Navigating The Conversation [Part 2]

​In this episode, we explore how a hiker can navigate group exercise classes if they have a recurring issue that sometimes flares up from these sessions. 

Episode Transcript: 

[0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we are doing part two around navigating the conversation with your local trainers.

[0:10] Now, if you haven't listened to part one, I would probably strongly recommend you go back and listen to that just so you know where I'm coming from and what this is all about. But just in a nutshell, if it's been a week since you've listened to this or whatever it may be, last episode, we were talking about the situation where someone's seen a local personal trainer or doing local classes. They really enjoy those sessions, but there's just some limitation that you have, which is holding you back. And maybe the trainer keeps on asking you to do a particular exercise, but that is a trigger for discomfort for you. And no matter how many times you remind them, they just keep on programming in. And the last episode, we talked about how to navigate this situation with a one-to-one trainer and how to have a conversation and cement it in someone's mind and give yourself the best chance possible of finding that happy balance. Now, today, we're going to be talking about how to navigate this situation in group exercise classes, because I know a lot of hikers out there will do things like small group training when you're in a group of six to eight to 10 to 12

[1:06] people in a gym environment. A lot of hikers are doing boot camps. A lot of hikers are doing group exercise like body pump or body attack or Pilates or yoga or whatever it may be.

[1:17] And while this whole situation is hard enough when you've literally got one-to-one support But in a group environment, it can be a little bit trickier because obviously a group instructor and a group coach isn't managing lots and lots of people. More often than not, the group environment and the group situation, they won't actually have that one-to-one personal connection with you. They may know your name. They may recognize your face. You may be a regular, but a lot of situations, it's not quite that deep. Now, on top of that, group instructors across the board, there are other limitations which make them a bit trickier with this. They never take notes. No group instructor that I've ever met takes notes around their clients. They're dealing with obviously lots of people, anywhere from six to 30 to 40 people, whatever it may be. This is just what you expect in a group environment. This is not me taking a dig. I'm not saying group instructors should be taking notes on their clients because that's not what they're there for. That's not that model. It's just how it goes. So realistically, if you're in a situation where you're going to these classes and you're like, hey, I really enjoy these, but I'm having an issue, whether there's an exercise that aggravates me, whether there's something that makes me dizzy, whether it's something that's holding me back or whatever it may be. Realistically, in these situations, you need to take a bit more initiative here.

[2:38] Because as much as you'd like to think about it, group instructors, for the most part, probably aren't going to have the initiative themselves to help you with this. You need to take the initiative. So this is what I'd recommend. If you are in a situation with a class where you have a limitation like this, at the start of a class, talk with the instructor. If you've got a coach, if you've got an instructor, whatever it may be, get there early. And while you're waiting around or while everyone's setting up, go and pull your instructor aside. You may get, if everyone's waiting around to get into a class, you may get a couple of minutes with them. If literally everyone's just walking into the room and they're in between classes, you may only get 60 seconds to 90 seconds with them, whatever it may be. But just lay it out for them and just sort of say, hey, instructor, just to let you know, I kind of have issues with, burpees and my knees, or I do lots of jump squats and this gets sore, or you know what, I've got sore feet and whenever I skip or run, it gets flared up or whatever it may be. Just lay out, this is the exercise which causes me issues. This is the issue itself. And just say, could you give me alternatives to them, which are a bit lower impact or whatever it may be.

[3:47] Now, one of two things will happen here. Number one, the instructor will give you alternatives right off the bat and they'll say, hey, when we do this, do that, or when we do this, do that. Or number two, they will say, all right, you know what, come see me, or I'll come around when we do this exercise, I'll give you something else to do. If they don't say any of those, well, that's a whole different conversation. But 99% of the situations, that's what will happen. Then essentially during the session.

[4:13] You probably can't expect the instructor to get to you whenever this happens. Yes, they said they would. But again, group instructors sometimes have not great memories. Sometimes they're doing other things. Sometimes they're helping other people, whatever it may be. So, during the session, you need to take initiative again. So, if you do come up to an exercise that you don't like or doesn't work with them, either give a wave to the instructor and literally wave them down and say, hey, can I have an alternative? Or you're going to have to choose something else for yourself but just not do it. And hopefully you can wave them down. Now, realistically, in a group environment, you need to do this because a lot of group classes and anything, they'll have different coaches that'll rotate through or different people in different slots. You probably need to do this with every single instructor. If you ever get a new instructor, you need to introduce yourself, say, hey, I've got this issue. Can you give me alternatives? With every single person, maybe frustrating, maybe tedious. You might be like, oh my gosh, I've been doing this class for 10 years and they keep on hiring new coaches and have to have this conversation again and again and again. And I know that's frustrating, but do yourself a favor and do it.

