Teaching group classes is likely to be one of the most challenging skills in the fitness industry. Whether you teach in a club, studio, or outdoors, you need to be prepared for anything. Will all 20 registered participants show up? Or only 4? What’s each person’s fitness level? Will you have enough equipment on hand?
You never know what each class will bring. And whether you’re a seasoned group fitness trainer or relatively new, there will always be challenges. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of challenges and obstacles and have an incredible class so that participants keep coming back.
8 Common Challenges of Group Fitness Training
Here are just some of the challenges of group training that your gym may be facing:
1. Group Classes Have Space Limitations
Your club likely boasts specialized rooms or areas for group fitness training. These spaces should ideally have ample room to comfortably accommodate the attendees who've signed up for the class, in addition to the variety of equipment and exercise stations required.
2. You Need to Keep a Lot of Equipment on Hand
When conducting a cardio routine, HIIT workout, or a strength and conditioning class, it's essential to have sufficient equipment available for all participants. Consider if you possess an adequate number of dumbbells, kettlebells, and medicine balls to allow the entire class to engage in the same exercises at the same time. If not, participants may need to rotate equipment.
3. Equipment Exchanges Can Diminish the Workout
If participants need to swap out equipment during the workout, do you have cleaning supplies on hand? Is that time built into the class structure? Will it interfere with the class flow or bring heart rates down if you’re focusing on high-intensity workouts?
4. Progression and Regression of Movements Can Be Complicated
Instructing a group workout often means dealing with participants of diverse strength and skill levels. It's crucial to ensure a sufficient variety of free weights and weight sizes are available. This variety helps to facilitate movement progression for more advanced participants and regression for beginners, thus accommodating everyone's needs.
5. It’s Difficult to Transition Through the Phases of Training
Do you have the proper equipment to seamlessly transition between warm-up, hypertrophy, and plyometric movements during the workout?
6. It’s Expensive to Replace Equipment
Group training means more and faster wear and tear on your club or studio’s equipment. Do you have the overhead to replace equipment regularly?
7. Workout Variety Is Challenging in Group Training
Most clubs and group classes use traditional workout equipment that clients have access to in their home gyms. How much variety can you add to your class to ensure that clients find the workouts challenging and fun, so they keep coming back?
8. Post-Class Cleanup Can Be Time Consuming
Smaller studios are likely to schedule classes back-to-back in the same room, often with only 10 to 15 minutes between classes. How easy is it to sanitize the equipment, put it away, and set up for the next class?
These are just some of the common challenges that most gyms and studios face regarding group training. Additional challenges may arise depending on the type of fitness your gym specializes in (barre, pilates, spin, strength conditioning, etc.).
The good news with these common challenges is that your gym isn’t alone in facing them, and there are tried and true options that can help make your group workouts more effective for clients and successful for your gym.
One solution that several clubs and studios have implemented is to use YBells for their group training. Adding YBells to your club or studio can be a more effective way to keep your clients engaged in the workout and coming back to your group classes.
How Can YBells Improve Group Fitness?
The YBell Neo was explicitly created to handle these challenges. Aaron “Az” Laurence, the founder of YBell Fitness and inventor of the YBell, has been teaching group fitness courses for over 15 years. He started using traditional fitness equipment like dumbbells, kettlebells, and med balls to create his own brand of high-intensity resistance training (HIRT). As his class sizes grew, it became impossible to continue incorporating multiple pieces of equipment into each session. Not to mention all of the gear he had to haul out to the beach each morning.
Az’s goal was to create a piece of equipment that would reduce, if not diminish, these challenges and allow him to deliver an exceptional, efficient, and fun class to work for all fitness levels.
The YBell is a 4-in-1 fitness tool that’s compact and portable, offering endless workout options. YBell is a dumbbell, a kettlebell, a medicine ball, and a push-up stand in one. Can you imagine all those pieces of equipment next to each individual in a class vs. one YBell?
With the YBell’s unique multi-handle design, a grip change is an equipment change. You can structure workouts to easily transition from one exercise to the next without the need to change workout stations or swap out equipment. With YBells, it really is as easy as that!
