Teaching

Yesterday was my all day class on the path to become a certified Spinning instructor. After 9 hours of instruction yesterday I am 'legal' to teach. I become officially certified when I take the online exam. Seeing how the exam is in the materials they sent me and they encourage students to fill in the answers in our instruction manual, then enter them into the online test I am feeling like my chances for passage are pretty high. :)

I learned a lot yesterday and mostly had a very good time. The morning started with brief introductions and classroom instruction. Then we went to the Spin room where we spent nearly an hour learning how to help students set up their bike appropriately to facilitate good form and help prevent injury. From there, we hopped on our bikes and started learning the appropriate form and instruction for the main components of a Spinning class. This portion of our day lasted nearly 2 hours and probably my favorite part of the day. I loved learning about proper technique, suggestions for cues for the class to help with form and being instructed in the components of putting together a solid class.

After a quick lunch break it was back to classroom instruction that was important, necessary and maybe a bit tedious. We finished the day with a model class and one of the most difficult 5 minute segments of exercise I've done - a five minute 'race' at threshold. I was honestly summoning labor, telling myself "you've had two babies, you can get through this!"

I am on the February schedule at my gym - teaching Sunday late afternoon and Monday early mornings. I am very excited to get going!