Whether you are a seasoned fitness professional or a new trainer entering the field, it’s more important than ever to be versatile and competent in working with a variety of clientele. As our industry shifts with the needs and demands of the public, we want to be educated and experienced working with clients one on one, in small groups and large groups, or even in an online environment. Being a hybrid fitness professional not only makes you more hirable for an employer but also gives you the skill set and resources to know how to adapt workouts so they are effective, regardless of how much direct feedback you are able to provide.

My certifications as a group fitness instructor and a certified personal trainer have worked hand in hand to help me build my career. Not only have I had the ability to reach more individuals, but I have also improved upon coaching skills that serve me in every aspect of my career. Group fitness techniques have improved my ability to adapt workouts and develop effective cueing, and have served as a built-in referral system to grow my career as a personal trainer and beyond.

The challenges of teaching more than one person at a time are different from one-on-one training. You need to be cognizant that you are working with different fitness levels, different demographics and different learning styles. In the same class you can have someone who is taking their very first step into fitness right alongside someone who is looking for a class to take their fitness to the next level. Both individuals are looking to you for guidance and motivation. Improving group fitness knowledge enables you to identify these different levels and learn how to coach and adapt your workouts to meet the needs of everyone in the room.

Teaching group fitness has improved my skills with cueing and exercise demonstration. When working in a group, you are unable to use tactile cueing, and it can be difficult to stop or slow down the movements to work on technique. For this reason, it is imperative that you are able to use alternative cues that can help participants understand how an exercise should look and feel for them. With group fitness experience, I have developed a toolbox of effective cues that I use both with classes and with personal training clients. No matter how much direct contact I have with each client, I am better able to coach them to success due to my group exercise experience.

Any group fitness instructor can tell you that their class members are loyal. Within this setting you are able to build trust and rapport with participants so they feel connected and comfortable with the fitness professional. For those who are hoping to build a personal training career, this can be a valuable resource for finding potential clients without the need to market or advertise. Simply deliver a great group fitness class and allow those who attend to see how knowledgeable you are and how much you have to offer.

Being a hybrid fitness professional shows you have the knowledge, skills and abilities to work in more than one environment. This not only has helped build my confidence when working with clients, but it has made me more a more desirable candidate for employment since I am able to serve the facility in more than one department. Many of the gyms I have worked in have been able to benefit from hiring me as a hybrid fitness professional because I am competent in both environments and assist the two different departments in working together. Looking into the future, you may decide on a management role; possessing dual certifications will allow you to understand the needs and benefits of both departments, what skills to look for when hiring new candidates, and how to further the mission of the company.

As I look back, I can definitely say that holding both a group exercise instructor and personal training certification provided me opportunities that have advanced my career and earning potential.

Additional Resources: 
Blog | A Day in the Life of a Group Exercise Instructor
Blog | 5 Skills of High Performers in the Fitness Industry

Don’t miss the second edition of ACSM’s Resources for the Group Exercise Instructor — available this summer! This updated edition is fully aligned with the eleventh edition of ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. It is an essential resource for undergraduate exercise science programs, students in pre-professional programs and those independently preparing for the ACSM Group Exercise Instructor (ACSM-GEI) certification. This new edition of ACSM’s Resources for the Group Exercise Instructor highlights the skills needed to effectively lead group exercise in gyms, studios, recreational facilities and clubs.

Candice Campbell, M.S., CSCS, CES, ACSM-CPT, is a full-time lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology at California State University, Long Beach, where she teaches in the Fitness and Integrated Training Bachelor of Science degree program. She has been a certified personal trainer for 15 years, with a specialized focus on clients with unique health considerations. She is the program director at the Shore Strength Lab, a small group-training facility in Long Beach, California, and has taught group fitness for over 14 years. She has also enjoyed participating in fitness research and program development for several health and fitness companies, and currently serves on the ACSM Certification and Registry Board Certified Personal Trainer Committee.

I always laugh when people assume that teaching group exercise means getting paid to exercise. So far from the truth! Any group instructor knows this is a fallacy. From the outside it looks easy to do — a little like a duck gliding along the in water, you don’t see the little legs churning. Still, most people don’t see all the work that goes into teaching group fitness classes. Getting certified is an essential start, but then there’s all the ongoing specializations and continuing education, as well as practice and preparation.

Keeping up with the changes and growth in the industry is a job in and of itself! When I started teaching in 1986, I got certified to teach aerobics, and that was it. And back then it was high-impact aerobics — now there is a myriad of different classes group instructors can learn how to teach. But I digress … I’m simply setting the stage to make a point: In today’s environment, to be successful, a group instructor needs to be a highly skilled professional. So, let’s examine one day in my life.

