Unleashing the Potential of Group Fitness | Trainers Talking Truths

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Are you ready to unlock the true power of group fitness? Join us in this exhilarating episode as we explore how the group dynamic contributes to an extraordinary fitness experience and exceptional results.

Podcast Introduction:

Welcome to Trainers Talking Truths. This is an ISSA podcast dedicated to exploring the fitness industry and uncovering the whys and hows of personal training. To do that, we'll talk directly to the industry experts and certified trainers. We'll dig into fitness programming, business tactics, nutrition and more. You'll even hear from current training clients who offer insight from the other side. We've got the fitness industry covered, so turn up the volume and enjoy the drive.

Jenny Scott:

Hello world, and welcome back for another ISSA podcast, Trainers Talking Truths. It's your cohost here, Jenny Scott, here with my favorite podcast cohost, Dan the Man Duran. How are you, Dan?

Dan Duran:

I'm doing great, Jenny. I get to see you two days in a row, so that's a plus, right? We went on a bit of a dry spell, but two days in a row, so that's awesome. And I'm super excited about our guest today, one of my favorite people, and the listeners will probably, if you listened to the first episode, remember the energy that this young lady brings.

Jenny Scott:

Yes, super excited to have her back, but group fitness is something that I love as well. I've coached many, many styles of group fitness, much like our guest has as well, so I'm excited to hear about her experience. And I still do coach quite a few groups, anywhere from 10 to 40 people at a time, so it's super fun. It can be exhausting, but it is fun. Welcome back, Amy Hall. How are you?

Amy Hall:

I'm doing great and I am so excited because, as Dan says, that I'm one of his favorite people to do podcasts and present with, on the flip side, he's also one of my favorite go-to people. When we do our CEUs and podcasts, we love to have Dan on as well. We totally hit it off the first time we met and just really loved talking fitness, business, background, all of that. And I even got to work out with him when he was in Memphis, which was so fun.

Dan Duran:

That's right. That's right.

Jenny Scott:

Obviously, he didn't die, so that's a good thing.

Dan Duran:

No, I didn't die. No.

Jenny Scott:

Dan's pretty strong.

Amy Hall:

No, he did not. No, no, no.

Dan Duran:

I did a little break-dancing too.

Jenny Scott:

He's got endurance from all those [inaudible 00:02:11]. Yeah.

Dan Duran:

I did a lot of break dancing too. Do you remember that? The-

Amy Hall:

I do remember that, yes.

Dan Duran:

Somebody captured it, just a tiny bit, but it made the reel.

How did you get started in the fitness industry?

Jenny Scott:

Oh my goodness. You guys couldn't see me, but my eyes got big. Miss Amy, can you remind our listeners, who maybe didn't hear your first episode, how you got started in the fitness industry?

Amy Hall:

Well, I always like to say my dad put a basketball in my hand when I was three years old, so that's kind of probably where my fitness journey started. My dad was a collegiate basketball player and I play, I was a multi-sport athlete growing up all the way through high school and college, where I was a track and field athlete. And so fitness has just played a huge role in my life personally.

And when I graduated from college, I did what anybody who doesn't know what they want to do does. I became a coach and a teacher for a hot minute. I was a high school varsity track and field, cross country coach, and I also coached basketball, volleyball, anything they needed me to coach, I was there. So sports, fitness, motivation, encouraging, that's kind of just been my MO since day one. And then I realized I was not going to love staying in education, so I got out of that and began personal training at a gym.

And so I was at a big box gym for several years and really just soaked in all things that a one-on-one trainer would need to know. Back then, the Cooper Fitness Center was doing certifications out of Dallas, Texas, which was one of the premier certifying bodies probably. I don't know how long ISSA has been around but Kenneth Cooper, he's the king or the founder of aerobic exercise, I think they say, so I actually got to take a class with Dr. Cooper, which was so fun, and that kind of launched my one-on-one journey.

And then I thought I'd look over at the group X classes and I would think, man, those group X trainers are having so much more fun than me, and I missed coaching groups. So I started my own group X class, we called it Happy Hour. It was on Fridays at 5:00 PM and it was basically a bootcamp class. And I started packing it out with 40, 50, 60 people, so much that we had to take over the gym and the basketball players were not very happy about it. But that's kind of my just kind of little snippet of getting into fitness. I just think I was born with it in my DNA.

