 |
 |
|
If you are passionate about fitness and find that you are told by peers and instructors that you should “teach”, this handout is for you. There are a number of things people may see in you that cause them to picture you as a class leader. Beyond that, it is important for you to assess for yourself if you have the internal drive, desire, and determination to actually become an instructor. Below is a list of questions that you should be able to answer in the affirmative before you take any step toward the group fitness stage. You may find that you are more capable than you think, OR that you are ALMOST ready. Either way, if you have an interest, go to your group fitness manager and have the conversation. He or she will be able to guide you toward the next step appropriate for you.
- Are you both a leader and performer? Meaning, are you capable of giving specific instructions to large groups of people and expecting them to follow WHILE also performing choreography to the music, cracking jokes, and sometimes singing along? Still don’t know…were you ever a cheerleader, dancer, athlete or performer of any kind? Do you have rhythm?
- Is fitness more than health/figure maintenance for you? Is it your passion, do you long for your workout? Do you want everyone to feel that endorphin rush after an awesome class?
- Do you have a few hours a week to teach AND a few extra to work on choreography?
- Are you firmly entrenched in your group fitness program? Do you know most of the instructors by name and many of the participants as well? Are you in class 4 or 5 hours a week anyway?
- Do you want to help others take better care of themselves? NOTE: Wanting to get paid for YOUR workout is not an acceptable reason to become an instructor. Selfishness is not an attractive characteristic in a group leader.
- Could you give up 3 days to get certified? Do you have about $300 to get you started? Do you want to teach even if you only break even after your investment for a while?
If those answers are all yes or “most of the time” you are a good candidate to be a group instructor. If you need to know WHAT you should be teaching think about how you look, move, and speak. Self awareness  about these things will help you best identify your most authentic program. Beginning there will likely lead to other programs you may be able to teach with integrity.
If you are muscular, athletic, and have a motivator’s tone, BODYATTACK™ is your program. You must be extremely fit to teach this class as you will be leading your facility’s most elite participants. This class blends a great soundtrack with athletic movements that is almost a dead run for most of the class.
If you are wiry, agile, and have a commanding voice, you were made to teach BODYCOMBAT ™. Dojo experience is extremely helpful, but not required. Many martial arts inspire this cardio blast, but none are actually mastered.
If you are strong, flexible, and can alter your voice for dramatic effect, you might be a match for BODYFLOW ™. Experience either as a participant or instructor in tai chi, yoga, or Pilates is helpful, but not mandatory. Ballet experience can also be very beneficial in this blended mind/body class.
If you are hip, coordinated, and almost sing when you speak, you are all BODYJAM ™. Dance experience is really a requirement for this format. Former cheerleaders often do very well in this fabulous  cardio dance journey.
If you are strong, powerful, and sound like a football coach, it’s BODYPUMP ™ to start. The original barbell to music class requires a very intense personality to drive the endurance training throughout.
If you are lean, explosive, and willing to “shout” a little, RPM ™ could be your thing. This indoor cycle experience has the best music, simplest moves, and greatest intensity of any around.
If you are all legs, athletic, and able to talk through cardio intervals, BODYSTEP™ is a great place to start. This class works everything from the waist down and does it with varying levels of intensity on the step.
If you are generally fit, flexible, and able to use your voice to compel action in others, BODYVIVE™ is for you. This class covers a lot of workout ground in under an hour and instructors must be able to master just about anything.
Think about who you are, where you are in your own fitness journey, and why you might want to teach others to be more fit. If you are wondering where you might fit into your own club, ask the group fitness team for their input. If you are ready, we’d love to welcome you to the tribe. If you are nearly ready, then take the steps to get where you need to be. If you choose to remain a participant, we need you. Serving you is our passion and our purpose. Continue to support your team of fitness professionals and stay with the fight!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ed McTiernan and Gail Owen of Powerhouse Gym in Utica, New York, USA have transformed their club with Group Fitness (GF) in just five short months. They explain how what was once a big drain on club resources has become a vital competitive advantage to the facility.
Tell us some performance stats for your club to set the scene…
We have been in business since 1991 and right now it's getting tough out there. Since 2004, we've been experiencing more competition from low cost operators such  as Planet Fitness. Today, we have three clubs in the area who charge $20 or less a month within two miles of our facility.
Having said that, we have 1,200 loyal members and since bringing BODYPUMP® to Utica in February 2008, we quickly became confident about expanding our GF space from one small 900 ft² (86 m²) room and invested in a new "mega studio" of 2,000 ft² (185 m²). With so many bookings for our four-class BODYPUMP® launch, we decided to negotiate a lease for extra space next door immediately, which would allow us to create a truly unique GF environment in the area. This has been a great success.
