Spin Class No No's

[Flur]

No matter what a gym's "policy" is, there's no guarantee that the instructors have any real certification. I used to be a trainer and yoga instructor at a popular national chain and MOST of the trainers and some of the group instructors did not have certifications. I was seen as a prize to them b/c I came in with an ACE personal training certification and an RYT-500, so I was easy to hire and presented well to management. MOST new hires had no certification and they put them out there teaching and training and had them get proprietary 1-day certifications (with NO contraindication training) so that they could say all the trainers and instructors were certified. Before you take a class, check out the instructor's credentials every time, especially if they're new.

Also, for group classes, the managers all had teaching experience but usually in one area, not all of them, so it made it hard for them to properly evaluate their instructors. My manager used to have me review potential employees' yoga training to tell if I thought it was adequate, but before she took over, the managers were kind of guessing and doing really brief (15 minutes or less) sample classes to see if the instructors "seemed" to know what they were doing. I would imagine this is an issue with niche classes at all clubs.