Jenny Scott:

That's awesome. Yeah, so much experience there. And you're right, I feel like most people that don't know what they're doing, they go coach and get into education and they're like, ah, I don't do this anymore.

Amy Hall:

Oh yeah, no, yeah, red tape, bureaucracy, all of it. And I'm like I kind of want to do my own thing and make up my own rules. That just really feels good to me. And so luckily I've been involved with multiple fitness programs that have allowed me to do that, including Camp Gladiator, which is the main one I've been able to do that with for the past, can you all believe it, 15 years I'm celebrating this year with CG.

Jenny Scott:

That's awesome. A lot of people don't realize they've been around that long so-

Amy Hall:

2008, September 2008. Also, fun fact for the listeners, CG and I share an actual birthday, September 22nd. CG started on September 22nd, '08, and I was born in the not '08, but if you invert those numbers, that's the year I was born.

Jenny Scott:

We don't say these things out loud.

Amy Hall:

Edit that bad boy out. I'm just kidding.

Dan Duran:

Oh, I love it. By the way, Amy, I was just at the Cooper Clinic, at the Cooper Center, a couple of months ago. And for the listeners out there who think or might be asking themselves can I make a career out of personal training, here's a little fun fact for you. The trainers there, all of them are making six figures. They're charging up to $300 an hour for their clients, and they're working 30 hours a week and getting full benefits. This is like high-end personal training. It is something to watch and something to experience. So, sky's the limit, folks. There's definitely career opportunity in personal training.

Amy Hall:

Oh, 100%. I'm here to prove to you that there's an opportunity in fitness. It's real.

How does the group dynamic in a fitness class like Camp Gladiator contribute to the overall experience and results?

Dan Duran:

Yes. That's right. That's right. So Amy, can you dig a little bit more in? You have a big extensive background doing a lot of different things and we were even chatting a bit before we pushed record on the podcast, and from collegiate coaching, athletic coaching, track and field, personal training, one-on-one, group, let's jump into the group just a bit here. And can you tell us just a little more about what's special about that group dynamic? What is it that's different about it? For example, what you do at Camp Gladiator and how does that help contribute to the overall experience of the participant and the results that they might be able to get from it?

Amy Hall:

Yeah, that's a great question. I would start off by saying that human beings naturally need to be in community in multiple ways. That can be in their faith, in their family, and especially in their fitness. I mean, so many people played sports growing up. When I ask people when were you either at your peak, or if you could go back to something, a lot of them always say, back when I was playing on a team, when I was playing football, lacrosse, I was on the swim team.

And for me, some of my best years are with my track and field team. I absolutely just adore them. I'm still friends with my high school four by one team. I still know them. And it's one of those things where I think group fitness as an adult really plays a role in bringing back the nostalgia and the fun in fitness. And I am a huge believer that most people need to have fun when they're working out.

There is a small, I believe there's a small percentage of people that can go solo it at the gym, and that is a very small class of types of athletes, bodybuilders, maybe someone who, and gosh, I can't even think of that many anymore because so much is moving to the group setting, even if it's an individual style workout in a group setting, which is what I always say Camp Gladiator is. I have people out there all the way from former NFL players all the way down to somebody who hasn't worked out in 20 years and they're showing up, and I'm able to put them through a workout side by side, but tailor it to the individual athletes so that they can get a great workout.

And I think man, in a world where we are becoming so siloed in, for example, right here, we're kind of in silos. We're online. We're not in person doing this podcast together, but how much more fun after knowing, we've met in person, how much more fun it would be if we were sitting around a table doing this in person with one another. And I don't want to take away from what we're doing, but man, there's just something about getting together with fellow like-minded people.

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. And would you say as far as results with clients, when they're in a group or even people that come in and work out with two or three of their friends, I do it most days because to your point, there's something about it. You just feel more, I don't know, focused, and you can get more done for most people. But does it impact their results, not just their experience when they're there, they enjoy it more, but what does it mean for their results to be in a group like that?

Amy Hall:

I think there is a lot of accountability, and accountability is a key factor to results. We look at that and when you're asking someone to set a smart goal for themselves, one of the things they need is that accountability. Maybe it's their trainer, maybe it's their spouse, maybe it's their best friend, and for CG, it's the group. We know when you're not there. And when somebody shows up and they've missed Monday night, everybody's like, "Bob, where were you?" He was like, "I thought it was going to rain." We're like, "It didn't. The storm passed right over us." And he was like, "Oh man." And then when everybody was talking about how sore they were, because we did a heavy weights workout on Monday, he was just sitting there and you could tell he kind of was sad that he didn't show up. And so I think that helps with results.