Our total weekly visits to the facility vary between 1,500 and 2,000. Since we added BODYPUMP® into the mix, we have raised our weekly average GF visits from 56 per week for nine classes in February 08, to 350 per week for nine classes – six of which are BODYPUMP®. Today, GF generates an average of 20% of our total visits compared with circa 3% before we brought BODYPUMP® to the club. And I expect 50% of total visits to be delivered by GF as we add more LES MILLS™ programs into our business mix.
We launched BODYSTEP® with a bang in June and will be bringing BODYCOMBAT® and BODYFLOW® to the timetable in autumn. RPM® is arriving in January 2009, hosted in another brand new studio we are building specifically for cycling classes. This means the old studio will be our mind body/low Impact studio for BODYFLOW® and BODYVIVE® (which we are also planning to bring to the party). So early next year we will have three studios from which our GF "powerhouse" can generate continued growth.
What amazes us is the difference in our expectations. Before we took the leap and added BODYPUMP® to our timetable, we had an average of six attendees per class and had no idea how to fix it other than to close the GF service down. Now we expect to see around 40 people per class and if we get an occasional attendance level of 20, we are asking “Why?” We've also learned that it takes a bit of time for a new program to settle in; however the key change in the team is that we will not accept low attendances in our GF classes anymore. Believe me – that's a massive alteration in how we run our business. This is a good place to be.
What made you decide to invest in GF, given the department was a "problem child"?
Good question. Well – it was really bad. We had been planning on shutting GF down completely for some time. We had said "no thank you" to Renee Martin from Les Mills in 2006 but she stayed in touch. And when we were getting ready to close the GF studio down, Powerhouse Gym appointed Les Mills to be a preferred supplier  which gave us some food for thought. However, we didn't do anything until Renee phoned us again and showed us some tracks from a BODYPUMP® DVD and we realized we'd never seen anything like it. So Gail and I decided to take the gamble and do it. We knew we had to do something to differentiate ourselves in themarket, as it has become so cost driven and we believed Les Mills was the way to go.
Today all our marketing leads with GF visuals and headlines – there's so much exciting material to use on eClub www.lesmills.com/eclub to help get you noticed and it's free. On top of that, there is excellent advice on how to optimize your GF business in the online GF Management (GFM) Explorer www.lesmills.com/gfm and this had a significant influence on how we planned our 2,000 ft² (185 m²) studio, which is themed on a night club look and feel.
So, GF is no longer a problem child for us. Today, GF is at the forefront of the business and will be central to our future growth and success. |
|
|
|
|
|
In the Midwest, many have grown accustomed to being a little “behind the times”. Everyone assumes that the latest trends in food, fashion, and even fitness begin on the coasts (L.A and New York) and make their way in…eventually landing in the Midwest. Les Mills Midwest (LMMW) encourages you to fight the sterotype! Here we are doing autoship more smoothly and more timely than any other agency in the country! Instructors on autoship in the Midwest receive their releases first, before instructors anywhere  else in the USA…and most places in the world!
We would like to publicly appreciate the efforts of our own Shawn Hamilton who has made this possible. He and his autoship team, pack, and ship the releases each and every quarter. We are especially grateful to him since when we first started, we were a bit behind the rest of the country. Shawn says,"My current procedures implemented, allow LMMW to get over 2600 music kits shipped out in less then 3 business days. Prior to myself managing this project it was taking staff up to three weeks to complete". We admit that we made rookie mistakes and are proud to have overcome them!
If you are new to LMMW, you may be wondering what autoship is and why getting it right is so important. Autoship is the program offered by regional distributors through which certified instructors teaching in licensed facilities receive their quarterly releases automatically and at a discounted rate. Autoship ensures that instructor teams receive new music kits every 3 months and have the opportunity to launch new releases at a similar time as every other licensed club in their region/country. The autoship  program saves time and money by eliminating the need to “order” releases every 3 months AND provides instructors with a $10 discount PER RELEASE! Instructors who participate in this program also receive their releases first.
The importance of this program to your facility is immeasurable. It ensures that you, as an instructor, are being continuously upskilled and educated about safety. Also, your participants appreciate the regular introduction of new material. Receiving the releases at the same time as a team allows you to plan who will teach the launch, when to schedule the re-launch, and what fun and creative things you can do with the newchoreography. The quarterly kits also provide facilities with an opportunity to throw a party and invite new participants to class. All these things build value in your programs and they are all guaranteed when instructor teams participate in the autoship program.
