WHY EXERCISES NEED MODIFYING FOR GROUP FITNESS
WHY EXERCISES NEED MODIFYING FOR GROUP FITNESS
I have been training people for 20+ years and in this time, I have never had everyone in attendance at the same fitness or skill level. Some have been training consistently and their fitness is at high level and working on advancing their training to an elite level, some are returning to training from a break and a working on getting their fitness level back up, some have never trained at all. To make sure everyone is getting the results they want they need exercises modified from a lower impact level to and advance level all in the same class.
In terms of making sure clients don’t hurt themselves and are able to train again in the next class, I modify certain exercise to a level where there is not a lot of room for error within the exercise an example would be a half burpee not going to the ground makes sure that your back isn’t out of neutral spine, creating less chance of you hurting your back, this goes for how I teach clients to use their hand placement in a slam ball action and a deadlift, which will put your back in neutral spine and help you squat before the exercise is performed lowering the risk of injuring yourself.
When you are feeling fatigued you are less likely to think about your form and technique and about getting your breath back (we also teach you how to breath when exercising in our challenges) so with these changes you don’t have to risk hurting yourself and having to take time off from training and being back at square one again.
Other reasons exercises may need changing could be due to injury from sport, or an operation now giving you limited range of movement, age also can be a factor, so as for a coach there is a lot to think about for each induvial client coming into every class.
If you have ever thought about joining a group fitness class and you have not exercised a lot in your time my advice would be to make sure your trainer is an experienced coach and in well versed in modifying exercises, this way you can have the confidence to go and get it done without the risk of badly injuring yourself.