And then I also think consistency is key. We always talk about people, man, you didn't get there in four weeks. You're definitely not going to get back to where you want to be in four weeks. And so when you've got a consistent group meeting, for me, my classes, CG meets every day of the week, but for my particular classes that my clients really love to come to, they're there every Monday, Wednesday. And we say, rain, sleet, snow or shine, we're there. And I think that that really helps people build up a result base is the consistency and the accountability, because I'm going to text you if you aren't there two times in a row.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, and I think a lot of it is from the group. Like you said Amy, most people, it's not their trainer who's like, "Yeah, where were you?" It's everybody else who's like-

Amy Hall:

Yeah. Oh absolutely, yes. And it's fun too. They start integrating each other into their families. We had one of our guys, he became a first time grandfather a couple of weeks ago and everybody celebrated him because it was like, "Yay, David's a grandpa," which is really fun because if you've been training somebody for 15 years, his kids were in elementary school when he first started and now he's a grandpa, and it's awesome.

Jenny Scott:

That's so cool.

Dan Duran:

One of our former guests, Brian Grosso, often says, simplicity plus consistency equals results. So it's simple, show up consistently Monday and Wednesday with Amy or your coach and you get the results.

Amy Hall:

Absolutely. And then I always talk about the other pillars as well. There's sleep, and there's water, and there's nutrition, and accountability, and recovery, all of that, but it's a mixture. You've got to put it all together to get the best results. You're going to get some results, but to get the best results, you really want to kind of mix it all up.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah, if we could bottle and sell one thing and become tragillionaires, it would be consistency.

Amy Hall:

Absolutely. Yes.

Jenny Scott:

So we could figure that out.

Amy Hall:

Let's figure that, what's the formula for that and let's roll. I think so. We're all out of a job if we end up selling that one.

Jenny Scott:

Right? I'm going to figure out how to make it a pill, a capsule, and a gummy.

Amy Hall:

Yes, absolutely.

Dan Duran:

I've had my kid trained since he was, he's now 17, since he was just a little tiny thing. And I do this thing, you all can't see me, I'm on the podcast, but I make a C with my hand. And whenever there's a question about why, how do I do this, or how do I do that, or how do I blah, blah, blah, I put up the C. You just got to be consistent.

Jenny Scott:

Oh, my parents would tell me look it up. Like, cool, you have a question, go look it up. Because we have the Encyclopedia Britannica set.

Dan Duran:

Oh yeah.

Jenny Scott:

Anyway.

Amy Hall:

Yeah. I heard something today on an Instagram reel, which I know has to be true. If you hear it on an Instagram reel.

Dan Duran:

Totally.

Amy Hall:

You can't see the sarcasm on my face there. But I thought it was true enough to say it here on this podcast, that if you do something 18 minutes a day, it ends up being a hundred hours in one year, if you end up doing something 18 minutes a day, you are better than 90% of the world at that thing. And I was like huh. And if you think about it, 18 minutes a day of going for a run, I mean and all of a sudden you're in this echelon of you're a runner if you do that for a year. It doesn't have to be marathons, but I thought, man, that's a pretty good, 20 minutes a day. If people who aren't doing anything, just start moving, imagine how much their life would change in one year.

Jenny Scott:

Right.

Dan Duran:

And I saw one that said, on social media, that said if you eat spicy food five days a week, that you'll live 14% longer. So there's that, and I'm going to live 14% longer.

Jenny Scott:

I don't think that's a thing, Dan.

Amy Hall:

It might be though.

Dan Duran:

But it's on Instagram, Jenny.

Amy Hall:

It was real because it was on social media. Yeah.

Dan Duran:

That's right.

Amy Hall:

Come on, let's not debunk all of the weird theories out there.

Jenny Scott:

I'll have a chat with you two offline.

Can you share some success stories or transformations that have resulted from participating in group fitness programs?

Jenny Scott:

But speaking of consistency and doing all the things that we need to do, do you have any really fun success stories or transformations from your groups of people that are working with your group fitness classes?

