15th September 2011 Instructor Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the Choreographytogo Instructor Newsletter. This is a free weekly resource that I designed 8 years ago years ago to provide support, ideas and back up for all Instructors and Personal Trainers. I love to receive your feedback, so if you do have any comments or would like to contribute in any way please email lesley@choreographytogo.com or please use the very lively forum.

For website/membership/course bookings and general admin email Lesley@choreographytogo.com or call the C2Go office 07854 739285. We aim to answer your emails within 24 hours. Please add Lesley@choreographytogo.com to your address book as mail sometimes can go to your junk/spam mail box. You can also find the answers to many of your questions in the FAQ section and Help section of the site click here for FAQs and Terms & Conditions

Note from Rachel

I wanted to focus this weeks newsletter on Choreography and Class content ideas so you will find some Aqua combinations and a Hard core Bootcamp and Skipping workout and I really hope you can gain some ideas from the notes below. I have also included a great article by Jayne and The Fat Controller Jill Gardner has written a great nutrition article as well.

A massive thanks to everyone who came to Marvins brilliant workout on Sunday and Marvin will be taking the tour to Guildford and Manchester this weekend. You can grab a place at click here and I am SO excited to be opening the doors this Saturday for my first Fitness Business Builder Workshop in Bristol I will helping and guiding Fitpros with their Fitness Business I have 2 spaces left on the day if you would like to come along and Ill give you tons of personal advice and work on your business all day. To grab a place Click here click here

Aqua Focus

Year in Year out Aqua is the one class on the timetable that constantly stays busy. AND its probably the hardest to teach so I here are some Aqua Choreography ideas for you. I’m a big fan of teaching Aqua Choreography combinations so I hope the following will be some use to you as well:-)

For further inspiration check out the Aqua downloads and I’ll be putting more videos on the site next week.

Aqua choreography Routines non equipment

Combo 1

4 x alternate knee lifts

4 x alternate leg curls

2 x double knee lift

2 x double leg curls

2 x jacks to all walls

8 x rocking horse r/l

4 x rocking horse r/l

2 x rocking horse r/l

Combo 2

8 x jogs fwd

2 x alternate side hops

2 x jacks

4 x tuck jumps

repeat traveling back

Combo 3

8 x kicks traveling to each corner

8 x twists back

Combo 4

Hop scotch fwd x 8 turn repeat back

8 x swing kicks

8 x pendulum kicks

4 x kick fwd, back, side, opposite side

Repeat hop scotch left

Who am I? and what am i doing here? Jayne Nicholls

Social media and newsletters such as this have made it so easy for us to become part of a group when working as a sole trader or independent. It is without question that we are affected by what everyone else is doing, but sometimes this can lead us into dark alleys or into trying to achieve when there is no way we can win or come out on top. I say this in relation to how we run our classes or our business. I also say this with years of peer group pressure behind me in a very small and intimate industry. Lets look at a few of the issues we are faced with in fitness today.

OUR IDENTITY CRISIS – Being part of the next big thing is great and right now it is pretty much Zumba, Bootcamp and Yoga but selling our sole to these models is rarely a good idea. By changing your middle name to Zumba, you immediately make yourself a product of a much bigger entity and while this is not a bad thing, it is very hard then to present yourself as an expert of a leader in your field. Would you visit a functional trainer, fat loss expert or business professional called Jayne Zumba Nicholls?

FAT LOSS GURUS – In the same way that fat Loss is a huge puller and everyone with the discipline to maintain a clean diet and lifestyle should be applauded, are you setting yourself up as an elite market? Will the hundreds of people who’s lives dictate that they will never adhere to a strict regime avoid you? Will they try and leave demotivated? and most important are you setting yourself up for a lot of hard work for a short term gain.

JACK OF ALL TRADES – Flipping this totally, those of us who do absolutely everything that group exercise has to offer are in danger of spreading ourselves so thinly that we miss the opportunity to capitalise on some of the more lucrative areas of group training that are coming into their own in 2011.

