A Lifetime of Lessons: Always plan your classes ahead of time

As a wise person once said, ‘Proper planning prevents poor performance’, and it’s true in the fitness industry as much as any other. While we don’t get paid for all the additional time we spend planning and preparing our group fitness classes, it’s an important part of the job that ensures we are delivering a great class to our participants each and every week - and we are paid to do that!

When entering the program room and getting set up for class, we want to look professional and prepared with our music ready, our equipment set out, ready to start class on time. Some participants like to see their instructor with notes - they feel respected and know that the instructor has put in time and effort for them to have a good workout. Other participants get very wary when the notebook comes out, as they know they might be in for a tough class!

I choose to have my aerobics routines and exercises written down as it makes it a lot easier if I have an oooops moment and forget what comes next. I can quickly pop over to have a drink or adjust the music, and glance down at my notes to jog the memory. Some people are able to remember a whole routine or a whole class in their head while others are not - but even for those with a good memory we still sometimes have off days or something unexpected may happen, and we forget what’s coming next. Having something written down on paper can help.

Planning out your class also means that you aren’t under pressure doing one exercise, while you’re making up the next exercise in your head. When this happens you aren’t able to concentrate on your participants and what they're doing, or engage in conversation with your class as you exercise. It might also mean that your own technique slips a little if you’re not concentrating, and reminding the class how to perform the exercise.

I have heard of instructors who ask their class of 20 participants, “What do you feel like doing today?”. While this might work in some scenarios, most often it can be a disaster as you could get back 20 different answers and leave 19 people unhappy when you make your decision. It also can come across like you don’t care what you do next, or you just don’t know what to do, which isn’t the impression we want to make, especially on any new participants who might be in the room.

Another risk of not putting time into planning is that you tend to teach the same exercises each week. Whether that is the same band exercises, or the same core exercises, or the same arms when you do a grapevine, there are only so many ideas you can hold in your head. If you’re making it up on the spot you’re always going to default to what is easiest, or the first thing that pops into your mind, and you’ll end up doing the same thing each week.

Variety is what keeps people coming back each week though, and also an important way to keep challenging our participants in regards to strength, balance, and coordination. If we give them the same exercises each week they’re going to get bored both mentally and physically.

I don’t want my participants to come into class knowing exactly what they’re going to get, so I try and include a different exercise, or different class structure, or different stretch each week. This is something that needs preparing ahead of time, and you can’t usually just make it up on the spot. One of my instructors knew that she needed to shake things up when her participant started anticipating each stretch before she did it. She looked at him quizzically and when he said, “It’s what you always do”, she knew she had to come up with some new stretches!

Planning ahead also means you can think of any adaptations to exercises you might need to offer your participants who have injuries or mobility issues. If you’re doing floor work but you have one participant who can’t get down on the floor, you may end up giving them the same standing wall exercises each week. Or if you have someone who suffers from vertigo, you might give them an inappropriate exercise if you have to come up with an alternative on the spot. Plan ahead and you'll be able to give them different exercises that you might even be able to write on a piece of paper or make up a card to give them so they know what they’re doing when the rest of the class is on the floor.

If you are doing a freestyle aerobics routine and you are prepared, you can change simple aspects of it and it will seem like a whole new routine the next week. You might keep all the same legs - heel digs, knee lifts, side taps and grapevines - but if you change all the arms and directions you do the moves, your participants will not realise that it’s the same routine you did last week! This means you can plan once, but get two or three different routines from it.

Sometimes the unexpected can happen - you turn up and there is no music, the carpet is being replaced, someone else is in the room, or the aircon isn’t working. Have you thought about what you might do in this situation? It can be a great idea to have a class planned for if you have to move outside or into the gym, or work without weights, or keep it all low intensity. The class plan might sit in your bag or on your phone for years without ever being used, but it’s a great idea to have something tucked up your sleeve, just in case.

You may sit down on a Sunday night and plan out your classes for the week. Every January you might allocate a day to do all your research and plan out six months of classes, and then repeat that twice during the year. You could also find an instructor who teaches the same style of classes and swap notes - every instructor is different and will always have different moves to yours!

There are lots of ways to keep things fresh, but it always requires good planning. I encourage you to put in a little time and effort so that you are delivering a fun class each week to your participants - when they’re having fun, you’re having fun too!

If you’re looking for exercises and ideas specifically for older adults, check out our YouTube channel where we’ve got lots of free 10-15 minute sample workouts. You can find on our website Exercises for Older Adults where we demonstrate and explain how to do a range of chair, band, and mobility exercises. You can also sign up to one of our courses for a huge variety of new exercises - select from below or view all of our online training options.

Happy preparing!!

Carol has been preparing fitness classes for over 50 years, and has a raft of qualifications and experiences on her CV. Her blog, 'A Lifetime of Lessons,' aims to share just a little of the wisdom and experiences she's picked up along the way. If you'd like to connect directly with Carol, get in touch via our Contact page.