Amy Hall:

I do. I have a couple actually. And they were, I try to do, I call them camper of the month and I do a spotlight on them. And so we call our clients campers because they come to Camp Gladiator. And so a client, client of the month, and one of them is one of my clients, Megan. I started training her right out of college, 14 years ago. And since then, I've been with Megan through her wedding, helped her get in really obviously wedding shape. And she just had her fourth baby with me in CG, right? And so I have gotten to see Megan healthily carry four babies, I've gotten to see her breastfeed four babies, and I've gotten to see her get back into shape four babies. And so her youngest is nine months old and she brings all, guys, she brings them all out to the workout with her.

And I love it because they all know me. I'm Coach Amy or Miss Amy. And every once in a while I'll have to grab James, the little one, while she's doing her sprints and things like that. But to watch her body transform, and it's not just one time, it's been multiple times when she's put her body through the ringer, which we know carrying a child can be. And to see her consistency and to see her show up and to say, "Hey, I started this at 22 and I'm still going strong at 35 years old. And this has just been my fitness program for all those years." So that's one story that I absolutely love.

And then another, we always, I have three guys. They come out to camp and they joke that their combined age is almost 200, which it is. Their combined age is almost 200, and they're all in their sixties, one's almost 70, but these guys don't miss. They don't miss a Monday; they don't miss a Wednesday. They are executive professionals and they show up at my 5:00 PM class, and they are there with their heavy dumbbells, their weights, they work hard, they lift heavy. And when I ask them, "Hey, why do you keep showing up?" And they're like, "Because this is the most consistent I've ever been in any fitness program. And the last time I went to my doctor, my doctor said, don't stop what you're doing." So it's things like that. It's not like I'm helping them with these major weight loss stories, but I'm helping them stay healthy. One, that was the first-time granddad, and then the other one is about to turn 70 this year. And I'm like, my husband always goes, "I want to be like him when I'm 69. I want to be Bob when I'm 69 years old."

So anyways, it's so fun to see all these different types of people come together. And like I said, Megan's working out right alongside with Bob and they're both getting this awesome workout. And somehow they would never be friends, but they are at CG.

What role does a certified instructor play in leading a group fitness class, and why is their expertise important?

Dan Duran:

I love that. Well, and Amy, I know you're going to be talking here in a minute more about how to create an engaging and exciting, an experience, I call it, rather than a workout. But taking it back a few levels for the bare bones basics, how do we get started, or how folks get started in teaching groups, there's this train of thought out there that I'm sure you've seen, and that is if I'm teaching a group, and for these purposes, let's call it eight or more, okay, a group of people. I know when I came and worked out with you all, there was at least 15 in that group, big group, great, phenomenal instructor, but there's this train of thought, it's like I don't need to be a certified personal trainer. I'm doing group exercise or group training. I'm not doing personal training. Yet I know for a fact that at Camp Gladiator it's an absolute requirement that they be a current certified personal trainer. Can you speak a bit to that foundational training and why it's so important when you're leading a group like yours?

Amy Hall:

Absolutely. First and foremost, I do want to say group exercise certifications are awesome. They teach you a lot about formatting, and grouping, and different styles, but I think the foundation is being a certified personal trainer. And I think understanding the human body, understanding biomechanics, understanding limitations, progressions, regressions, variations, planes of movement, I mean, just all of those things are very important when designing a group workout because if you don't know a lot about the human body, you can overload someone in a Group X class with a lot of sagittal plate movements. And all of a sudden you've got clients complaining of hip flexor issues, or SI joint issues, or general range of motion issues and you're wondering what's happening here. Well, because if you don't come at it from that trainer perspective of understanding I've got to train the client from top to bottom, front to back, in all planes of motion, utilizing different movement patterns, you're going to get yourself stuck into a rut and you're going to get your clients stuck into a rut.

So I think just getting that certification as a certified personal trainer teaches you exercise selection, and it teaches you how to train multiple different levels, maybe not all at one time, but by breaking it up into bite size. And say you have three levels of clients out of your workout. You've got your kind of beginners or lower range of motion, you've got your intermediate, I always call, this is how I actually categorize them, this is how you make it fun, but where are my junior high athletes, where are my varsity athletes, and where are my collegiate athletes. And we joke and I'm like, put yourself in that category.

And the junior high athletes love it. They're like, "I'm in junior high. I'll power walk this lap," that kind of thing. And it's not to bust on those levels, it's just to make it a little bit more fun so I'm not like, "Okay, people who do pushups on their knees." I like to say, "Okay, my junior high athletes, if you want to graduate to varsity, let's get off those knees," kind of stuff.

So I try to make it fun, but I also really want to be intentional about the programming. And I think that comes from a background of having your CPT.

