Chapter 8 – Class Care
As a purestretch Instructor you will be supplied with class content, but you will need to know your participants, their aim for attending and keep a vigilant eye on their ability in class.
You may have people attending your class who are:
- Older
- Teenagers
- Disabled
- Overweight
What it their aim?
Why are they here and what do they want from your class?
Do they want to:
- Get fitter?
- Lose weight?
- Socialise?
- Improve their posture?
- Get flexible?
After this course you will be well prepared to deal with people from all walks of life, confidently working on achieving their goals.
Your purestretch Pro membership offers a host of exercises and ideas for you to play with, including warm-ups, main sessions, and cool-downs. The classes range from gentle stretches, strong power poses, working to the beat of music and HIIT.
Plenty of choice to create a class that suits your audience.
It’s a good idea to know the basic structure of any fitness class, including the warm-up, a cardiovascular fitness section, muscular fitness section and the cool-down.
Warm-ups
Why warm up?
• It will increase the body temperature which improves the muscles elasticity which is essential for a safe workout
• It helps circulate the synovial fluid inside your joints, which allows a reduction of friction on the joints as its acts as a lubricant.
• It increases the range of movement available at the joints.
• It can redistribute blood supply to where it is needed.
• Mental preparation.
It is a perfect time to take the class to the level where they should feel ready to start the session.
The warm-up should take approximately 10 minutes and aim to mobilise each joint with plenty of reps of movement, bearing in mind your audience … some clients will take longer than others to warm up due to age, fitness, and health.
CV fitness
Cardio fitness refers to how well the heart, lungs, and organs consume, transport, and use oxygen throughout a workout.
Your overall fitness depends on the relationship between your cardiovascular system, respiratory system, and skeletal system.
If exercise involves physical actions that raise your heart rate for an extended time … it is cardio.
Cardio exercises are great for:
- Burning calories
- Improving cardiovascular fitness
- Helping with weight balance
- Increasing energy levels
The list goes on …
Ideally a 30mins workout 5 times a week will achieve improved fitness.
Monitoring the intensity of the exercises is essential for ensuring an exercise programme is done safely and effectively whilst checking that clients are working at an appropriate level
The three key methods of monitoring exercise intensity are:
- The Talk Test
- Rating of Perceived Exertion
- Heart Rate Monitoring.
THE TALK TEST
When a client is working aerobically and at a moderate intensity an individual should be able to hold a conversation with a mild level of breathlessness at the end of a sentence. The talk test is an easy test to perform, and guidelines are simple to follow.
Light activity
Measured by talking easily and breathing lightly, but heart rate has increased.
Moderate activity
Measured by talking comfortably, but breathing is deeper and quicker, and the body is warming up.
Vigorous activity
Measured by talking more difficultly and breathing deeper and harder.
Breathing becomes increasingly difficult as intensity increases to a point where there is a shortness of breath and an inability to carry on a conversation.
RATE OF PERCEIVED EXERTION (RPE)
RPE is a way of measuring physical activity intensity level. Perceived exertion is how hard you feel like your body is working. The scale runs from 0 -10.
This is a great way to get feedback from your class by asking them … out of 10, how hard do they feel like they are working!
A Guideline …
1 Very easy minimal effort , like watching tv, sitting and texting.
2- 3 Feels like you could continue for hours and happily carry a conversation.
4- 6 Feels like you can exercise for hours and can hold a short conversation.
7- 8 Becoming uncomfortable and can only speak a sentence
9 Really difficult to maintain exercise and can only speak a single word.
10 Completely out of breath and unable to speak.
Although the following system is an unrealistic way to monitor your client in a class environment, it is well worth knowing more about how the heart rate is monitored.
HEART RATE MONITORING
The main methods for determining heart rate is to manually measure the pulse in the wrist or neck, or to use a heart rate monitor. The latter method is more accurate.
The key for improving cardiovascular fitness is that individuals should work at a target heart rate (THR) range between around 50-90% of their maximum heart rate (MHR or HR max) depending on their fitness level.
