, we started, and danced literally for like two hours nonstop.  Surprisingly, coming off the heels of Chicago, I felt really good, and someone from the class even remarked they were surprised I was moving so well.  They clearly have not seen my thighs, which, as of 10/19/15, have not fully regained all the skin that used to be on them.  Dang chub rub!

Zumba/Cardio Dance Party
Zumba/Cardio Dance Party

So, bright and early on the next morning, I headed down to Elon to start homecoming. I’d skipped the step show the night before, which was probably for the best. Not because I hate step shows, but because that’s a lot of drinking on a Friday night of me. My first official Elon Homecoming event was an inaugural 5k through campus to show off some newer construction. Of COURSE I ran it, and at the finish line, I made some friends in a young couple, one of whom had attended Elon. We hit it off, and I somehow made friends enough that we were able to go freshen up in their hotel room (after we got all sweaty), hit the Food Lion and made it back in plenty of time to start tailgating. We heated up the grill, drank beers, and traipsed all over campus, eventually making it over to the Elon Black Alumni Networks’ tent for food, the Black Cultural Society tent where folks seemed to be hanging out, and eventually, Twisted Measure’s tent, where we had more beers and food. We hung out there until campus security had us wrap it up, and then we walked over to the Twisted Measure house, where we carved pumpkins, I took a nap, and we danced for a good portion of the night, with small breaks to visit others at different houses or parties.

Sunday, after something of a late start, I took some time for myself, without the noise and hustle and bustle of seeing tons of people you haven’t seen in forever, and walked around campus by myself. I went to the campus store, to an old sandwich shop I spent a lot of time in in school, and drove through town before winding my way back to Raleigh.

I know it sounds corny, but there is just something so special about seeing folks who knew you when you were a baby. Some of us are married now. Some of us have fancy jobs. Some of us have kids. And it’s so cool to see someone that knew you as a baby, see you when you’re just a little bit more sure and confident.

What did you do this weekend?

Reader Question!

| cheriarmour

So I had a great question pop up in the comments a few days ago, and I thought that you guys could benefit from the answer!

Hi!
I’m a borderline overpronator with flat-ish feet. I’m not a runner, but I go for Zumba classes 3-5 days a week. I’m looking for new shoes to avoid the knee pain I seem to have after classes these days.
Would you recommend the transcend for Zumba I wonder? Or does it have too much traction for dance?
Thanks a ton!

First off, this is a great question, and I definitely encourage all of you guys, if you have questions for me, about anything, to ask. If I DON’T know the answer, lord knows I will try and do my best to find an answer for you!

And if you’re at all wondering what my qualifications are to even answer this kind of question, I have taught group fitness for almost 6 years now (eek), since January of 2010 officially with NC State, and I have worked for Fleet Feet Raleigh for a long time, where we are trained to assess and prescribe, so to speak, the best shoe for your most comfortable run.

Now, before you go and buy a new show for whatever activity you are doing, figure out what you will be doing with the shoe.  If you are a runner, you should be running in a running shoe.  If you are a tennis player, a tennis shoe.  Same for playing basketball.

But what do you wear if you find yourself teaching or taking a ton of classes in studios, like a Zumba, Cardio Dance, Step, or Kickboxing class?  A lot of folks tend to assume that you can just wear a running shoe for something like that, but that can be really tricky for two reasons.

  1. Running shoes are designed to go front and back, not side-to-side, or laterally.  There is a guidance line built right down the center of a running shoe that keeps that shoe wanting to move front to back.  So for a salsa, mambo, or any other move that you find yourself doing in a lot of studio classes that are NOT a bootcamp, the shoe is literally fighting you every step.
  2. Running shoes are designed to grip, and that gripping motion will tear up your knees and joints when you fight the traction and hit pivots, or movements similar to this one.  

So what’s a studio queen to do?

There are actually shoes designed for this specific thing.

Reebok Dance Ryka Dance

 

Both of these are available online – the first is a Reebok dance shoe, and the second a Ryka shoe.  I would link you to it buy Reebok and Ryka ain’t offered to pay me for it so I’m trusting you all to be able to find this without too much trouble.  But Reebok, Ryka, and sometimes Nike are the places I tend to head when searching for a good studio shoe.  The main difference between this shoe and a running shoe is that these are less grippy, hug your foot, and often feature a pivot point, a point right on the ball of the shoe that allows you to effectively pivot, cha-cha, mambo, or anything else.

Put any other shoe questions you may have in the comments!