8 Reasons YBells Are a Great Fit for Your Club or Studio
Here’s how YBell addresses the issues created by traditional fitness equipment for group training:
1. YBells Are Fantastic for Limited Space
With a single YBell or a set, each client can stay in their own space for the entire class if they want. There’s no more need for setting up or changing workout stations in the middle of the workout.
2. A Single YBell Replaces 4 Pieces of Traditional Equipment
A single YBell can be used as a dumbbell, a kettlebell, a double grip med ball, and a push-up stand. This drastically cuts down the amount of equipment you need to keep in the classroom for group workouts and equipment for your entire gym. And, you can easily design a beginner or advanced workout with just one YBell for each participant. Or you can have sets on hand for progressions throughout the workout.
3. YBell Grip Transitions Eliminate Equipment Changes
The YBell's distinctive multi-handle design presents a range of grip options, enabling you to move effortlessly between exercises. The concept of changing grip as a means to change equipment with the YBell provides a wide array of movements for designing a comprehensive full-body workout. This could involve, for instance, using a center grip for dumbbell biceps curls, then switching to an outer grip for kettlebell alternating high swings. For medicine ball exercises like squat presses, you could use a double grip or an outer grip. The YBell can also be placed on the ground to perform any type of push-up or push-up row.
4. YBells Make Movement Progression and Regression a Breeze
With its many capabilities, YBells make it easy for trainers and instructors to provide clients with progressions or regressions as needed without an equipment change. For example, the YBell’s wide base offers greater stability and range of motion for groundwork and bodyweight exercises.
5. YBells Make Transitioning Through the Phases of Training Simple
Going from warm-up movements to hypertrophy to power movements often requires multiple pieces of equipment. However, with the YBell and its signature grip transitions, a single piece of equipment is all a client needs to go from stability work to strength endurance to hypertrophy and even power/plyometric work.
6. YBells Are More Affordable Than Traditional Equipment
As a 4-in-1 tool, having YBells in your club or studio will cut down on the amount of fitness equipment you’ll need to purchase, which can lower your overhead costs. And the non-slip, rust-proof neoprene coating makes YBells highly durable for both indoor and outdoor use.
7. YBells Offer Unlimited Exercise and Workout Variety
YBells are an easy to use and progressive piece of equipment for every skill level and Every Body. While YBells were designed for HIRT, many trainers have used them for HIIT, Tabata, functional fitness training, strength training, mobility training, cardio fitness, and yoga. Whether your gym focuses on all-around fitness or specializes in a niche training modality, YBells can offer a lot of variety for your clients.
8. YBells Are Easy to Set Up for Group Workouts
YBells are compact and easy to set up for any group class. They’re easy to store when they’re not in use, especially when combined with the YBell Vertical Rack, making them easy to put away after each group workout.
Try These YBell Combinations in Your Next Group Class
Here are a few examples to show you the ease of transition in a class setting. These movements would usually require having multiple pieces of equipment on hand and would be nearly impossible to combine in the seamless fashion available with YBells.
Adjust the reps, sets, and rest to accommodate whatever your focus is with your class.
Combination 1 — Using One YBell
- YBell wood chops (replacing a medicine ball) using a double grip, followed by
- Single-arm YBell bent over row (replacing a dumbbell) using a center grip, followed by
- Single-arm YBell curl to press (replacing a dumbbell), using a center grip
Combination 2 — Using One or Two YBells
- Single-arm YBell swings (replacing a kettlebell) using an outer grip, followed by
- Single-arm YBell renegade rows (replacing a dumbbell) using a center grip, followed by
- Single-arm YBell rack squats (replacing a kettlebell) using a rack grip
Doing this same combination with two YBells would be an excellent progression or a challenge for an advanced class.
Combination 3 — For a Cardio-Focused Class
- YBell low squat to full squat (replacing a medicine ball) using an under grip, followed by
- YBell side drop lunge (replacing a medicine ball) using an outdoor and double grip, followed by
Teaching group classes is likely to be one of the most challenging skills in the fitness industry. Whether you teach in a club, studio, or outdoors, you need to be prepared for anything. Will all 20 registered participants show up? Or only 4? What’s each person’s fitness level? Will you have enough equipment on hand?
