6 Things I Wish People Knew About Being a Fitness Instructor

Getting up in front of a room of 25 humans to lead an hour long fitness or yoga class is pretty intimidating. And this is coming from someone that spent the first 22 years of her life focused on being an actor and performer.

Even though I’ve taken hundreds of group fitness classes over the years, there is SO much I didn’t realize about being a fitness instructor until I was on the other end of the equation. Here is what I wish my students knew about being a fitness instructor (and yoga teacher too!)

✨What I Wish Everyone Knew About Being A Fitness Instructor ✨

We have “off” days.

My goal is to give 100% in every class I teach. No matter what is going on in my life: if I’m exhausted, if I’m dealing with medical issues, if I just got into a fight with my parents, I’m still going to go in to class with a smile on my face.

There are some days when I’m just “off.” I’m mixing up my rights from my lefts. I have a total brain fart and forget what a Warrior 2 is (yup, that’s happened to me). I spazz snd change the music to the wrong song.

Don’t forget that your fitness instructor or yoga teacher is still a human. We make silly mistakes and have “off” days.

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We’ve potentially been up since before 5AM.

People in the fitness industry work long days, often times waking up before 5AM (for realz) and finishing sometime after 7PM. There are definitely big chunks of downtime in my schedule, but some days feel long.

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It’s harder than it looks!

Guys, leading an hour long class while constantly talking and DJ-ing and keeping 25 people safe is deceptively hard. I know I’m not saving lives and it ain’t rocket science, but I didn’t realize how hard it is at times until I actually started teaching class myself. So. Much. Multi-tasking.

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We’re doing things for a reason

There is a reason I’m cueing triangle pose this specific way or asking you to scoot your left foot forwards a few more inches. As both a yoga teacher and barre instructor, most of what I’m doing is super intentional. I’m telling you to do something a specific way both to keep you safe, to keep your muscles engaged and also because it might work a certain muscle that we’re going to use later. I swear I’m not being nit-picky about my triangle pose variation just to be nit-picky.

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When we correct your form it’s not a personal attack.

I joke at the beginning of almost every Bar Method class I teach that my hands-on and verbal adjustments are not personal attacks. You are not a bad person if you take a modification or use blocks for support in a yoga class. My corrections are solely to keep you in your best form and to keep you safe. If I give you a block for half moon in my yoga class it’s not because I don’t think you’re strong enough, or because I think you’re a bad human… it’s because I think it will benefit you. And fun fact: I use a block in half moon too 🙂

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For most people teaching is not their full time job

I personally make most of my income teaching yoga + barre. That’s pretty rare. Most of the people I work with have a 9-5 full-time job. For a lot of people they teach as a side passion in addition to whatever else they do.

It’s pretty rare to find a full-time gig with benefits in the fitness industry. It’s like a unicorn. I know SoulCycle hires full-time cycling instructors with health benefits, the whole shebang. Other than that? Most people are balancing multiple studios or multiple jobs. And most studio positions don’t offer health insurance or other benefits.

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YOUR TURN: Are you surprised by any of these things?