 

Fitness instructors, leave your ego at the door.

| cheriarmour

I’ve been teaching fitness officially since 2010.  I’d been taking Zumba classes from the time I was about 16 until 20 or so, and the entire time, had been really curious about what it would take, and what it meant to teach.  I somehow got the balls to hunt around, and contacted the woman at NC State, the graduate school where I was attending, my first semester there, and asked if she was interested in a Zumba instructor.  The next thing I knew, I was teaching to a staff at a staff meeting, and without realizing it, my future husband may have been in that meeting.

But Lindsay, who managed us, took a chance on me, and after a short 20-minute demo, she allowed me to get onto the spring schedule one day a week.  And the response was absolutely overwhelming.  I regularly had over 100 students in the class, and as my class gained traction, I began to look forward to my time on Sundays with the students.

One thing I remembered, and one thing that I took with me in my time taking classes with Koh Herlong, who apparently was a Zumba superstar and we never knew it, left her ego at the door when it came to class.  She worked the room, starting from the front, and dancing in the crowd, dancing with students, and pointing out a nice booty shake or a great-looking bicep when she saw it.  The class wasn’t about her, it was about us.  And we left the room feeling that way each and every time we took the class.

Fitness instructors, your class is not about you. 

I’ve certainly fallen into the trap before.  When a student wants to take a pic with me or when I’ve seen myself talked about in a review of some place I’ve worked, I’ve wanted to dust myself off.  And when I do, I remember that there’s always an instructor who’s better than I am, and that being a decent teacher doesn’t mean shit if I have a bad attitude, or think I’m here for folks to be amazed by me.  There’s nothing amazing about what I do.  I just love to do it.

Zumba Instructor

That said, here are a few reminders for fitness instructors who are starting to feel their heads get a little bigger with each time they catch the eye of someone in their class.

  • The workout doesn’t belong to you.  It’s theirs [your students].  My mom has often asked me why I work out when I teach so many classes, and simply it’s because the energy you devote you your workouts and and workouts you provide to your students is and should be different.  In your classes your focused on the safety, the comfort, and the fun that your students are having, not your own.
  • But don’t give too much…everything needs a little balance.  Don’t give so much that you’re hurt or that you hurt the people in your class.  Balance is key.
  • Open your eyes!  Are you stuck in the mirror?  This is a terrible habit, and a huge pet peeve of mine.  Look around your class.  Face your class.  Look into people’s eyes!  If you find yourself “stuck in the mirror,” as an old tap teacher of mine would say, you’re doing it wrong.  Your class can sense when you’re looking at them, and when you’re checking out your own biceps.  And having an egotistical maniac for an instructor doesn’t do much for people.

And finally…

  • Make ’em feel good.  Folks got in their cars and drove over, not for you to tell jokes, right?  Thank folks for coming.  Introduce yourself.  Point out good work!  Shout encouragement.  Whisper adjustments.

QOTD:

What’s the best/your favorite fitness class you’ve EVER taken?

How I ended up at Fat Camp.

| cheriarmour

I started this post a few days ago – I was feeling a little nostalgic for Pennsylvania air and then we got the news that one of the guys from the resort had passed suddenly.  Isn’t it strange the things that pop into your head at just the right time?

Fat camp is a little difficult to explain to anyone who hasn’t been there.

Like 8 or 9 years ago, my friend Morgan, this absolute party of a woman, and I were watching MTV, and we fixated on something called Fat Camp.  The series was followed up like a summer later with MTV’s Return to Fat Camp.  The place seemed magical to me, and something about the concept of this tucked-away place where kids went was incredible to me.

We had Adisa, throwing a birthday party in the rec hall and being monstrous to the other girls during color war.  We had Dan and the play.  We had the chick with head lice.  We had some camp romance.  It all looked amazing.

So, I applied, and I’m not sure how this happened, but one October day, I ended up on the phone with Tony Sparber, the boss-man at camp.  I knew it was Tony, one, because he told me it was him, and two, because I recognized his voice.  Which I’d heard in the documentary, because when you were in trouble, you got the bossin’ from Tony in his office.  So anyways, I ended up on the phone with him one day in October after I’d applied.  He interviewed me, and he told me right then and there that he would give me a shot.

The following June, I woke up early, and on a beautiful day, I drove my old Taurus up the east coast, and stopped only with enough time to visit my family in New Jersey.  I had no money.  And off to camp I went!