My Wednesdays start super early, since I have a 40-minute commute to a 6 a.m. treadmill-running class, followed by a 7 a.m. high-intensity interval training (HIIT) class in the main studio. Then I rush home to set up my home studio for a 10:30 a.m. virtual class. No big deal, really! Of course, on paper it looks straightforward, but the reality is not so simple.

The first two classes are for younger, presumably healthy, fit populations in a health club setting, whereas the later virtual class is for the active aging, a group of men and women whose ages range from 60 to 88, many of whom have a host of different health conditions, such as macular degeneration, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and osteoarthritis. I need to use a whole different skill set for this third group, and I don’t mean just the technology, although the class involves a computer, lights, a webcam, screen sharing, a microphone and all the rest of it.

My Wednesday preparation starts the week before, on Thursday, when I have time to practice the running classes I will coach the following Wednesday. Then on Tuesday there’s additional prep, such as designing and planning the other two classes and one more review of the treadmill run. So, when the alarm goes off at 4 a.m. and I’m grabbing my cup of coffee and having some quiet time to be mentally prepared, my day of teaching is all ready to be presented. As they say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Class prep is everything!

Once I get to the gym, I check the app to see who’s signed into class and review so I can remember their names and if they have any injuries or limitations, likes, dislikes and specific goals. I get to the treadmills early so I can greet people as they arrive. Coaching the class with a stopwatch, I carefully follow the designed plan and help my participants manage the intensity, length and speed of the intervals. Forty-five minutes later, after the cooldown, stretch, high-fives and fist bumps, I’m ready to go into the main studio to teach the HIIT class. Here’s where I lay out equipment and get music playing to set the stage so I can greet people as they come in. The class is high intensity, so I keep it fun and doable, allowing people to self-select the level to work at. Even though it’s HIIT, I still teach multi-level. Forty-five minutes later, I’m heading home for breakfast and to set up for the virtual class.

Lights, camera, action! It all starts again, but now with a different set of goals for a very different population. Keeping people engaged and building a sense of community is critical for the success of the class. Some people don’t have their camera on, so it’s harder to communicate. But watching those who do is essential. This is what makes the class competitive in the virtual world: the community and careful interactive communication you provide make all the difference. Fifty minutes later, after cooldown and stretch, I then film some moves from my class to post on social media. After breaking down the lights and putting everything away, it’s time to plan Thursday’s classes and prep for the rest of the week.

A well-prepared group instructor makes teaching look effortless. But the secret sauce is in the preparation, starting with certification and continuing education and building from there —not always the easiest career, but for me, one of the most rewarding! Even after 36 years of teaching, I feel just as excited and passionate, so when that 4 a.m. alarm goes off on Wednesday, I’m looking forward to seeing how I can make a difference. 

Additional Resources: 
Blog | 5 Skills of High Performers in the Fitness Industry
Blog | How Being Dual Credentialed Can Improve Your Hiring and Salary Potential

Don’t miss the second edition of ACSM’s Resources for the Group Exercise Instructor — available this summer! This updated edition is fully aligned with the eleventh edition of ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. It is an essential resource for undergraduate exercise science programs, students in pre-professional programs and those independently preparing for the ACSM Group Exercise Instructor (ACSM-GEI) certification. This new edition of ACSM’s Resources for the Group Exercise Instructor highlights the skills needed to effectively lead group exercise in gyms, studios, recreational facilities and clubs.

Keli Roberts, ACSM-EP, has been recognized for many prestigious awards in the fitness industry. In 2003, she was named the IDEA International Fitness Instructor of the year. In 2005, Keli was awarded the Best Female Presenter and in 2008 she received the Lifetime Achievement OBOW award and in 2007 she was inducted into the National Fitness Hall of Fame. Keli is an ACSM-EP and holds certifications through AFAA and ACE as a GFI, HC and CPT. Moreover, Keli is an SCW Faculty Member, a Schwinn Senior Master Trainer and an Ambassador for Ryka.

Physical activity is recognized as one of the key healthy lifestyle behaviors that reduces the risk of developing dementia late in life. Physical activity requires increased rates of respiration. Thus, in areas with high levels of air pollution, physical activity may increase exposure to particulate matter and gases that are linked with higher risk of developing dementia. Previous work has suggested that engaging in physical activity in areas with high air pollution may attenuate some physical activity-related health benefits. To date, however, no research has examined the potential interaction between physical activity and air pollution on the risk of developing dementia.

