How I became a group fitness instructor

Group fitness was something that I never though I would be interested in. Aside from my high school experience on sports teams, I had little experience with group fitness. I guess it was because I worked out by myself most of the time and did not find attending a class with other people who may not be the same fitness level as me unappealing.

However, one announcement convinced me otherwise.

How I got introduced to the world of group fitness

In 2014, Cassey Ho (founder of Blogilates) announced that POP Pilates became a certified group fitness format that could be taught in gyms. At the time, I followed her monthly workout calendars and had made great progress. Although I was an avid fan of the format and could see myself teaching it, I was not interested since I just started my music teaching career and was still new to the exercises.

Over time, more people that I followed on Instagram became instructors as the popularity of the format grew in the POP Pilates community. I considered getting certified, but I was not sure if I had the time to commit since my commute to work was already over two hours round trip.

One day on Instagram, I saw that there was an instructor training at the local 24 Hr Fitness gym and wondered if I should sign up. After thinking about it for days, I signed up, learned the choreography and attended the training. A month later, I sent in my evaluation video and waited for the results.

On the train ride home from work, I received an email from POP Pilates. I had passed my video evaluation and was a certified instructor! I was ecstatic and started looking for teaching opportunities. I had dreams of becoming a successful instructor and possibly be featured in a future POP release.

My group fitness instructor experience

How did I get my first group fitness job? I went to the local gym by my house to give my business card to the manager. Coincidentally, I walked in when the manager was redoing the group fitness schedule and wanted to add more classes. I told her about the class and she asked if I could do a demo.

Thankfully, my routine was still engrained in my brain and performed the first few tracks of the class. She was impressed and asked me if I could start teaching in August. I walked in with no expectations and left with a job? I wished my search for an orchestra teaching gig was that easy…

Unfortunately, I struggled with getting my class to become popular. Teaching group fitness was different from being a classroom teacher. The next few teaching gigs ended the same way and I became discouraged. Although I did not believe everything was my fault, I acknowledged that I still had a lot to learn about marketing myself and being a better instructor.

During this time, I decided to get my group fitness certification through the Athletics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) to gain more knowledge and to make myself more marketable to gyms. I taught a few classes here and there but never got back into teaching consistently due to a lack of motivation and other interests including bodybuilding.

Due to the pandemic, I was able to attend the POP Pilates virtual retreat. Attending the workshops helped me rediscovered why I wanted to teach in the first place. I learned valuable pedagogy and connected with POP instructors from around the world. I thought I had the motivation to start teaching again through virtual classes.

Why I stopped teaching

Despite this revival, I decided to discontinue my POP Pilates instructor membership and let my AFAA certification lapse at the end of 2020. Although I will miss the community and perks, it was an easy decision to make since I genuinely lost interest in teaching group fitness. I decided to focus on my music teaching career and goal of becoming an International Federation of Body Building (IFBB) Figure Pro.

If you interested in teaching group fitness and planning on getting certified, continue to pursue it. Although it did not work for me, you may become the best instructor in the area!