LMMW is pleased to offer you this program and proud to be doing it so efficiently. We’ve come a LONG way, baby! Thanks again to Shawn Hamilton and all the staff in the Northbrook offices of LMMW. We couldn’t do it without you! |
|
|
|
|
|
Instructors who have been with Les Mills International (LMI) for a little while understand the excitement generated by the quarterlies. Six times a year we gather the best and brightest from across the region and  the nation to deliver a life changing performance in each of the eight amazing formats. This new release demo party makes for good times, great ideas, and renewed enthusiasm for our much beloved programs. We want to make them EVEN BETTER!
If you had a favorite presenter from a quarterly last year or know someone who is new to the national trainer team this year, let us know! Send your requests to editor@mw.lesmillsusa.com and we will take notice. We want to offer you the very best our region and country has to offer in the way of presenter teams, and we want you to let us know who you think those pros might be.
You are also welcome to let us know which INTERNATIONAL personalities you would like to see at our SUPER Q October 3 & 4…MARK YOUR CALENDAR, you do not want to miss this one. We are going to do our best to top 2008! Remember? Les Mills Midwest (LMMW) Instructors had the privilege of taking BODYATTACK™ from Joella Hopkins, BODYCOMBAT™ from  Josef Matthews, BODYFLOW™ from Peg Cleland, BODYJAM™ from Kili Marti, BODYPUMP™ from Susan Tolj-Renata (co-program director) and Steve Renata (original master trainer), RPM™ from Steve Renata, BODYSTEP™ from Kendall Kimball, and BODYVIVE™ from Susan Tolj-Renata. All of DVD fame and ALL of whom were available for pictures, autographs, and a glass of wine! If this wasn’t good enough, Phillip Mills himself (CEO of Les Mills International) delivered the Group Management for Profit session as well as other informative courses on the importance of quality programming in our present culture. We spare no expense in attracting the BEST talent to present at this amazing event!
Take a moment and let us know who you want to see, and we will do our best to get them there! In case you were wondering, our tentative Quarterly dates are: Jan 30 & 31; Mar 6/7; Apr 17/18 June 5 & 6; Sept 11/12; and the SUPER Q Oct 3 &4. It is not too late to offer your facility as a host site for any of these events, except the SUPER Q of course! We look forward to hearing from you! KIA ORA! |
|
|
|
|
|
Sal Pellegrino
 Sal began his professional career in the later seventies by studying
Physical Education at the University of Miami. Here was his first exposure to the
Nautilus system of exercise. After completing a Master’s degree at Eastern Kentucky
University, Sal returned to New York where he opened his first Nautilus Fitness Center in 1978. He opened a second club and successfully ran both facilities until 1984 when he
sold both centers to pursue a career in the supply side of the equipment industry. Working for Stairmaster for thirteen years as east coast sales manager later, he moved over to Precor. While at both companies, he successfully launched new product categories in the metro New York market.
During the past eleven years he was the national accounts manager where he met the needs of the large industry players. Currently, Sal has joined Les Mills International as the national sales director. He is excited about this new opportunity and can’t wait to spread the word on one of the
best member retention and member acquisition tools in the industry.
Sal says, “fitness is a way of life” since he was fourteen years of age. He is
always motivated to share his thoughts, expertise and many talents with all of his clients.
Currently as national account manager, Sal focuses his efforts on helping clients achieve their goals and assists in asset management and improving the member experience. This is achieved through good customer service, innovative products and entertainment services and a timely response to issues important to the client.
Additionally, Sal has presented numerous topics at industry tradeshows which include, IHRSA, Club Industry, The IHRSA Institute and the JCC Association.
Sal resides in Raleigh, NC with his wife Kelley and their teenage daughter Sarah.
In his free time, he enjoys working out in his incredible home gym and it is rumored that he plays a pretty mean guitar. Join Sal on Dec 9 as he helps us tackle the topic of competing with a low priced competitor.
From everyone at Les Mills Midwest, welcome to the tribe Sal!
Contact information:
Sal Pellegrino
National Sales Director
sal@lesmills.com |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Those in the Les Mills Midwest (LMMW) tribe know how much we love a creative launch. We just had to share how the team at The Workout Company in Normal, Illinois used the Heroes campaign developed by LMI to create an awesome in-house campaign of their own. Eileen Kilborn and her team shared tons of pictures with us and REALLY had a good time with this incredible, costumed launch.
To add to the excitement, Eileen says, “Grace, our club manager and Les Mills instructor, ran through BODYJAM™ launch in the Wonder Woman costume!” 
has survived cancer)” AWESOME! What a unique way to make a theme personal and interesting!