What we need here is foresight, resilience and a long term plan. it is well worth spending time self evaluating your position in the market, your objectives and your plans for the future. If this is a hobby then it is a great hobby and dipping your toes into everything it has to offer is a great thing but if this is a career then it may be worth time setting your own standards and creating your own USP. Group X has never been more popular with a boom in small groups and special populations and I am eager fro all of us to capitalise on what we have got, not what we perceive is the best way forward. So if you are worried about freezing to death this winter while exercising outdoors, or you feel that your talent and your ideas could be sold in a better way then make the stand and make a change to the way you run your business. The person who knows your market best is you, we can help you with new and inventive ways to keep them coming back but you are the creator of your own destiny and your own wealth, so tweak it if you need to.

Jayne is kicking off this weekend with the ‘I am Yoga’ Tour in Manchester and Birmingham – to catch these dates visit www.groupxtraining.com

www.groupxtraining.com

HardCore Bootcamp Class Ideas

The Baron Tabata – Skipping with Burpees 20:10sec

Heres a really hardcore session. Its an interval of 20secs on and 10seconds of. Do the burpee exercise then skipping and keep going till you have completed all of the variations below. Its super hardcore.

Regular Burpee with press up	Skipping
1 Leg Burpee with press ups	Double Jump skip
Burpee with tuck jump	High Knee skipping
Burpee with press up and sumo (1 arm row)	Slalom Skipping
Burpee bringing knee round to the side	Sagittal Plane fwd/back skipping
Burpee roll over and push up	Wide Jack Skipping
Burpee with press up, jump, easy walk	Twisting skipping
Burpee, press up with transverse knee driver	Flick kicks
Burpee, press up, side taps, jump up	Basic skipping
Burpee press up with hill climber	Hop scotch skip
Burpee, press up with mix knee driver	High knee skipping
Burpee , press ups with sprint	Kick butt skipping

Getting the next generation healthy by Sally Ghafoor.

We are currently raising the first generation of children that are unlikely to outlive their parents…..

Yes you read that right, research suggest that the current generation we as parents are raising, are unlikely to outlive us. That is shocking.

How on earth has it got to the point that this statement will in time come to pass.

Very simple – The absolute rubbish we let our children eat.

Macdonalds, pizza, sweets, crisps, biscuits, fizzy drinks, energy drinks, what are we letting our kids put into their body? Children are being diagnosed as young as 13 with cirrhosis of the liver – a complaint normally heard of in alcoholics. A fatty liver, from years of consuming foods, which are ruining their health. Children with type 2 diabetes due to their diet….. it baffles me, and what is being done about it… a voluntary calorie info chart next to foods available, wow, like that’s gonna help.

I am sorry but the whole “but they won’t eat anything else” doesn’t work with me. I have 3 boys all at different ages 15,10 and 2 – guess what, they eat a well balanced healthy diet (and no that is not the governments well balanced diet advice as that is appalling) – none of my children are overweight. I pay attention to their nutrition; I am bothered by what they put in their body as fuel. My 2 year old has never been to macdonalds, he doesn’t know what a lollipop is, the other day at a birthday party he was given a marshmallow flump – he took one bite and spat it out – he doesn’t know sugar, and it tastes vile to him.

“oh poor little boy, not allowed sweets” Oh jeez I hear it constantly, it’s like its bad to eat clean healthy food, when did eating processed, insulin spiking food become the norm for our society?

My children don’t eat wheat, nor dairy, sugar is limited, processed foods aren’t allowed, we don’t have a microwave, they eat organic home made meals every day. So when we do go somewhere and indulge – it’s a treat. Seems nowadays it’s a treat to give your body some vegetables. No wonder our children’s health is in tatters.

But we as fit pros can help – how many times when a client is eating clean, do you hear “oh but I have chocolate crisps etc in the house for the kids” So its ok for them to clean their diet up but it’s not ok to help your children…. Unbelievable. When a client comes to you, we can clean up not just their nutrition but their whole families, with some simple easy to follow nutritional advice.

