Bodywork Fitness Column

Jan 18 2013 by Lorraine Howard, Irvine Herald

Hello folks, I must say it’s been a great week for the whole fitness team after our supplement in the Irvine Herald last week.

The instructors involved in the supplement had a great time putting the pages together.

After spending so much time with this terrific group of individuals, I have at last started to get a good handle on what it is that’s required to make a fitness instructor a good fitness instructor.

Listening to my colleagues and helping them where I can with their own projects and ambitions, I have spotted what unique qualities they all have that set them apart from the rest.

With such diverse talents from within the group, I thought it would be hard to bring them altogether into a unit that would have the same goal but, in fact, the exact opposite happened.

Once we got together to discuss what they would write about in the paper, our conversations began to drift into other areas of our lives and the business we had entered into.

Everyone I spoke to had their own story and journey that had led them into the health and fitness industry.

Most of the team have had other jobs at some point and found their calling either through attending classes or more personal reasons.

And the truth of the matter is that the fitness industry is currently saturated with instructors who teach classes the length and breadth of the country.

The main reason for the sudden influx of fitness trainers has arisen through the goal-post moving strategy of some workouts that allow people to attend workshops and become instructors, requiring no previous knowledge, experience or qualifications.

Still controversial after all these years, the fitness community is still split over the move by some companies to allow anyone to do what is often a one-day course, then head out into the world delivering their own style of fitness.

Often these companies will advise that participants take an official qualification in exercise to music before commencing their own classes but it’s not enforced and its only mentioned.

Luckily as the years have drifted on and the trends in the industry change, instructors are now looking at furthering their careers by actually taking on a recognised fitness qualification, a move we all welcome but as long as there are corporate demons desperate to get people involved in the next big fitness fad, without the need to have a proper qualification, then the fitness industry could suffer.

Now I’m not having a go at unqualified instructors taking classes, I am friends with many of them and they do a fantastic job at their sessions. I am just highlighting a point within the structure of the fitness world that I believe is a flaw and really doesn’t work.

In saying that, this is all redundant at the time being anyway, as there is very little legislation in place that targets the industry and people can deliver what they want when they want and nobody can say a thing.

So that brings us back to the Irvine Herald Fitness Team and the wealth of knowledge these people share between them.

If you saw the supplement you will have seen we hand-picked the finest teachers from all over North Ayrshire and spoke to them all about their classes and their sessions.

There was a great deal of fitness knowledge on display and the great thing is that they all got on well and have started to network in regards to the job at hand. Literally a union of instructors who have bonded together and agreed that we are stronger together.

A league of fitness that at any time can rely on each others expertise if an issue arises that anyone is unsure of.

And the one thing they have in common is that all have them have the same fitness goal, to make you, the participant, the number one priority. It’s all about you, the client. If it isn’t then they are in the wrong job.