Maximum heart rate (MHR)
To calculate your MHR, use the equation: 220 beats per minute (BPM) – Age for example if you were 26 this would be 220 – 26 = 194bpm
Target heart rate (THR)
To calculate your THR and get the upper and lower limits of the target zone, use the following equations: upper – MHR X 0.6 = 60% THR and lower – MHR X 0.9 = 90% for example for a 26yr old this would be: upper – 194 X 0.6 = 116bpm and lower – 194 X 0.9 = 175bpm.
Heart rate zones
The intensity levels recommended is ;
Moderate intensity; 50-60% of your MHR
Vigorous intensity; 65-90% of MHR.
Muscular Fitness
Muscle fitness is the ability to move, lift things and to day -to day activities challenging your muscles to work for longer before becoming exhausted.
Muscular strength and Muscular endurance are the two components of this fitness. Muscular strength is the amount of force you can put out or the amount of weight you can lift. Muscular endurance is how many times you can move that weight without getting exhausted.
Muscular fitness is great for:
- Reducing body fat and increases lean body mass (muscle mass)
- Helping to keep bones dense and strong.
- Increasing energy levels.
- Helping maintain correct posture.
- Increasing metabolism and helps to maintain weight.
Cool-down and Flexibility.
Cool-down and stretch are an essential part of your workout. This can last for 3–10 minutes and includes stretches or gentle variations of the movements you did during your workout. The purpose of cooling down after exercise is to allow your heart rate and breathing to return to normal and to promote relaxation.
For most of us, the main aim of stretching after exercise is to avoid the dreaded DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) the next day, but there are several other benefits to stretching that you should be aware of.
The cool-down and stretch after exercise are beneficial to:
- Assist your body to cool-down after an intense workout.
- Return your heart rate to normal levels.
- Improve overall flexibility.
- Increase blood circulation.
- Reduce the risk of injury.
- Eliminate lactic acid.
- Relax after increased activity.
- Reduce muscle tightness and soreness.
- Boost energy and prepare you for the rest of your day.
- Increase range of movement in your joints
- Reduce tension and anxiety that can be leading to tight muscles.
Keep an eye on your class!
Throughout the class you need to check on your entire participants and ask yourself the following questions:
- How is their posture and technique?
- Have they got good form?
- Do they need alternatives?
- Are they challenged?
- Are they comfortable?
Use your observation skills to ensure that everyone is happy and if anyone has complaints like:
- Chest pain
- Unexpected shortness of breath
- Light headiness
- Severe joint pain
You must act accordingly to the situation bearing in mind you also have other members in class that are waiting on your instructions.
Important note:
As you will be teaching in a class environment you will need to attend a first aid course.
Advise
Remain totally calm and advice your client to slow down, whilst continuing to be an instructor for the other participants. Keep a vigilant eye on the client as they gradually cool-down and take some time out to recover. If the symptoms stop, still advise the participant to get checked out at the doctors but if the symptoms continue, the emergency services should be called. Do not leave the room, as you are still responsible for the entire class.
Class Plan
With so many purestretch class styles to hand, you can easily create some great classes.
Always have a plan of your class and make certain that you have suitable alternatives for each exercise for those who are less fit and those who would like more of a challenge.
Think about the following:
How do you take it down a level?
How would you take this up a level?
Do you have enough tools to hand to offer alternatives?
Whilst deep in thought also ask yourself :
Are you prepared?
I cannot stress enough how important this is. You must have everything to hand, your lesson plan, PARQ’s, equipment layout, music selection …the list goes on.
Do you know your routine?
For me, the simpler the exercise, the safer it is to teach. When you are quite new to teaching don’t over complicate moves, keep them simple, easy to follow and achievable.
Are the exercises effective?
What is the purpose of your class?
How is the class advertised and do you feel you are doing this class justice?
Do you have alternatives?
As mentioned earlier, you will have mixed abilities in class so you must be prepared in offering alternatives to your class to ensure everyone is comfortable and feeling the stretch.
Is your environment safe?
This is a chapter within itself …. Next … Chapter 9