General Etiquette > Life...in general

Exercise class instructor etiquette

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kingsrings:
I've been a member of a major gym (initials are CFF) for two years now, and am very happy with it. I get my exercise solely through their classes the past year as I got bored just using the machines. My etiquette concern is about different teachers and the different teaching techniques they use to run their classes. Some of them are quite 'Nazi'-like in their approach. My feeling is, it is MY class as I have paid for it with my enrollment fee and monthly dues. Therefore, I will do whatever level I am comfortable doing and will do whatever I want to in the class as long as it is not being disruptive to others. In one class I take, it is called the Boot Camp workout, and the two instructors (acting like drill sergeants) will 'punish' us if we mess up. If we drop a ball or something like that, it's five push-ups for each mistake made. One of cardio kickbox teachers does the same thing sometimes if we make a mistake in one of the drills. And I've had to completely stop taking a yoga class I loved because the instructor got on my nerves so much. He would go around the room on each pose and make sure that we were doing it right. Sometimes he would correct me as much as ten times in one hour of class! Way too excessive on that. Believe me, I was not able to relax at all in this yoga class with that going on! He made me so nervous and anxious doing that. It's not a safety issue at all because no other yoga instructors do that, and when I told them what he does, they said he was wrong and that it was my class and I could do it however I wanted to. These are just recreational classes we take for exercise. No one is competing with each other, and we're not preparing for any major competitive event or game. Am I overreacting here?

guihong:
No.  I'd find different classes, or a completely different gym, and report that kind of behavior to the management.

gui

Bob Ducca:
You are not out of line.  It is part of their job to work you and give you good exercise, but it is also part of their job to make you feel good about what you are doing.  Surely they know that you are still the customer, and are entitled to "customer service?"  If you need correction for safety's sake, or need pushing to work harder, there are better ways of doing it.

FWIW, if I wanted that kind of attention, I would take a session with a personal trainer.  I think signing up for a class should be less about personal attention and more about a fun workout, but that's just me.

Lexophile:
You have absolutely every right to expect to take a class you paid for without being harrassed like that. I inadvertently got a fitness teacher fired for bad behavior, although it was on the opposite end of the spectrum. She ignored the fact that there was a new person (me) in her class. She didn't introduce herself or explain how the class runs when she started it. It was a spin class and she was talking about "exchanges" and yelling out numbers and I had NO IDEA what was going on.I ended up leaving the class and reporting it at the front desk. She hasn't been teaching the class since. I got in with a much better instructor, who said that he was taking over the class because the girl who was teaching it would have all of her friends show up and ignore the other members. I guess I wasn't the first one to complain.

kingsrings:
Most of the time the instructors do introduce themselves and ask if there are any new members today. Those are the ones that win the 'Best Instructor' montly awards! It would drive me crazy if someone didn't do that in a spinning class because those are very specific instructions and one would be lost if they werent familar with it. I don't want to change gyms because this one is very convenient and efficient for what I am looking for. I think that the next time I am 'punished' for not doing something right, I will refuse to do the punishment and just politely explain that it's my class, and I paid for it. The problem is is being the only one who protests such treatment. The other class members gladly do the punishment push-ups. I don't want to be looked at strangely for being the only one who has a problem with it. And other than that, I am very happy with these classes and the instructors, so I don't want to give them up.

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