Celebrate Your Expertise and Passion with The FLX Instructor Certification

There’s no better job than one that you love! Teaching dance, Pilates, and other fitness related classes is a passion project for many of these instructors. These movers who love their work, however, are held to a higher platform than other dancers or fitness enthusiasts in the room. Having the proper education and certifications are key to both job satisfaction and success in these industries.

Certifications for fitness started in the early 1990’s, and since then, educational programs have been created for all styles of learning and movement experiences. Having an in-depth understanding of the complexity of what you are teaching goes beyond choreography and great music. Having the right educational background developed by certification can bring confidence to the instructor’s content and more job satisfaction.

Here are five ways instructor certification can help your life’s passion and career.

Increase knowledge base. Understanding the movement terminology and applications of movement are key to better instruction. Knowing how to fix a clock rather than just able to tell time, brings a different level of expertise to the audience. Certifications provide a systematic approach to understanding movement and presenting it to your clients. The courses developed by FLX are created for the instructor to understand anatomy, kinesiology and biomechanics (or how the body moves) and are the foundation of the program. It also presents the steps that help an instructor understand the qualities that a dancer, gymnast, or anyone desiring more coordination of movement, in an easy-to-understand program.

Understand better teaching techniques. Teachers enjoy the lead position in the classroom whether teaching fitness classes or other flexibility related programs. As a lead instructor, it’s important to understand how students learn and best teaching techniques. Many teachers just lead a class and have their students follow, the qualities associated with the most admired teachers include a consistent, yet flexible style of presenting material, finding ways to connect to each student, well thought out lesson plans and leaving an impact on each student. Certifications that review the development of course work and lesson plans as well as teacher/student interactions can help develop those admired teachers.

Creates credibility and trust. Certifications help clients understand a teacher’s background. A well-developed and widely accepted certification can be used to help build trust for the teacher as well as show dedication to their craft. Even if a certification has less awareness than other more popularly recognized ones, it can still be used to build trust and reputation as an expert. The FLX certifications have been reviewed by physical therapists and developed by leading experts in the health and wellness industries. They are developed to enhance the instructors current knowledge base and expertise. The Maximal Flexibility certification is a new specialty certification, offering the teacher an understanding to develop the maximal flexibility that is needed for sports including dance, gymnastics, martial arts, skating and even golf.

Brings confidence and overall job satisfaction. Knowing you have the proper credentials and have gone through intensive training to present your passion to students can bring a sense of confidence. You have to love what you do and be good at it to teach others! The interaction between student and teacher has many positive effects for both. Students learn and improve by taking classes from the teacher. The teacher has a sense of satisfaction seeing their students improve. According to a study by the National Institutes of Health relating specifically to Pilates instructors, “It is understood that the positive interaction in the relationship between the instructors who provide the service and their clients, along with the formation of sympathy in the instruction process, reduces instruction fatigue.” In other words, the relationships that are developed through teacher/student relationships can energize and increase a sense of happiness for the instructor.

Wear it proudly. Many instructor certifications provide logo attire to showcase the certification ownership. Wearing a logo t-shirt can be a part of a uniform you wear while teaching. Looking neat and professional in a uniform will give you the confidence and energy to help you teach lessons effectively. To top it off, when teachers bring positive energy during lessons, the students will also absorb this energy, resulting in a positive learning experience.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6732554/