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I love that. I love the way you break up those grades or levels. That's super cute. I'm going to have to steal that. That's cool.

Amy Hall:

And if I have really super competitive, I'll have an Olympian category, but I have to know when to pull that one out. If those people aren't at camp, I stop at collegiate athletes. If I have those two or three show up, I'm like, "All right, we got an Olympian level today."

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely think I agree with you, Amy, that having that basic CPT gives you all that information. And you made a point of saying it may not teach you how to work with that many people all at once, but that's why you get certified in group exercise, right?

Amy Hall:

Yes.

Jenny Scott:

Because that is super, super entry level, right? There's one or two sections usually in any group exercise certification, I've been through many, that will just teach you the anatomy physiology. They just skim over that, assuming that you already know it, and then they teach you the queuing and how do you know, program, and what equipment to use, and all that kind of stuff that helps make you effective at working with multiple people at once.

What is a good quality for group instructors to have? How can they keep participants engaged and motivated throughout a group fitness session?

Jenny Scott:

And speaking of, before we get to the environment and such, I want to find out what you think. What do you think is a big quality for group fitness instructors, because you have to be some kind of engaging. You don't have to be the most obnoxious person in the world, but you have to be some kind of a engaging, have attention to detail, and be able to manage a lot at once. Would you agree? What else would you say people need to do to be good at it?

Amy Hall:

Well, I always say, I can teach you how to be a trainer, you can study and learn that. What I can't teach you to have, and I can't teach anybody this, you either have it or you don't, the it factor. And it factor does not mean me. I am the whoo wearing crazy socks and we're down, we're doing all kinds of fun stuff out there. But I think you don't need to do that. You just need to have a presence. You need to have an authority when you're out there, and you need to speak so that people will listen to you. Fumbling over your words. I think very well-spoken, confident, and the it factor goes so far in group X training in general.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And you're absolutely right. Not everybody has to be like you and me, right, where they're like level 10 all the time. You don't have to.

Amy Hall:

What? Me? No.

Jenny Scott:

I know. I'm the same way. I'm obnoxious, self-proclaimed obnoxious. But yeah, definitely a presence. I think that's a great way to-

Amy Hall:

Do you dance at your work? Workouts like-

Jenny Scott:

Oh yeah. And my clients, when I used to coach at Orange Theory, my clients used to be like, "Are you having a seizure?" I was like, "That's rude. I'm going to dance over here."

Amy Hall:

Oh yeah.

Jenny Scott:

And I would just move away. Oh yeah. It was a situation. And I always had the best playlist. Ask any of my members. I had the best playlist ever, so we'd be jamming in there. They'd be dancing too. Don't let them fool you.

Amy Hall:

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We do a playlist once a year that is the song that was number one on your birthday. And I add it to the playlist, and that's the only playlist we play. And because the age range is so big, we've got Taylor Swift one round, and then you've got the Oak Ridge boys from the seventies on another round. It's so much fun. It's the best.

Jenny Scott:

That's awesome. Yeah. My thing was finding songs with people's names in it. And you know what the hardest one was, but there is a song, Yolanda. I had a lady named Yolanda, and she was always like, "You never found it." I found one. It's like from the eighties, nineties. It's a rap song called Yolanda. I was like, oh, and I played up her and she lost her mind.

Amy Hall:

I don't even know it. Yes.

Jenny Scott:

Nailed it.

Amy Hall:

That's the other thing. Got to be fun with it. Got to be fun with it.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah. So that kind of leads me into my next question for Amy. So when we're talking about creating a positive and inviting environment for these people, what else can we do to make sure that this group fitness setting is exciting and inclusive, and positive and involved for these people?

Amy Hall:

Yeah, so I am not a gamey person, but I will say that every once in a while, gamification of anything is fun. And so I always say it's, "Hey, you all ready for a fun workout? Results are fun." But I also think that adding silly elements, and of course mine are outdoors, some can be in indoors, outdoors, but last night you can buy a game at your big stores, Target, Walmart, whatever, and it's tic-tac-toe that you have to toss a beanbag on and it flips the thing. Anyways, look it up. We had an entire workout last night where they'll do a series of exercises, race down the parking lot and throw a beanbag for their team to get either an X or an O. And so there was team X and team O and the first team that completed all the exercises, they were just down there battling it out with these beanbags, trying to flip these X's and O's.

