MY AFAA Group Fitness Certification Experience

It's official today! I am a Certified Group Fitness Instructor, and I'm so thrilled! I've been waiting until I received a yay or nay to draft this post. I'd like to share my AFAA experience to help others considering a certification!

So first of all, I read the ENTIRE text book... and that, I recommend. Whether or not you need it all in the exam, surely you want to be a good teacher, and it's all important information to know to embark on a fitness career. A couple months before the date, I made a commitment, signed up, and ordered the study materials. I wanted plenty of time to study thoroughly. You MUST push yourself though... it is a lot of material. Just ask my friends and family that watched me tote around a giant text book and study guide and read it at the pool and wherever we went all summer. :D

In the weeks leading up to the exam, I also did research on the practical portion and how the big day was going to go. I found some beautiful blogs that traced the entire experience from studying to receiving the certification in the mail, which helped put my mind and heart at ease, and really know what I was getting into. Here are a few of the blogs I found:

The Chic Life
Groupfit Power -most in-depth... but old so some of the links are broken, but this takes you to the main pg for all of the posts. There are quite a few going through everything.
Jackie's Health and Fitness

I found a few more too, and was picking them all apart to figure out exactly how to prepare and what was going to happen. The practical exam was the biggest area of anxiety for me... I knew I could do it, but I wanted to be prepared, and AFAA gives only basic info on what that portion entails. If I had to say one thing as advice for the entire day it would be: KNOW your muscle groups! I'd read this in the blogs, and glanced at the labeled guy in the study guide more often than the rest of it, but a LOT rides on that knowledge. I'd say a good 30-40% of the written exam questions stem around the muscles/science of the body, and there's that entire section of the practical, where they call a muscle group (10 total) and you are to demonstrate 2 strength moves and 1 stretch for that muscle group. Sounds easy but I got a little confused in the lower half and had to resort to squats - they work quads, hamstrings, and calves!

I was very fortunate to have an instructor that gave lots of information. She let us know that basically they are looking to see that you won't injure anyone, and know how to do everything correctly with safe alignment and progressions. She also went through the entire practical with us, so that I'd done my planned cardio routine a few times before the testing, and also the muscle groups and teaching portion once before. That helped me relax a bit! She also went through the study guide, and highlighted the important things to remember, which I think helped me ace the test, but I think that was only possible because of how thoroughly I'd studied the material. People who just walked in with blank study guides were the last to leave the exam room, scratching their heads and rocking back and forth.

Walking out of the exam, I couldn't imagine that I didn't pass. I felt extremely confident in my written, and besides a personal hiccup in my plan for the muscle part of the practical, I felt pretty confident that I'd met all of the requirements and performed everything well. 4 long weeks later, I opened the letter to find a brand new card for my wallet!!! YAY! My manager at the yoga studio/gym has expressed that as soon as I get the cert, he wants to start training me to substitute for his kickboxing class. So now begins the true adventure, the actual teaching part...


♥AshPiece

Being a "Yes-Man"

Street Team. That is my new title at Club H as a second job for free membership. It works out wonderfully! My days are full and I basically just stay an extra hour at the gym 4 days a week to hand out promo flyers. Little did I know that I would learn some valuable life lessons standing on the sidewalk in a screen wife-beater and shorts...

This job really heightens my people-watching skills. I notice trends: Most people have a knee-jerk reaction to say "no!" when, often times, they haven't even listened to what is being offered. These people seem angry generally, and inconvenienced that I'm offering them a free workout in 5 words or less.

This makes me think about my own life. When I've gone through patterns of constant knee-jerk "no," I tend to be living in a state of drowning and not asking for help/acknowledging that I want any help in my life. The thing is, we always need help! We can't do it alone! And who knows where something as silly as a flyer can take us??

I've now revised my methods and am trying to retrain my knee-jerk. I'm choosing to take the flyer/advice/assistance/whatever with a smile, then to decide what it's worth to me. If I really don't need it, I throw it away at the next bin and helped that person have a good flyer day (they are truly bi-polar). I mean seriously, people who say "oh I've already got a gym," why not try out another one for FREE? At worst, you take a fit class for free, then head back to your home gym with another style of teaching/learning under your belt and, oh yeah... A WORKOUT! Yeah... I hate it when I do good things for my body; please don't give me a coupon for a free workout. Really?

It's all perspective.. And I'm so thankful to be gaining a new one! Since then, I accepted a handout and had no clue what it was because the guy just kinda grumbled at me, although I understood the "thank you!" when I took it. It was a take-home menu and $2 giftcard for Blockheads! SCORE. All it takes is opening myself to the world and what it has to offer... And I've had a beautiful day all-around today. Giggled at a crazy-hilarious dog walking it's owner, took an awesome Zumba class, smiled at songs on my iPod, gave up my seat on the subway to a woman... I feel so FULL! Do yourself the favor: open up, and be a "yes!-man" You'll be glad you did!


♥AshPiece

Retail Therapy

I LOVE to shop. Right now, with my intense fitness kick, I'm in the market for quality fitness-wear and a good gym bag. All of the women in my family love to shop... and the September issue of Women's Health took away that tiny bit of guilt, and explains a little as to why we're so drawn to the activity. The little blurb on the health page of the issue says:

"Frequent trips to any kind of store could actually extend your life. In a new study, women who went shopping daily for 10 years--even if they didn't end up buying anything--were 23% less likely to die during that time period than those who browsed less often."

Women's Health Source: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

So grab your purse and hit the pavement! Just still be mindful of your personal finances (I know I am!!)... the best way to do that is to create quests. Shop around and do research for your important purchases. It will eliminate buyer's remorse, lessen your likelihood to make impulse purchases, help be sure that you get exactly what you want, and helps log those shopping hours for your HEALTH! Right now I'm doing that with the fitness gear and I've also had a few-month-long quest for the perfect pair of flat boots. I know that I can get along without these things for a while, so it makes the quest a fun shopping game! 

Shoppers: take your mark, get set.... GO!