In our study, published in the July 2022 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise_®, we used the largest sample collected to date (n = 35,562) that includes objectively measured physical activity (via wearable accelerometers). Our goal was to determine whether air pollution exposure modifies the relationship between physical activity and incident dementia. We found that, overall, increased physical activity is associated with reduced risk of developing dementia. However, for two types of air pollution, PM_2.5 (particulate matter with diameters less than 2.5 microns) and PM_{2.5 absorbance}, (a measure of black carbon), the beneficial effects of physical activity on incident dementia are eliminated at high air pollution exposures. Air pollution exposure in this sample is comparable to regions where pollution levels fall within World Health Organization and United States Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for health and welfare. Our findings suggest that even moderate levels of air pollution impact physical activity-related brain benefits.

We think there are several key takeaways from this study that have implications both for future research as well as for broader discussions of policy and public health. First, both epidemiological research and multicenter interventions examining exercise and brain health may be impacted by differences in air pollution across geographic locations. These environmental interactions may moderate the true impact of physical activity and exercise on the brain, and researchers should consider taking environmental data into account in their analyses and research design. Second, we hope this work spurs future research into how best to minimize physical activity-related risks of air pollution at the individual level (e.g., use of high-quality masks, optimal times of day for physical activity and improvements in indoor air quality in gyms).

However, our most important message is that there is only so much an individual can do to minimize the impacts of air pollution on their own exercise patterns. Thus, our work is part of a broader literature that calls on researchers to advocate for improvements in air quality at local, national and international levels. We know that disparities exist, both in how air pollution exposure differs across socioeconomic circumstances and in individuals’ ability to avoid exposure due to occupational physical activity. Thus, it is incumbent on us all to help reduce air pollution at a societal level. Only by working together can we have a broad impact on everyone’s ability to equally reap the brain benefits of physical activity.

David Raichlen, Ph.D., is a professor in the Human & Evolutionary Biology Section of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. He studies the evolutionary origins of human physical activity and applies this perspective to physical activity epidemiology and exercise physiology in living humans. With a specific focus on the role of physical activity in reducing dementia risk, he combines methods from epidemiology, cognitive neuroscience, exercise physiology and biological anthropology to bring evolutionary principles to work on improving brain health in modern human populations.

Viewpoints presented in SMB commentaries reflect opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent ACSM positions or policies. Active Voice authors who have received financial or other considerations from a commercial entity associated with their topic must disclose such relationships at the time they accept an invitation to write for SMB.

Obesity is a primary etiology of many adverse health outcomes. The body has two primary types of fat tissue: subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Subcutaneous fat is the adipose tissue that lies below the surface of the skin, whereas visceral fat is the adipose tissue that lines the internal organs. Visceral fat, compared to subcutaneous fat, is more deleterious as it is associated with cardiometabolic disorders, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Among the various types of visceral fat, pericardial adipose tissue (PAT), or the adipose tissue surrounding the heart and the coronary arteries, has recently been identified as having important health implications. PAT more actively releases inflammatory cytokines and free fatty acids than other visceral fats. Given the anatomical proximity to the heart and coronary arteries, PAT is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, such as coronary atherosclerosis and coronary artery calcification. Also, PAT is associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes, independent of obesity status. Therefore, it is important to identify lifestyle strategies to prevent excessive PAT accumulation for disease prevention and management.

It is well documented that high levels of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity and low levels of sedentary behavior are related to more optimal (i.e., healthier) fat distribution and lower risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. However, little is known about the impact of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity and sedentary behavior on PAT. Further, no studies have examined if light-intensity physical activity is related to PAT. This is an important gap in knowledge, as emerging evidence has highlighted the favorable effects of light-intensity physical activity on some cardiometabolic health outcomes.

Our study, published in the June 2022 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise_®, examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of sedentary behavior and physical activities, both light and moderate-to-vigorous intensity, with PAT. We examined 6,057 multi-racial adults from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Weekly volumes of sedentary behavior and physical activity were measured using the MESA Typical Week Physical Activity questionnaire, and PAT was estimated using computed tomography (CT) scans.

In cross-sectional analyses, we found that high sedentary behavior and low moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity were associated with high PAT, irrespective of sociodemographic information, key health conditions, abdominal fat and other sedentary/activity domains. We did not find any longitudinal associations between sedentary behavior/physical activity and PAT. However, among white participants only, light-intensity physical activity was longitudinally associated with low PAT.