And then we did it bracket style where if you won, you got moved to a different group. And at the end of the workout we had our grand champions. And then, I mean, it's real. It's 2023. They're not losers in life, but we were losers at tic-tac-toe. I can't help it, but it's what you are. So anyways, you're winning at fitness, but losing at tic-tac-toe. And then I posted on social media. I'd be like, "Hey, here's our grand champion, Spencer Swift at tic-tac-toe tonight," of him holding his arm up and a tic-tac-toe board.

And little do they know, they did lateral lunges, hinges, squats, penguins. They did a full workout, but at the same time, they're like, they have no idea they're working out. They do and they're like, "I burned seven hundred calories." Great. Yay, and you had a lot of fun. So I think gamification, but not all my workouts are like that. Sometimes they're we're getting to work, but every once in a while you got to toss that in there.

The other things I do to make it fun is it's hot outside right now in Texas. I bring a cooler full of ice-cold lavender towels to let them cool off with at the end of the workout. In the summertime, I'll bring out ice-cold water in a cooler and squirt guns. And if they finish their round, they get to go squirt their forehead with a squirt gun of ice-cold water. It's adding those little elements into it that they like, if they were to go to a one-on-one personal trainer, are you all going to play tic-tac... I love one-on-one trainers. They're amazing, but are you going to play tic-tac-toe, and have lavender ice-cold towels, and squirt yourself with a water gun in the forehead? Maybe not.

Jenny Scott:

That's awesome. Yeah, those fun little touches, especially when they're surprised. I think you make a great point, Amy, maybe not doing them every single time.

Amy Hall:

Oh, no, no, no.

Jenny Scott:

Because then they get bored with them, right?

Amy Hall:

Yeah.

Jenny Scott:

But if it's a surprise and they're like, "Yes, we're doing tic-tac-toe today," right, they get super excited. Mine is capture or flag tag with the flag football belts.

Amy Hall:

Oh yeah.

Jenny Scott:

Oh my God. First of all, and I participated in that with my little kid athletes from volleyball. You cannot tell me that is not agility training.

Amy Hall:

No, it's completely agility training. You'll be so sore for days after, yes.

Jenny Scott:

Yes. Oh my gosh. So hard.

Dan Duran:

This definitely makes me want to go play with you, Amy. I had a great experience. And what was that guy's name? Do you remember?

Amy Hall:

AJ Mays. AJ Mays.

Jenny Scott:

Your trainer? Yeah.

Dan Duran:

He was one of your top.

Amy Hall:

Yep, he's one of our top trainers in Austin. He is incredible and so much fun.

Dan Duran:

And I think it's fair, at least to bring some awareness, and not all people enjoy group training, and I'm one of them. I like teaching it, but I'm not one to participate in it. I had an absolute blast participating in that one, so kudos to you, kudos to your programming. And obviously that's the level of coaches that you have there at Camp Gladiator, either that they innately have with the it factor, and I know that you do a lot of training with them as well.

Amy Hall:

Yes, and we are really big on programming, very big on making sure that the clients aren't being thrown into something that they're not ready. You show up to a workout and be like, "All right, we're going to do 600 chest to ground burpees today." Are you going to sweat and burn calories? Yes. We would never do that though because that's an inappropriate training module. So it's making sure that they know how to train, but also know how to engage their clients and keep them coming back.

Are there any emerging trends or innovations in the field of group fitness that you find particularly exciting or promising?

Dan Duran:

Awesome. So switching gears just a bit here, I mean, again, you've been in the industry for quite some time now. You've had the opportunity to do all different types of coaching, and I'm sure you keep your eye on, hey, what's coming out, what's new. We see a lot this in social media and it's very important, but the top 10 or the top 20 emerging trends. ACSM put out some pretty good stuff not long ago. How about you and what you're seeing? Can you shed any light on any emerging trends or innovations in group fitness that you find, huh, that's kind of interesting, exciting, or promising?

Amy Hall:

Well, I think one, for Camp Gladiators, something that we are changing up some of our technology to be more interactive and community friendly. For the longest time we had an app and you could log in and you could find your workout, but that was about it. There was no interaction. And we know that the world is very socially interacted in lots of different platforms right now.

