Part of your job as a group fitness instructor is to rev up your participants and get them excited about working out. It’s hard to do that when you have burnout.
Therefore, an unspoken part of your position is to avoid it. Recognizing the signs and taking swift action keeps your enthusiasm levels high while inspiring those who follow you.
What Are The Signs Of Burnout?
How do you know if you’re at risk of burnout? Mindfully check in with yourself and evaluate whether you experience the following signs:
1. Exhaustion
It’s natural to feel exhausted after teaching a tough HIIT class. However, at times, burnout fatigue becomes so overwhelming that you become physically incapacitated, although a health exam reveals no underlying problems.
2. Trouble With Sleeping And Focus
The bugbear of burnout is that as tired as you feel, you can’t get adequate sleep. You might toss and turn, filled with dread over the coming day. Lack of rest affects your ability to focus and your mood. You could find it difficult to concentrate on anything and become angry and irritable at the drop of a hat.
3. Desensitization
Desensitization is a type of emotional detachment that occurs from repeated exposure to stressful conditions or challenging circumstances. It results in numbness instead of feelings of deeper insight and empathy and can harm you and others. For example, an instructor desensitized from burnout might push class members beyond their physical limits, resulting in injuries or lower participation rates.
4. Physical Ailments
Burnout increases physical health risks. For example, those with burnout are more prone to substance abuse, which affects judgment and leads to accidents. Even if you stay away from intoxicating substances, your mental health affects your physical well-being. People with anxiety and depression run higher heart disease risks, for example.
How To Cope If You Suspect Burnout As A Group Fitness Instructor
If you suspect you already have burnout as a group fitness instructor, consider the following interventions.
1. Take A Break
Your classes are your babies, but substitutes exist for a reason. Find someone to cover your offerings for a week or two. Remember, even pro athletes enjoy an off-season — you deserve one, too.
2. Switch It Up
If your burnout stems from teaching the same routine, try something new. You might not have to change your format completely. Even taking your class outside to inject a biophilia element could provide the freshness you need.
3. Make Some Swaps
You teach at a highly disciplined facility that insists certain class formats run a particular way, and taking time off will leave you short on rent. Great, now what? Unless you’re the only teacher at your gym, swap classes with another instructor. You’ll both grow your skills by teaching a new style while adding fresh tips to your routines.
4. Get Some New Tunes
Music can be the best part of working out, but even the “Mamma Mia” soundtrack remix gets old after a while. Invest in new tunes to keep the party hopping on your fitness class dance floor or spin surface.
5. Include Some Fitness Tools
Manufacturers invent new fitness gadgets nearly every day. Chances are, you haven’t even heard of them all. However, kettlebells and resistance bands let you add new twists to traditional dumbbell moves in toning classes. Even a set of dice can introduce an element of chance — find some fitness-inspired ones and let Lady Luck inspire the next circuit.
6. Invent A Challenge
People engage in competition for the thrill of it. Vying your skills against another’s shows you where you still have room for improvement and invites a spirit of playful fun into your workout. You could:
- Invent a classwide challenge, such as burning X total calories by week’s end as measured by your fitness watches.
- Brainstorm and vote on a goal within your classes.
- Have each member choose an individual goal and win a small prize, such as a towel or water bottle, when they reach it.
How To Prevent Burnout In The First Place
It’s vital to prevent burnout and remedy it once it occurs. However, you can take additional proactive steps to protect yourself from getting to that edge.
1. Know Your Limits
You might be an exceptionally fit human being — but you are human. Expecting yourself to do too much is a sure recipe for burnout simply because your physiology can only take so much stress. When your body begins breaking down, it affects your mental state.
You wouldn’t tell any of your students to go out and tackle three more classes after yours on the same day — why do you expect it of yourself? Pace yourself, teaching only one class daily to start and gradually adding to your repertoire as you build confidence and coaching skills.
2. Vary Your Routine
You might live to spin — but teaching nothing but that format will make you hate your Peloton in no time. Aim to teach a variety of class formats on different days if possible. It keeps your routine fresh and sharpens your skills. Furthermore, adding more specialty certifications to your license, such as Zumba or Pound, increases your marketability.
3. Get To Know Your Participants
The best part of group fitness classes is the camaraderie. Get to know your participants as people, and the hour flies by as you mix friendly banter with sweat. Working out together creates common ground for conversation, fostering connection.
Preventing Burnout As A Group Fitness Instructor
Your job as a group fitness instructor is to motivate your class participants. It’s hard to do that when you have burnout. Use these to prevent burning out. Your enthusiasm is contagious, and maintaining your passion ensures you keep inspiring others.
