
Studio Strength instructor course
Give your career as a group exercise professional a lift with our Studio Strength instructor programme.
Fitness industry's leading awarding bodies.
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Studio strength instructors are passionate and charismatic exercise professionals that can deliver lively and energetic resistance training sessions that are choreographed to the beat and phrase of the music.
Our Studio Strength Instructor course will teach you all you need to know to succeed as a studio-based resistance training instructor, including:
Selecting the right music
Working to the beat and phrase
Different choreography formats
Music licensing and legalities
Using music for motivation
Music speed and exercise intensity
Chest and shoulder exercises
Back and trapezius exercises
Squatting, lunging and deadlifting exercises
Bicep and tricep exercises
Core stabilisation exercises
Dumbbell, barbell and disc variations
Screening techniques
Gathering participant information
Risk stratification
Contraindications to exercise
Collecting participant feedback
Evaluating sessions for improvement
Effective demonstrations
Cueing and timing
Tone and voice projection
Motivational strategies
Different teaching positions
Correcting techniques in a group
Staying safe in the studio
Professional bodies and registers
Instructor insurance
Managing emergency situations
Professional practice
Customer care
*Images and videos are for illustration purposes and may not depict specific course materials.
Become a qualified Studio Strength instructor and raise the bar in group exercise and studio-based resistance training. Join our many thousands of graduates currently working in leading health and fitness clubs around the world.
Throughout this Studio Strength instructor course, you'll complete a range of online learning and assessment activities that will ensure you have the necessary knowledge and professional skills to practice. Typically, you'll complete all the knowledge assessments first, then when you feel ready, you'll start on the practical assessments.
The online practical workshops will prepare you for these assessments, so when you feel ready, all you need to do is record yourself teaching a class and submit this for marking. Your support tutor will also be able to help with preparation for this assessment.
We’ve provided a breakdown of the main assessments in this course.
We've provided a summary of some of the more common Studio Strength questions that we're asked by students and operators alike. If you do have any further questions, feel free to get in touch with our Careers Team who will be more than happy to assist you.
Our Studio Strength programme is a completely self-paced course and so there are no specific timescales. To some extent, it will depend on your prior learning and experience. For the average learner, especially those who already have experience of delivering group exercise, especially to music and in a studio environment, this course will likely take around 4-6 weeks to complete. This is based on an average of 5-7 hours of learning per week. Please bare in mind though that this is just an estimate, and every learner is different. Our Learning Support Team are highly experienced at supporting to success a wide-range of students with diverse and varied learning needs.
As an individual instructor, if you have completed our Studio Strength instructor course and you hold a valid certificate, you are permitted to advertise and deliver your classes as Studio Strength. Once you have completed our programme, you will have the knowledge, skills and confidence to be able to deliver this format competently.
As a facility, you are only permitted to advertise and deliver Studio Strength classes to your participants if you can demonstrate that you have satisfied the following two criteria:
As a commercial operator/facility, if you are not able to satisfy the above two conditions, it will be deemed that you are infringing our Intellectual Property Rights and we reserve the right to take the appropriate action to address this.
Our Studio Strength instructor programme leads to a Level 2 Award/Certificate in Teaching Studio-Based Resistance Training. This is a fully regulated Ofqual qualification and is not just a CPD programme, as such it is recognised around the world by all employers, insurers, and regulators.
On completion, students will receive a YMCA Awards certificate and a HFE certificate (Studio Strength), the latter being that which is required to deliver programmes specifically called Studio Strength.
This certificate is also recognised by CIMSPA, and carries 10 CPD points with them for CIMSPA members wishing to demonstrate they have undertaken further CPD. Additionally, because CIMSPA is a member of the International Confederation of Registers of Exercise Professionals (ICREPs), our Studio Strength instructor programme is recognised around the world with different fitness industry regulators.
This is a full Level 2 Certificate in Fitness Instructing (Studio-based Resistance Training) qualification which includes many of the mandatory and generic elements (anatomy and physiology, health, fitness and wellbeing, health and safety, principles of exercise, fitness and health) that form part of other full level 2 qualifications (gym instructing, exercise to music, aqua, step etc). If you have previously and recently completed a full level 2 qualification and you have been working in industry since you qualified, then it’s likely that you will only need to complete the award version, because you will be deemed competent in the genetic and mandatory subject areas. If you have no prior qualifications, then you will need to complete the full certificate version of the programme.
There are some nuances to prior attainment and recognition and so if you are unsure which version you need to do, please feel free to reach out to our Careers Team to have your certificates checked.