[5:18] Now, that's the situation if you have the opportunity to chat with an instructor. Now, if you don't have the opportunity, if you're in the situation where you're like, all right, the instructor is always in a rush. I can never get a word with them. I just can't talk with them or whatever it may be. Then probably what you need to do is if you're in a gym environment, you probably need to outside of the sessions just go up to reception and just sort of say hey is there someone i can talk to and they should have someone on the floor or someone experience and just lay it out and just sort of say hey i'm really loving the the body pump um but whenever i do lunges i get really sore like can you just explain some alternatives for me so i can use them, if you're in a gym environment that could work really well if that's not possible and if you're like, hey, I'm not in a gym, I'm just doing a bootcamp or I'm doing an online class or something like that, then you probably need to do your own research here. And you need to figure things out alternatives for yourself, which I know is not ideal. I know it's not great because you're not a professional. How do you figure things out? But it is what you kind of need to do if none of those other options are available to you. So what you probably should do, and this is what I'd recommend if you're trying to figure things out for yourself, just come up with an ongoing list. And this is not just a one-time thing, but this is an ever-growing list. Every single time you have an exercise which causes you trouble, causes you pain, makes you dizzy, gives some type of issue, write it down.

[6:40] Then essentially what you want to do is you want to look at that exercise and just ask yourself, what is that exercise supposed to do? Is this cardio exercise? And this is kind of trying to get me really out of breath and get my heart rate up. Is this a strength exercise? Is this specifically trying to work my quadriceps or my glutes, what is it actually trying to do? Ask yourself that. And if you're not sure, then again, reach out to someone, reach out to local trainer, whatever it may be, send me a message and say, what a burpee you're supposed to do, or what a squat jump I'm supposed to do, whatever, reach out to me, that's fine.

[7:12] Then essentially what you want to do is just sit down. For every single exercise you've identified, you basically want to come up with an alternative, which is both comfortable for you and you're like confident that's not going to flare you up and also falls into a similar category in regards to what it's trying to do. So if the original exercise was a cardio exercise, then you want to change it to something that's also cardio-based. So make sure it's still doing a similar thing. So a few really, really typical examples is, you know, a lot of group exercise will love jumping around, squat jumps and burpees a lot of people struggle with these things if you are struggling with this, and maybe you can just step it or change it for step ups and do quick step ups up and down up and down up and down not quite as intense as those exercise but we'll do a similar thing or if you don't have a step maybe just some quick body weight squats where you're not going slow but you're really really quick and just banging it out quite quick those can be legitimate alternatives and that can work well or if you're in a class and they're asking you to do kettlebell swings you're like oh you know my back always gets sore maybe you can just do some romanian deadlifts with that kettlebell let's do the same um you know still work the same muscles but not quite explosive or maybe you just do some glute bridges and just go on the floor and do that can be options lunges again another big trigger in these situations maybe you can just do step ups or if you don't have a step up a step maybe you can just do some squats overhead press a lot of people struggle with shoulders when they're pushing weights overhead so maybe in this situation maybe you just do some lateral raises or maybe do some push-ups or some chest press or something.

[8:41] Running, you know, a lot of classes ask you to run and a lot of people struggle with this. They get foot issues or Achilles issues or whatever it may be. So in this situation, maybe you can do any other form of cardio. You could do step-ups. You could hop on a, if you're in a gym, you could hop on a bike or an elliptical. You could just do quicker walking or whatever. Skipping, again, skipping ropes. Again, a lot of people will ask you to do this. And if this aggravates things, You could do any other type of cardio again,

[9:05] or quick squats or whatever it may be. But essentially what you want to do is just come up with a master list here, which you will put together, which you are aware of, which you can remember. And anytime the instructor asks you to do these trigger exercises, then you don't even have to worry. You just do your thing. And as long as you've had that conversation with them at the beginning, instead of said, hey, I have this issue, and then you just make your own alternatives, that's fine. They're not going to get up your grill. They're not going to annoy you. And if they do annoy you and they're like hey you should be doing this or I really want you to do this and you've already explained yourself at the start of the class or before.

[9:40] Well, again, that's maybe a different conversation to be had there. But yeah, so basically when it comes down to these group environments, it can be tricky. And I fully understand a lot of people love their group classes. They love their boot camps. They love their small group training, which is fair enough. They can be great, but you don't want to keep on falling into this recurring cycle of getting aches and pains from these certain things. So have that conversation. Make sure you have that conversation with every single person, every single new instructor you have, and then make sure over time you put together this list of alternatives so you can have your own initiative here. You don't have to rely on them coming around, which they'll often forget about

[10:17] or miss or whatever may be, and you can stay on top of this. It's not ideal. I fully understand that it can be so, so, so valuable. So with that being said, I think I'm going to wrap it up here. Hopefully this last couple of episodes has helped a few hikers out there because I know so many people fall into this situation. I know it's not everyone. I know it's probably not even the majority of hikers, but there is a lot of people I've talked to who struggle with these things. So I really do hope one or both of these episodes can make a bit of a difference and help you feel much more comfortable in your week-to-week and also your long-term training. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening today. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope you get a bit out of it and we'll talk to you very, very soon.

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