When I pulled up, the place was straight out of the movies.  MTV had not misrepresented it in any way.  And it actually was a little more beautiful than I’d imagined.  I met someone from the resort, who directed me to the cabin where I’d be living with the other counselors for the next week or so.  And when I pulled around to the cabin, I was greeted by this absolutely wondrous sight – the sun getting ready to set over the trees, over the lake, and over the two pools.  My mouth was hanging open.

“Have you never been here before?”

I shook my head no.

The first night there, it rained, and I quietly cried into my pillow.  I think I was homesick.  But as the days went on, and training wrapped up, camp became my home.  The kids arrived.  I taught classes.  And as I slowly, slowly peeled off the pounds I’d put on while in a bad relationship over the years, a new me emerged.  I was happy.  I wasn’t anxious.  I had friends!

I settled into a beautiful routine.  Color War Broke.  The weather started to cool.  And almost as quickly as the magic had started, it was over.

I got into my Taurus.  Wove my way back down the east coast.  And went back to my old life.  Except this time, I was a new me!  In the following years I ran.  I ran.   I ran some more.  I ran a marathon.  Taught many classes.  Branched out and taught Toning, Cycling, Body Pump, Pole Dancing.  Won the ever-waging war on anxiety.

I wasn’t a camper at fat camp.  I was just a counselor.  The fitness girl.  And yet, I gained so much that summer.  To to the summer of 2010, I owe so much.

via CPT
via CPT

On becoming a fitness instructor

| cheriarmour

First things – I was supposed to come into work super late, but ended up having to come in early because my email was EXPLODING, so to alleviate the pain and suffering I was dealing with from having to answer 65,000 emails, I bought myself an inappropriately large coffee from Dunkin Donuts, and it’s been sloshing to and fro in my belly.  Wanna know how good it feels to have 18 million gallons of a diuretic sloshing about in your stomach?  Not good at all.

But enough complaining, life is wonderful, and I’m not here to talk about my GI issues.

But I am here to talk about a question I’ve gotten a lot since becoming a fitness instructor in late 2009, after I completed my undergraduate degree.

First and foremost, I can, without a doubt say that becoming a fitness instructor completely changed my life.

I’d been taking Zumba® Fitness classes for a number of years, and had always toyed with the idea of teaching, because I loved the way my instructor made me feel.  After a boyfriend made fun of me so badly that I didn’t want to get certified, I finally got up the nerve and took the plunge a few months after I graduated.  I’m still amazed that my chubby ass got up the gall to to to the licensing weekend, but I went and it changed my life.

Before
As a total side note, I was never obese, but I was eating really poorly, and had put on about 40 pounds when all was said and done in college.

 

So my process for getting licensed and certified in fitness goes like this.

Zumba® Fitness ->Schwinn Cycling Certification->AFAA Group Exercise Certification->Body Pump™ Certification

So for those of you interested in getting certified in group fitness and becoming a fitness instructor, here are a few steps that can get you from the process, to getting the credentials needed to effectively teach a class.

Becoming a fitness instructor

1.  This one seems pretty obvious but go to a lot of classes.  What do you like about your favorite teachers?  Start paying attention to their cueing, their mic level, and how they interact with the class.  My strengths are my dance classes as well as my toning, but it made me a much stronger teacher to see how different groups do different things.

2.  Get the basics.  Before you hop to teaching/getting certified/licensed in something crazy or a specialty like Yoga or Zumba® Fitness, look for a group fitness certification through a program like AFAA.  I DID NOT do this, I did it all backwards, but looking back on it, AFAA was valuable and helped to remind me about some of the safety cues we often forget when we’re getting all hot and heavy in a class.  Like I said, I did this all backwards, but an AFAA cert is really valuable.

3.  Sign up for a training.  Whether’s it’s AFAA, Zumba® Fitness, Pound, or what have you, go ahead and sign up for a training.  Once you sign up (early, cause those things can really sell out), you will be sent some materials.  Definitely look them over, and if it’s a training where you will be presenting for evaluation, definitely study.  ‘Cause you don’t want to be the problem child who has no idea what’s going on.

4.  You’re all signed up for a two-day training!  It’s the night before!  Pack your stuff, pack some snacks, and be prepped to be sore.  I am super active, but the Body Pump™ process had me the most sore that I’ve ever been in my entire life, mostly due to the fact that in the span of 48 hours, we took like 5 classes, and did the Les Mills challenge.

So all of this is how you get to become a fitness instructor…stay tuned for info on how to get to teaching at the gym!