Raise the bar: Becoming the best of the best
Notes
Becoming the best of the best.How to love every class and make every class love you.
Welcome back to the Work IN. We are continuing our series on raising the bar in the fitness industry and last time we started at the top with a discussion about certification mediocrity and how to raise the bar for yourself. My TKD master always told me to hold yourself to a higher standard and give everyone else the benefit of the doubt and that’s one of the things I live by in my professional career.
Today we are looking at how we can be better for our students by raising the bar for them. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if no matter what the job everyone was always striving to be better in some way? Sadly that isn’t the case. And in the fitness industry you see all kinds of people who get into the field for all kinds of reasons and from what I can tell, the ones who are committed to expanding their depth and breadth of knowledge are the ones who stick around.
For coaches it is really easy to get that certification and then just ride it for a while. And if you’re not careful the ever changing world of wellness will leave you behind. Science changes, health recommendations changes, people and society change. And what it means for you to be a good coach changes. And all those things are important because you never know who will be standing in front of you at any given time. And if you’re not big on self awareness and you haven’t cultivated any understanding of human nature, communication skills or holding space you risk your students. And I’m not just talking about physical safety. I’m talking about the mental and emotional as well and the fact that people vote with their feet and if your sessions aren’t full or getting any traction there’s only one person to blame.
Ultimately every ( or any) class you teach or workout you lead you are the coach. You set the tone. You’re the decider. That’s a lot of power. And I have seen coaches who abuse that power to serve their own ego and coaches who enjoy years of success and loyalty from their students and everything in between. So what makes a popular successful fitness coach? Is it followers on instagram? Is it the perfect physique? Is it awesome music and choreography? Are they natural born motivators? Todays work IN we’ll be exploring some of the ways to become the best of the best in the fitness industry.
Challenging the myth of motivation: That someone else can make you do it.
Coaches: You can’t motivate anyone beyond the one hour you’re with them. And you shouldn’t want to. We don’t want to create dependents.
What you can do: Encourage, inspire, support, help cast the vision and see possibilities.
What you should do: raise the bar, show what’s possible, cultivate the client's self awareness and curiosity.
Raise the bar- Challenge everyone in the room. Exercise is pointless without challenge. We need to help our people find the edge because that’s where all the benefit lives. No one shows up to a class to do the least amount possible. You’re there to lift people up. My rule of thumb for class plans is to offer something that I would find challenging and I never make them do anything that I can’t or wouldn’t do myself. I am with them all the way. This keeps things fresh for me too. Just a side note: There’s nothing worse than an instructor that can’t keep up with her class. So if you don’t think you can do it, then set up a different class format where you don’t have to.
Show them what's possible, offer choices and create successes. This is where they get to practice being the expert. Being intentional with their choices. It feels good to go for it and have a cheerleader. Be careful here, it is never good to call people out in class.
Add value beyond the burn. (Include the brain in the workout plan) Maybe fun facts, specific tips on why you’re doing things like this. How they can repeat the workout at home. This opens the door to conversation and connection with your people and it helps you establish professional credibility beyond the letters after your name that, let's’ face it, nobody cares about.
Next time we’re going to go a bit deeper into raising the bar dusting off some basic instructor skills, difficult students and how to use trauma informed knowledge to protect your own energy and oil your feathers.
And speaking of professional credibility I’ve created a free guide to help you hold space for your classes in a trauma informed way for any format. You can get that guide at savagegracecoaching.com as well as sign up for my next one day yoga retreat in Dayton Ohio area, registration opens soon so check it out in the meantime follow me @realsavagegrace on IG and facebook savagegracecoaching.
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