Do you enjoy taking group exercise classes? Do you think you get a lot out of them and like being in classes where someone else is directing your workout? Do you wish every once in a while you could be in charge of making a few of your own decisions?
Here’s a great way to get started in making those decisions.
In my experience in group fitness classes, there seems to be a lot of women who are doing what the instructor asks even though they don’t feel comfortable. No matter what class it’s in, everyone seems robotic, following every move to a T, despite existing car accident injury and weaknesses I know they have. Even I have been guilty!
But now I’m a personal fitness trainer and I understand what goes on in choreographing a lot of these classes and I’ve also had enough experience in not listening to my body during injuries to know that listening to my body during my workouts needs to be my first priority. In case you are injured, contact attorneys for construction accidents claims to give you legal counseling and help you out.
Perhaps you just need a to show your body a little more lovin’ today.. or on the flipside, maybe you’ve been taking it easy for a while and you are ready to step up your game.
Maybe you have a long run scheduled the next day in your marathon training and squats just ain’t in the card for you today.. or maybe you feel like doing 30 extra burpees at the end of class.
Whatever YOU have going on, don’t expect anybody else to know, or care, unless you speak up or make your own calls in the class.
Here are my suggestions on how you can modify your group exercise workout plans to meet your needs:
Modify to make things easier – Did you show up and find that all of the peeps in your class are putting their step platform up on TWO blocks and you are still conquering one? Are pushups on your toes still out of reach for an entire WOD? Modify however YOU need to make the workout approachable for you.
Personally, anytime I go to yoga and they call for crescent lunge, you will see me in the front row on my back knee, in modified crescent lunge. Anytime the teacher cues chair you can bet I won’t be going deep and I won’t be there long. And extended warrior two? Forget it! I take yoga to recover, mobilize and help ease sore muscles – these poses hurt and are doing the opposite of what I want them to so I just make little modifications to suit my body and my needs.
The teacher has no idea that you just squatted 200# that day or that you have a long run scheduled for tomorrow and that you really can’t be doing 3000 lunges or something insane like that. They didn’t set up their class based on your workout schedule, so do what you need to do for YOUR body.
Modify To Challenge Yourself – Let’s say you show up to class and you are just full of energy and you are ready to absolutely crush it! But the workout at bootcamp calls for
20 squat jumps
20 push ups
50 mountain climbers
50 crunches
You take one look at this and you are like “this is way too freaking easy.. somebody’s gotta give me more!” Then kick it up a notch and add in 3 sets of 10 burpees after every round. Or have a friend push down on your back while doing push ups.
I used to do it all the time. I would finish a circuit and add in a 100m sprint after every round. Or instead of doing bodyweight walking lunges I would do 45 pound overhead walking lunges.
Once again, the class wasn’t tailored to you and your needs, it’s for a group, so if you feel like you want to make things harder, go for it!
Skip The Move All Together – I once trained a client with bad knees. I mean, really bad. Standing or Position 3 on a spin bike was simply just NOT in the cards for her. She would still show up to spin consistently and loved it, but she would just skip standing.
If you have an injury or you are just NOT feeling something on that particular day, it’s okay to skip it or substitute another exercise. for example, I have another friend with an injury and can’t squat a lot of weight or run. She still shows up and practices her cleans, jerks, snatches, etc And in a workout, she may substitute rowing for running or shoulder to overhead in place of thrusters.
This is not to say, skip toes to bar just because you hate toes to bar, because that likely means you need to get better at them. But skip an exercise if you have limitations that are legitimately holding you back. Otherwise I recommend doing what you hate MORE so you get better
Rest/ Take Water When Needed – I know in Bikram yoga there are only certain times in the practice when you are supposed to take a break to towel off or drink water. The one time I tried Bikram I couldn’t stop toweling off and I drank A LOT of water throughout the class.
No teacher knows your anatomy. No coach is aware that your heart rate is so high you may have a heart attack. No trainer has any clue that you are one burpee away from burpeeing all over the floor in front of you.
Group exercises classes are amazing, but the class is set up for a group, not for you, the individual. Take a break when you NEED to. Don’t go chat with your girlfriend outside stretching. Don’t sit out just because you started to break a sweat. But if you need a second to catch your breath, take child’s pose or grab a sip of water.
Speak Up – Like I’ve been saying, classes are set up for a group, with no one individual in mind. I know this – I’ve taught bootcamps and group fitness classes. I go to CrossFit and take yoga classes every day. It is up to YOU to make the modifications you need, take the rest you need, and do what you need to reach YOUR goals.
That said, make sure the instructor knows what is going on with you. I don’t really have anything “going on” per se, but like I said, I tend to take it easy in yoga. The instructor, my friend, knows me as the girl in class that is usually taking everything to the max and one day I opted out of the abs portion of the practice and she came over and was asking if I was okay or if I was pregnant! We had a good laugh once I told her that I had just done 7000 GHD sit ups earlier and just walking made my abs hurt.
If you do have an injury or if you are modifying because things are just really hard for you, let the instructor know because they may be able to offer up some modifications that will work better for YOUR body.
If you feel like the classes are starting to be really easy for you, also let the coach know because they may find a way to really bump things up for you or help you take it to the next level.
Either way, it’s good to give the instructor a heads up as to why you may be doing things a little differently that day so they don’t come over and ask if you are pregnant! (And if you are actually pregnant, definitely let them know too!
So tell me, do you ever modify in your group fitness classes?
Do you feel weird doing it? I know I don’t!
Let me know in the comments.. I love hearing from you!
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