And so as we roll out, I think that the integration of technology that allows people to be in a community in person, but also on wearable, or in an app, or somewhere where they can post challenges or compete with one another, I think it would be really cool. I know some fitness programs do streaks, how long they've worked out in something. And I think those are really fun trends because what it can do is it not only makes it fun for the consumer, but it also creates more consistency, which that's that C you were talking about, and it keeps an accountability not just maybe for the trainer or the fitness program, but the community of people within it. And so that's a really big trend that I see coming down the pipeline for Camp Gladiator that I think a lot of other fitness businesses are doing well.

And I also, man, I love to say this, I think the biggest trend that we need to get back to is keeping it simple, is we don't need 5,000 pieces of wearables, just the equipment. It's just getting kind of out of control like, oh, try this new thing, try that new thing. I'm sure it's fun for a little one-off part of a section of an exercise. But to set, man, I train to the seven primal movement patterns. It's the way I do. And so I think a trend that should come back is let's take it back to the basics because man, people need it more and more, just general movement.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah, I agree with that. And I like what you were saying about the technology. I've seen that a lot. When I was leaving Orange Theory, gosh, it's been three years now, but I know when I was leaving there, they were introducing stuff like technology on their equipment for that reason, not so that they can track it in their own little account or their app or whatnot, all the rowing that you did, all the running you did. Not much for the weight room, there's stuff that you can plug in, but it doesn't track anything that you're doing, but it also made a community platform. We have these big tablets on the wall where you could, we had challenges and stuff where people could see. There's a leaderboard, but it gets people engaged.

And so when you have those collegiate athletes and those Olympians in your group, that level of person that's really competitive, that drives them. Make sure that I don't miss the class, make sure that I'm doing my best, make sure that I'm training for these things. And they do milestones every couple weeks or every couple months and it's all logged, right? So I think that-

Amy Hall:

I love that. Yes.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah, be a really good way to motivate people. And also even for the non-competitive people, just to, as other people see this, right, so I'm going to try my best. Even if it's not I'm competing with so-and-so, I'm going to try my best.

Amy Hall:

Or as for the non-competitive person. If they can shave off a minute or add three reps or something, that is a huge win to be celebrated, not just for themselves, but for the community to come around and celebrate that. I mean, we try not to, but the first time, we try not to maybe make this a big deal at CG a lot, but the first time somebody runs the warmup lap without stopping, we go nuts for that person because that's a big deal for them. And people don't realize that. And so we try to make it a big deal for the person that's going to win CG game's final competition in Austin, and we try to make it a big deal for the client that jogged that first lap with no walking, which is a big deal.

What tips do you have for someone who's just getting started in group fitness or maybe is a little self-conscious to come into a group fitness class?

Jenny Scott:

Yeah, it's a big deal for sure. I love it. Now what about, speaking of that person who's maybe not at the fitness level of everybody else in your group, I love the variety that's in group fitness classes. It doesn't matter where you're at, just come, be active, right, we'll modify for you. But what kind of tips would you provide for somebody who's just getting started in group fitness or maybe is a little self-conscious to come into a group fitness class?

Amy Hall:

I would say shadow several really good group fitness instructors. Go find, and find one you like going to, and as soon as that workout's over, sit down and write everything you like about that workout and everything that you think could have gone better about that workout. In CG, we call that a 33. What are three things you thought were really great, and what are three things that could have gone better with this workout. And we try to 33 pretty much everything we do.

So man, I liked their music, I liked their energy, and I liked how they went upper body, lower body, upper body, lower body. So how can you start a notebook of that template so that when you go to run your own group fitness class, you've got a ready-made workout to go. Next class you go to, do the same and even interview the trainer and say, "Hey, what was your thought process behind doing closed grip pushups here when we had just done skull crushers?" And the trainer may say, "Oh, I wanted to super set the triceps. I really wanted to focus on that." And then maybe the next workout you go to, maybe they did wide grip pushups and skull crushers. "Well, why did you do that?" "Well, I didn't want to fatigue those triceps."

And so really understanding from each group instructor the why behind what they do so that you can either do one of two things, mimic it if you love it and know it works well, or stay away from it if you didn't feel like it was great for you. So I think that's all within the instructor to do that, and the more classes you can take, the better you're going to be. Even to this day, 15 years later, I'll go take a group X class and I'm like, oh my God, I never thought about doing that. I've got to do it tonight at my workout. So you just got to stay educated, and keep going with it, and find a mentor. Oh, find a mentor.

Jenny Scott:

Oh yeah.

Dan Duran:

Always learning. I love the 33. And I mean Jenny and I, I'm speaking for Jenny because she mentioned it, we got a great takeaway here. I love the junior high, varsity, and collegiate, and then that Olympian if Jenny shows up. I love that.

