Thursday, September 12, 2013

Life of a New Personal Trainer: Boot Camp Jitters


As personal trainers, working personally with one or two people comes easy; it is what we signed up for. We are able to use our 6-inch voices inside a weight room surrounded by dumbbells and machines – we feel in control of the situation. How do you step outside of your comfort zone in the personal training world? One way is to train 20-30 clients at once – Boot Camp style.

Looking back on my first week of instructing boot camps makes me laugh. I would spend one to two hours strategically planning what I was going to do with this huge group of people. I was constantly second guessing my plans. Whoa, is that too many burpees? What if it rains? Will this make an old lady pass out? Then, I would show up an hour early to browse the location and maybe test out which patch of grass would be best for lunging. I kept thinking, “These next four weeks are going to be exhausting!”

This reaction is NORMAL for the first week, and the good news is it does not take long to get into the swing of things. Soon enough, you will be throwing together workouts as you drive to the session and you’ll be showing up at the same time as everyone else.    
 

4 comments:

  1. I attended this Bootcamp during the summer and it was brutally GREAT! Thanks for the motivation!

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  2. I remember my first boot camp and the very similar feelings I had. I had question like; how much will I charge? How long will I run the camp? What’s the best way to advertise? What will I do if someone gets hurt? But you are right, “it does not take long and you are in the swing of it.” Yet, it funny that I still have those thoughts and feeling before every boot camp. I am sure I would of enjoyed apart your boot camp, especially since I would not have had the stress of leading it. Perhaps next time I can. I have the pleasure of working with a woman that attended your boot camp and she loved it. So keep do them.

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  3. Although I have yet to run a bootcamp myself, I used to get feelings like this before I would train a client or plan a group exercise class. I still plan my class or workout the night before but I no longer worry about every little detail of it; if it works it works, if it doesnt, I will improvise. The hardest part is understanding that we KNOW what we are doing and understand the body and what it can handle so well so there's reason why we should worry; and even if we do mess up, just go with it, nobody else will know.
    Training and instructing is a beautiful thing and not everybody can do it! Keep up the awesome work!

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  4. Group training/Boot camps is were it's at for trainers. Max potential!!! We need to talk some time soon.

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