The great thing about mindfulness, is it can be practiced at any time. This means you can use mindfulness techniques at the beginning, middle, and end of your group fitness classes or personal training sessions.
At the start of your class you can cue grounding techniques to help your students arrive, ease out of their stressful work day, and get their minds focused on your class. Grounding techniques can include taking a few deep breaths, becoming aware of the points of contact they have with equipment, or even gently rocking forward and back while standing and noticing how the soles of their feet interact with the floor.
At the start of your class, you as the fitness instructor or personal trainer, can use mindfulness to ease pre-class jitters and regulate your own energy to match the tone you’d like to set for class. Taking a few intentional deep breaths and reminding yourself that your clients or students have shown up to see you, can help ease anxiety before teaching
Throughout class you can weave mindfulness into your cues to help your students reset when they get distracted, get a second wind when they get tired, or boost moral when they get discouraged. YOU can use mindfulness to reset when you get overwhelmed if students don’t seem to be listening, if you’re instructions aren’t working like you thought they would, or when you forget your choreography.
At the very end you can use mindfulness to close out your class and give your students time to let all the benefits of your time together really sink in. Think savasana at the end of yoga, but you can incorporate quiet reflection, and a bit of gratitude for what the body can do, into any fitness class. At the end of class, YOU can use mindfulness to check in with yourself and see what self-care is needed to refuel after being your students’ or client’s cheerleader.
The other great thing about practicing mindfulness is you don’t need any special equipment. You only need your mind. Because of this, you can teach mindfulness in a variety of class formats. Mindfulness can be incorporated into your classes whether you teach yoga, dance, HIIT, aqua aerobics, bootcamps, or any style of fitness. Since you don’t need any specialized equipment, you can teach mindfulness to your group fitness classes or personal training clients regardless of where your sessions take place or what gym equipment you have access to.