I get so many emails and messages asking me “how do you get your kids to eat the way you do” so I am going to reveal what my kids eat in a cookery book that I will launch in the next few weeks, showing you how get your kids to eat the right foods, fun recipes that will catch their interest., solving lunch box dilemmas, making nutritious food fun and tasty. Easting a clean diet doesn’t mean you can only eat salad every day. All you need is a bit of planning and some help.

So to register your interest go to www.gethealthsavvy.co.uk add your email address and get ready for the launch, it will change the way you and your children eat – here is to a happy and healthier lifestyle and giving two fingers up to the above research, as you like me, are certainly not going to let our kids be one of those statistics.

p.s. Due to demand I will also be launching workshops on simple and effective nutritional advice for your clients, I will be launching these over the next few months, so make sure you register your interest and dont miss out!!

Sally Ghafoor

Get Health Savvy

Too much on their plate? by Jill GardnerYour client isn’t getting results! What do you do? Even worse they are frustrated with all their efforts and even start to gain weight! What the hell is going on?

Have they got too much on their plate?

No one needs to tells us life is stressful – money, work, relationships, kids, not enough time. The list could go on and on. How do you tell if your client is stressed?

Not sleeping? (check facebook! How many times do you see the posts ‘wide awake!’?)

Skipping meals – often citing that they are too busy to eat. They drink vats of coffee all day!

No time to cook or shop.

Excess stubborn belly fat or apple shaped.

They can’t seem to shift fat no matter what they try.

Constant colds, viruses or infections!

They look a lot older than they really are.

They always arrive in the nick of time for sessions or turn up late.

They complain of energy fluctuations and strong cravings.

They may have digestive issues. This list is not exhaustive.

So what do we do? We give them a perfect plan to follow and inundate them with great tons of great information:

Eliminate all the processed junk, Increase vegetables and fibre, stop caffeine, alcohol and sugar. Set big goals, plan your meals, cook all your food, fit in all your exercise and relaxation, go to bed by 10, eat protein for breakfast, get massages or do foam rolling, take time out at lunch, eat frequently, carry snacks, take all your supplements, keep a food diary, read all the handouts, read all the emails you send, read the books you recommend, take adrenal support………………

Is it that you have become just another stressor in their already stressed out lives?

Their plate is already full! We just add to it. They hang on to your every word because you are the professional and they want to change every aspect of their diet and exercise regime so it can work. They want to be perfect straight away!

I believe a blanket approach like this can be harmful. In my opinion as a fitness professional, the first thing to do in order to help the client is help them realise and understand the damage the stress and poor sleep is doing to their body. You can throw the best programs at them in the world and deliver the best classes known to man – if they are stressed to the eyeballs then it will make virtually no difference at all. In fact, if you are not careful you can make it worse! You can add to the stress!

How often do we see stressed out women, desperate to trim belly fat, spending hours on a treadmill or attending all your Zumba classes. Ask her how she slept and what she had for lunch and it wouldn’t likely keep a sparrow alive. This is more likely to drive her cortisol levels even higher and keep that belly fat right where it is!

Focus on the big things first. Help them realise the impact stress is having on them. Coach them into finding solutions that are manageable and realistic. Understand that people react to stress differently. Personally I hate roller coasters but some people love that feeling. Are your clients on a roller coaster ride waving their arms in the air Whoop Whoop Whooping and loving it? Or are they clinging on for dear life praying for the ride to end?

Evaluate each and every client’s situation from a fresh perspective. They are as different on the inside as they are on the outside. For some, just changing some of the big things first – like getting sleep – can be the first step to maintaining a long healthy life and exercise adherence. Help them to reduce the load on their plate bit by bit at a pace comfortable to them and they will stay for the ride and they may even enjoy it

JHave a wonderful Week

Love Rachel x

Equipment Free Body Conditioning Routine Ideas

Champneys Luxury Retreat in 1 weeks time

Group Fitness Instructor Event Guildford May

DEEP – Cool Warm up Ideas – Stuck in a Warm up Rut?

Fitness Pilates Flow Ideas using Deep from Pure Energy

Latest Posts

Customer Services

CONTACT US

15th September 2011 Instructor Newsletter

Share this post:

Related Posts