Teacher Schedule

[thundercat]

This is a question for Cathe or anyone who teaches group fitness classes. I'm a new instructor. I've only been teaching since February. (By the way Cathe, you're the best step teacher I've ever seen and I hope to be close to as good as you someday.)

I was just curious (even though I know all instructors are different) how many classes you instructors out there would consider to be too many to teach in one week. Right now I'm doing 10. Step, Total Body and Yoga on Mon., Step, 30 min. Abs/Back and 30 min. Legs on Tues., Total Body and Yoga on Wed., Yoga on Thursday and Total Body on Friday.

I know everyone is different, but what do you all think of this schedule? Is there a good way to detect over-training? I was taught that if morning resting HR goes up, you're doing too much.

Any opinions here?

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Thundercat! It all depends on what your body can safely and effectively handle? Here are some things to consider.

How much of the class are you doing and how much are you coaching? If you talk them through a lot or all of it then you can obviously handle more classes.


Listen to your body. If it starts dreading the thought of getting up and going to teach your class, it's probably good time to evaluate the situation and decide if it is time to start cutting back some.

Signs of over training......you start feeling excessively achey, or get frequent minor injuries, are moody, lose your appetite, feel lethargic, pick up a lot of colds, feel stressed out a lot, irritable, can't sleep well, etc. If you are experiencing a lot of these symptoms, then it is definitely time to cut back.

Take Care!

 

[thundercat]

Thanks

Wow. Thanks for such a quick response, Cathe. I'll definitely be monitoring my body. I have a problem with coaching alone. This may sound silly, but I feel like I'm being "wimpy" if I'm not participating. I know that's the wrong attitude. I'll have to learn to walk around and check form more.

I used to take a step class where the teacher would break up his pattern by making the class do "over the tops" for about five minutes while he walked around yelling at the top of his lungs directly into his mike, "Get over that bench!!" Hmmm. Don't think I'll take that approach.