Did you know the American Council on Exercise (ACE) has announced a new requirement? All ACE-certified personal trainers and group fitness instructors will soon be required to complete a continuing education course on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). This requirement will go into effect on January 1, 2024. FiTOUR can help instructors meet the requirement with our latest certification's ACE CEC course.
Blog
Written by CarolAnn, M.S., CPT, CN
(Originally published in Personal Fitness Professional, Fall 2021 Edition)
Soft skills are typically innate personal attributes that an instructor naturally brings to the job. These skills aren’t part of formal education; but soft skills can be learned and improved through time and experience within the field. It is important to acknowledge the difference between the hard and soft skills of fitness to better understand and work toward improving how we show up for our classes and clients.
Being a fitness instructor is one of the most rewarding and satisfying occupations out there through helping clients achieve the greatest version of themselves. On top of making real, tangible differences in people’s lives, the industry allows for flexible work hours, the ability to work online or in-person, and you often get the chance to squeeze in your own workouts alongside your clients.
When you think about it that way, rewarding is kind of an understatement, right?
Why Having Personal Liability Insurance as a Personal Trainer Matters
Let’s discuss the elephant in the room before we even open the gate on insurance talk—yes, we’re an insurance company, and yes, we’re about to make an argument for you—a professional who, spoiler alert, is in our market—to hop on the personal liability insurance train.
Why Fitness Professionals Need an Updated Resume
You never know when opportunity might come knocking. When it does, do you want to ask it to wait so you can prepare your resume? No! We recommend fitness professionals keep an updated resume for those exciting opportunities. Maintaining a resume is also good practice because instructors add formats, attend workshops, and take online courses annually to stay on trend and relevant; when your resume is kept up to date those educational opportunities or new work experiences don't fall through the cracks.
Myofascial Release Exercises for Your Fitness Classes
Top 10 Reasons to get FiTOUR® Barre Certified
Barre is a total body workout that combines ballet, Pilates, yoga and light weight resistance with a ballet barre for small, isometric movements. Barre class is a fun, high-energy music driven class with a creative class format that allows for instructors to be creative while maintaining a safe and fun environment. If you’re asking yourself, “why should I get FiTOUR® Barre certified this year?” check out the FiTOUR® Top 10 Reasons to get Barre Certified!
At IDEA World in June I participated in a workshop that broadened my perspective on working with the quickly growing older adult population. The presenter, Julie Logue, did not bore us with a self-serving monologue about her career accomplishments to date; instead, Julie began the session immediately with a speed and reaction time training technique she termed, "claptology", and then we got to work. She incorporated movement and interaction throughout the workshop so that by the end I found myself thinking, “Wait...what?
In June, CarolAnn and I attended the IDEA World BlogFest. We were both thrilled to learn that our opening ceremonies speaker would be the amazing Petra Kolber. FiTOUR® began as a continuing education brand that toured the country by reaching into communities to educate instructors. Petra Kolber toured with FiTOUR® as a presenter back then and has been dear to the FiTOUR® family ever since. With 25 years of experience presenting and teaching in over 30 countries, Petra established herself as an expert in the fitness industry.