- Your car is your locker room AND your studio
Half-empty tub of BCAAs rolling around the floor? Check. Everything coated with a fine dusting of protein powder? Check. Sweaty clothes bundled on the floor next to your microphone box, make-up strewn across the passenger seat because you’re “multi-tasking”, and a towel on your seat to absorb your sweat post-class? Check, check, check. Congratulations, my friend, you are officially a Group Training Instructor.
Not only are our cars our lockers, changing rooms, and make-up stations, they’re also our own private studios. If you’ve perfected the art of learning choreography in your car (punching the air, lowering your hand up and down in imitation of a squat, chest press or bicep curl), you’re definitely one of us.
- Your wardrobe is 90% activewear
Wearing a sports bra is the norm. Putting on jeans feels like dressing up. If your washing pile looks like the Spring/Summer adidas collection and you’re doing laundry at least every other day, you’re 100% a Group Training Instructor.
- You really have to think about your left and right in everyday life
Ohhh that trickster of “Instructor right”. You’re banned from giving directions because you invariably tell people to turn left when you meant right. When you attend class as a participant you’re always on the wrong leg. Yep, it’s a thing.
- You have to fight the urge to bust out choreography in the supermarket
We’ve all been there. One minute you’re in the toilet paper aisle immersed in deciding whether your budget means it's a two-ply or splash out on three-ply week, then the song from the latest BODYCOMBAT™ Muay Thai track is all over the speakers and it takes every ounce of your being not to break into that Descending Elbow/ Knee Combo.
And sometimes, you just do it anyway.
- You start every class saying “one-two, one-two”
Which, when you think about it, is kind of weird for the members. But we’ll carry on doing it anyway.
- You put your phone on flight mode more often than flight attendants
If you’ve ever had the sound on your playlist suddenly dip because someone’s messaging you (don’t they know your teaching timetable yet?), you’ll understand why focus mode is imperative.
- Your “day bag” is heavier than most people’s luggage for a weekend getaway
People regularly ask you whether you’re moving out, where you’re going for the night, or simply call you the “bag lady” (sorry, “bag person”). Only Instructors know the pain of trying to pack a bag that contains (a) five different outfits (b) room for all our schnacks (c) the largest toiletry bag we could find in K Mart (d) our microphone, mic belt and three different pairs of trainers.
- Your members think you’re a compulsive liar
“Four more… jokes, I meant eight!”; “Thirty seconds to go… keep going…”; “There’s only one more set…”
You know that moment when everyone in the room is looking at you with daggers in their eyes.
It’s a beautiful thing.
- People assume we’re extroverts, when we’re actually introverts
Do people who go to your classes assume you’re the life and soul of the party? Actually, we’ve just given every ounce of our energy to that class and now we need to go sit in a darkened room in silence with our cat.
“I'm an introvert,” confesses Khiran Huston. “People don't recharge me, they drain me. I guess as outgoing as I seem, that comes from a place of putting others first, not from a place of – that's what fills my cup. So, you know, after a Quarterly Workshop, I'll need to just go home and maybe stare at a wall or sit in silence for a bit because I literally gave everything in my soul to every single person, haha! It's fun though!”
- As soon as someone tells us their name, we immediately forget it
Every. Single. Time. And we’ll spend the rest of our days really hoping somebody else just mentions it in conversation because we can never, ever ask them again.
Ever.
