Group Exercise Instructor

Industries: Exercise and fitness

Overview and responsibilities

Group Exercise Instructors are fitness professionals who teach, lead and motivate groups of individuals through intentionally designed, pre-choreographed exercise classes. They provide instruction across many different class types and equipment sets, from aerobics and step to group exercise. They design and select their own music, class programme and choreography.

Classes are delivered across six different categories:

• Strength and body conditioning (for example, BODYPUMP™, body conditioning, core stability)
• Cardiovascular (for example, Spinning®, indoor cycling, step aerobics, BODYATTACK™)
• Holistic (for example, yoga, pilates, BODYBALANCE™, tai chi)
• Dance fitness (for example, Zumba®, BODYJAM™, street dance, dance aerobics)
• Water workouts (for example, Aqua Zumba®, aqua aerobics)
• Dance (for example, ballroom, Latin, country and western, folk)

Working hours

Group Exercise Instructors are routinely expected to work outside of 9–5 hours, with early-morning, evening and weekend work being standard.

Education

To be professionally recognised as a CIMSPA Group Exercise Instructor Practitioner, we ask that Group Exercise Instructors provide us with evidence of holding a relevant CIMSPA-endorsed qualification, degree or apprenticeship certificate issued by a CIMSPA Awarding Organisation Parter or Higher Education Partner or the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE). 

If you have a qualification or degree that is not endorsed by CIMSPA or is over five years old, or if you have an international qualification, we still encourage you to apply for professional recognition. We may, however, need to ask you for additional evidence of other training you have undertaken as part of your application.

Achieving this level of qualification demonstrates that the Group Exercise Instructor is able to work with a group of clients in a single environment related to their specialism. They will also have a good underpinning knowledge of: anatomy and physiology, lifestyle management and client motivation, as well as how to plan and review group exercise, delivering and supervising group exercise and professional practice.

Once practitioners have gained a qualification in instructing group exercise, they often seek out further qualifications to enable them to work with specialist populations, such as children or older adults. They can also progress to work within an exercise referral role with further qualifications.