Our findings suggest that maintaining the healthy lifestyle behaviors of reducing sedentary time and increasing physical activity of any intensity may be beneficial for preventing excessive accumulation of PAT and subsequent cardiovascular disease. The association between light-intensity physical activity and PAT in whites may be explained by the known difference in fat distribution across races or larger sample size for whites in our study. Additional research using accelerometers to objectively measure light-intensity physical activity and its relation with PAT is needed as it is difficult for people to accurately recall light-intensity activities. 

Minsuk Oh, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Public Health at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He received his Ph.D. in health and human physiology at the University of Iowa under the supervision of Dr. Kara M. Whitaker. Dr. Oh’s research examines physical activity and physical functioning trajectories during the midlife and older adult years, associations of physical functioning or physical activity with health outcomes and how physical activity throughout the life course can facilitate healthy aging trajectories. He has been a member of ACSM since 2017.

Kara M. Whitaker, Ph.D., MPH, is an assistant professor in Health and Human Physiology at the University of Iowa. She received her Ph.D. and MPH in exercise science from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular disease epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Whitaker’s research aims to better understand the determinants and health effects of modifiable behaviors (e.g., sedentary behavior, physical activity, sleep) to inform behavioral interventions to improve health outcomes in at risk-populations. She has been a member of ACSM since 2011 and fellow since 2021.

Viewpoints presented in SMB commentaries reflect opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent ACSM positions or policies. Active Voice authors who have received financial or other considerations from a commercial entity associated with their topic must disclose such relationships at the time they accept an invitation to write for SMB.

Skeletal muscle is the engine that drives human health and performance and is influenced by modifiable healthy lifestyle behaviors (i.e., nutrition and exercise) and non-modifiable factors (i.e., sex and age). It is well-established that resistance exercise stimulates the synthesis of skeletal muscle protein (especially the force-generating myofibrillar fraction) for up to 48 hours. This ultimately provides the basis supporting increases in muscle mass (i.e., hypertrophy) with training. However, establishing whether timing and/or sex influences the relationship between exercise-induced increases in muscle protein synthesis and muscle mass has yet to be determined.

To address the sex-imbalance in previous male-oriented research, our study published in the June 2022 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise_® (MSSE) used equal numbers of recreationally active 18-30 year old females and males who performed 8 weeks of resistance exercise to stimulate muscle growth. Orally ingested “heavy water” — i.e., water whose hydrogen atoms possess extra neutrons — allowed us to assess the synthesis of the myofibrillar protein fraction over 48 hours in an exercise-naïve (i.e., first training bout) and accustomed (i.e., last training bout) state outside of the laboratory. This method allowed us to capture the complete duration for which protein synthesis is elevated after exercise while also controlling for energy and dietary protein intake. This “free-living” technique provided a unique opportunity to assess how these acute training stimuli contribute to or help predict muscle growth.

We observed that muscle hypertrophy at the fiber (cross-sectional area) and whole muscle (thickness) level was similarly increased by training in both females and males. Although exercise-induced increases in myofibrillar protein synthesis were slightly greater in males (~23%), this did not translate to statistically greater gains in muscle mass. Importantly, post-exercise rates of myofibrillar protein synthesis were similar after the first and last training bouts, but positively correlated with growth only when the muscle became accustomed to the exercise stimulus (i.e., trained state) in both sexes. These findings are consistent with some previous research and highlight the need to allow a muscle to become conditioned to a novel exercise stimulus before its growth potential can be determined from changes in muscle protein synthesis.

Females are often unrepresented and excluded in exercise science research, frequently due to perceived challenges in having to account for potential effects of menstrual cycle perturbations on metabolism. Our findings in the follicular phase build off previous foundational research in males and can provide the basis for future research to confirm similar results in females across phases of the menstrual cycle or when using hormonal contraception. Further research exploring potential sex-based differences are essential to ensure current exercise and/or nutritional recommendations based primarily on research in males are valid for females. Learning from experience, our results suggest that perceived sex-based differences are of little consequence to predicting the hypertrophic potential of resistance exercise and the mechanisms governing exercise-induced myofibrillar protein synthesis.

Sidney Abou Sawan, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University. His research interests revolve around understanding the mechanisms underpinning skeletal muscle plasticity and the associated impact on health and performance in response to human nutrition and exercise.

Daniel Moore, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. His research studies how exercise and nutrition impact whole-body and skeletal muscle protein metabolism and the nutritional requirement for dietary protein in active populations across the lifespan. He is an ACSM member and past recipient of the Peter J. Reeds Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Nutrition.

Viewpoints presented in SMB commentaries reflect opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent ACSM positions or policies. Active Voice authors who have received financial or other considerations from a commercial entity associated with their topic must disclose such relationships at the time they accept an invitation to write for SMB.