Instructor Education

In a movie, music is used to set the tone and direct the audience how to feel. As fitness professionals, we can also use the power of music to motivate, inspire, and get our clients the results they desire. Whether it’s a HIIT class, yoga practice, or small group training - music can be your assistant coach and create a memorable experience. In this session you’ll participate in 3-4 mini classes and feel first hand how music colours your workout experience. 

Barre fitness draws inspiration from ballet, borrowing moves like plies, tondues, and turned out positions. It is a wonderful format to train the posterior chain, but we need to be mindful of excessive hip external rotation. In both yoga and barre classes, a lot of external rotation exercises are performed with little consideration for internal rotation. By adding a balance of internal rotation to our classes, not only does it add variety and balance to the class format, our bodies (and pelvic floor) benefit from these movements as well. 

We often think about modifying movements based on the fitness level of our participants but the reasons for offering variations goes way beyond what your class physically “can or can’t” do. The way that we present and speak about alternatives is as important as the exercises themselves. The goal is to seamlessly create inclusive fitness programs that empower our participants. (BCFit 2024)

Music is often an overlooked tool for resistance training and strength-based classes. Programming to music can boost your participants’ mood, motivation, and workout intensity. Studies show working out to music leads to longer workouts - making those 60 minute classes fly by! In this session, you’ll learn how to create fun, music driven strength classes that attract new clients who didn’t think they liked lifting! 

As an instructor, you’re only paid when you’re actively working with clients. But there is so much more! Planning, researching, and practicing... and then sometimes - you plan an amazing class but the participants are struggling and your plan goes out the window! You’ll learn strategies to simplify your planning and elevate the execution of your classes, allowing you to come off polished AND be flexible, teaching to whoever shows up! With an engineering degree, project management experience, and 16 years teaching group fitness, Jill has cracked the code to save you loads of time to deliver great fitness classes! (BCFit 2025)

The step aerobic era was one of spandex, complicated choreography, and its own lexicon. While this style of class has fallen out of fashion, the tool itself is an AMAZING piece of equipment found in most gyms and community centers. Learn how to train with this piece of equipment in a modern and functional way. Find out how to use it for athletic cardio, strength conditioning, and even modification and accessibility options! (BCFit 2025)

This session bridges the gap between the neon-spandex glory days and the high-performance functional training of today. The step bench is a familiar piece of equipment that is a powerhouse for modern movement. You will learn both the classic 32-count step choreography style that built the industry, and in contrast, athletic movements & drills that feel fresh and modern. 

In today’s landscape of generative AI, how do we demonstrate our value as fitness instructors and trainers when people can just create their own workout? Can we use AI in our jobs? Should we? What might this look like? In this session, you will learn about how generative AI works, what it is and isn’t good at, how it could be used, and where it shouldn’t be for fitness instructors and personal trainers.