Jenny Scott:

As long as it's not running, I'm there.

Amy Hall:

And then I'll always have the jokesters that are like, "Can I do off-season? Could I be the off-season junior high team?" I'm like, "You know what, if we want to create an off-season set and two of you want to be in off-season, we'll let you all be in off-season." And then, "I want to red shirt in college." I'm like, "Stop it. You all are adding too many layers to our groups today."

Dan Duran:

Yeah. Or the, what do they call it, the injury, there's an injury reserve.

Amy Hall:

Injury reserve. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Duran:

There it is. That's right. IR. I'm IR. I'm IR this week.

Amy Hall:

I'm IR. I'm IR.

How can listeners connect with you to learn more?

Dan Duran:

Well look, I know we could continue on and on and on. I have so much fun talking to you, always do whether it's here or anywhere else, but we need to wrap up. So before we do, can you please share with our listeners the best ways for them to learn more from you, about you, follow you, get to know you and Camp Gladiator, of course?

Amy Hall:

Well, obviously campgladiator.com is the website. And fun fact, I am our national director of recruiting for CG, which means it is my job to go out and try to acquire as many amazing coaches as possible. And we are bringing on coaches nationwide, so no matter where you live, if you're interested in group fitness, nutrition, online training, one-on-one, small group, or even specialty training, we're here for you. I host weekly webinars teaching people about how to come on board with CG. It's on our website under become a coach or careers. And you can follow me on Instagram at Amy Mack Hall, but only if you like looking at baby goats, baby chickens, the new donkeys that we got, and the occasional fitness sprinkled in for fun, because I do live on a farm. And yeah, I'm just happy to have you all here. And I would love to connect with anybody that is interested in finding a mentor to onboard to a group fitness program because we have amazing mentors across the US that are ready to work with you.

Jenny Scott:

I love it. You said the baby donkeys we just got. It's so cute. Are they really babies?

Amy Hall:

No, he was born, he's five weeks old right now and his name is... Yes.

Jenny Scott:

Oh sweet baby. I love baby animals.

Amy Hall:

Awesome. Awesome.

Jenny Scott:

That's awesome.

Dan Duran:

They're all over. Yeah.

Jenny Scott:

Thank you so much for sharing all that. I know. Thank you so much for sharing all that. It's a great resource because again, there's tons of opportunity out there you guys, whether you're working one-on-one, whether you want to do online groups like Amy was talking about. She just gave you a great resource. Go find it. Go learn more. Get involved in the process if you're interested in coaching with them. And I know Camp Gladiator has blossomed over these last couple years, and they're 15 years in guys, so they've been around for a while. Are there any new markets that you guys are moving into right now, Amy?

Amy Hall:

I say all, so forever and ever and ever we focused in the South because we were outdoor and we needed the warm weather, but we have figured out a way to kind of toggle back and forth between indoor, outdoor, online, in-person, adding in the nutrition element. And so man, Alaska, New York, California, Nebraska, bring it, we are ready for you. We've actually launched our first San Diego trainer and we're really excited about that. So yeah, if you have a space to run workouts, either virtually from your house or in a great outdoor location near you, we can show you the ropes on how to get that started, and we're the platform to do it.

Jenny Scott:

Love it. Awesome resource. Thank you so much for joining us again, Amy. It was a blast having you back.

Amy Hall:

Yay. I know. It was so much fun. Have me back anytime.

Jenny Scott:

For sure. We'll take you up on that so-

Amy Hall:

Awesome. All right, so good to see you guys, and you all have a great rest of your day.

Jenny Scott:

You too. Dan, any last words for this crew before we let them go?

Dan Duran:

You know what Jenny, you know it, 33. Love it. There's a big takeaway. Three things you like, three things you don't, and don't just try to file them away in the old noggin because you will forget if you're like me by the end of the day, like most by next week or next month. Write them down. I love that. Make a journal, and then as you start becoming creative in your own space, then reflect on that and ask questions. Good stuff. Thank you for sharing, Amy.

Amy Hall:

Yeah.

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. Yes. Thank you Amy. And to all of our listeners, we hope you took a lot back. Of course, go back and re-listen to this. Go find her first episode too. It's way back in the beginning, she was here with us. But guys, thank you so much for listening and as always, go out there, be fruitful in the world, make good choices. We'll be talking to you soon.