Making a Good Instructor Better

The studio instructor’s realm of influence.

Sometimes the first studio hour will be a member’s first contact with fitness and training.
This includes ALL attitudes to training, like
- Goals (short term and long term)
- Motivation
- Training schedule for the week (strength/cardio balance)
- Food and water intake for training
- Gym etiquette
- Time management (finding time to train.. schedule it into the weekly plan .. mention the creche if appropriate)

Instructor specialities
Read people to help you create the best program and give the best ‘positive’ first experience.
picking up cues
body language
speech

NOTICE what motivates the member. WHY do they train. For ‘fun’.. for health.. listen.. there is sometimes something else that drives them. It might not be what their ‘goal’s say.. Take *extra* notice and encourage what motivates the member, and if it is not a ‘long term’ strategy.. then validate their existing motivation.. and build it up with proven long term training techniques

Communication – treating clients (unless SHOWN differently) that they know LESS than you think.. tell them the BASICS .
- settings for the machines.
- breathing
- how the program is made ( the WHY’s and benefits)
- warm up and WHY
(In Australia we have a problem with young males speeding. The government ran an advertising campaign that linked small penis’ with speed. Traffic control recorded a a drop in speeding. We don’t have to tell young men that they are ignorant to lift heavy weights with no warm up or preparation, but we can hint that we have noticed ‘others’ who are in this category as incentive to train ‘smart’. What advertising works?)

Instructors’ need to remember that ‘this’ is not a client’s every day world (ie trying the cross-trainer for the first time is fun, not just an option to warm up… take the time to encourage their ‘fun’ and ‘discovery’ of the gym…)

Like all of these articles, this is a work in progress. Nothing is chiselled in stone. If you have more comments about this topic, please add them!