The start of the new season evokes the sense of a fresh start, whether that be back-to-school, beginning university, or simply deciding it’s time to switch things up. For those of us in the fitness industry, it’s a crucial time to welcome new people to our classes, garner new personal training clients, and set members up for long-term success. Here are 3 easy ways to lift your class numbers and grow your profile.
HOST A BODYCOMBAT™ 100 EVENT
For many members, the gym is more than a place to sweat. As Rachael Newsham notes: “BODYCOMBAT 100 is more than just another milestone; it’s the power of perseverance and the spirit of community.” Showing new members that group training is more than just a workout — hooking into the sense of community it provides — is a key method to keeping new people for the long haul.
Getting involved with a BODYCOMBAT 100 event at your club will help raise your profile, get more people falling in love with the program, and pack out your classes. This is the perfect opportunity to connect with fellow Instructors by team-teaching and showing your love for the workout. Create hype and excitement by promoting the event on social media and in your classes in the lead up to the event. The BODYCOMBAT 100 event toolkit has everything you need to make the event “go off”!
REINVENT YOURSELF AS AN INSTRUCTOR
Even the most passionate of us can go through phases where we feel stale or stuck in a teaching rut. One of the best ways to fall back in love with teaching again is to learn a new program, says Creative Kylie Gates. “It’s a great challenge to take up a new program, become a beginner again and remember why you fell in love with teaching in the first place. This offers us longevity as Instructors.”
Wondering what to teach next? Fresh from the lab, LES MILLS PILATES™ promises to improve your own strength and mobility and level up your coaching. What’s more, the low-intensity nature of the workout means you can teach it every day without the risk of injury or burn-out.
Strength training is also surfing a wave of popularity right now. A 2023 survey by the American College of Sports Medicine Journal found that strength training with free weights ranked as the second most popular fitness trend after wearable technology. If you don’t yet have a strength offering in your teaching artillery, why not consider training to teach BODYPUMP™, LES MILLS GRIT STRENGTH™, LES MILLS STRENGTH DEVELOPMENT™ or LES MILLS FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH™?
5 reasons to teach LES MILLS PILATES
MAKE PEOPLE FEEL GOOD
With so many things to consider when we teach a class — choreography, music volume, room temperature, who needs options — it can be easy to forget that this may be our one opportunity to convert that brand-new person in the back row.
Yes, people come for the workout, but they also come for all of the additional benefits, says Les Mills Ambassador Anthony Oxford. “Obviously when we exercise, our bodies create endorphins, right? But my approach is to ask, how do we heighten those endorphins? My purpose in every class I teach is to make people feel better walking out the door than they did when they came in. I understand that you never know what someone’s going through. You can’t presume that just because someone walks in with a smile, they’re actually happy. I know that I walk in with a smile when I’m not feeling good. Most of the time, I’m trying to make myself feel better by helping others to feel better, so I’m bouncing that energy back and forth between us so that we all leave feeling good.”
The fact that you never know what someone else is going through is something that resonates with fellow Ambassador House Chaalane. “A few years ago, one member, now a dear friend of mine, used to come to my classes because he was jobless and struggling in life. The classes "were his oxygen". I even made him jump on stage on the day of his birthday. That was EVERYTHING for him — feeling good, loved, accepted, and acknowledged. I had absolutely no clue about his situation, I just loved seeing him in class having the time of his life! He told me about his work/life situation a few years later and how much these classes literally saved him from completely "losing it". THIS is my "why". Satisfaction of a job well done and knowing we can change lives – even on a small scale. Every single step is progress.”
