Group Fitness Audition Tips & Weekly Workouts

Hello! This has been a super busy week, but I'm excited to say that I landed an additional barre class at a new gym!  

As you'll see from my weekly workout summary, this week was very class heavy! I normally teach two barre classes a week but ended up teaching four this week. I was subbing on Wednesday and my audition at the new gym was on Thursday!
(Pro tip: The best way to get people to sub for you when you need a day off is to sub for others when you're available. I recently needed 3 subs while I was on a cruise and I’ll need a sub in June for my mom's wedding. So, I’ll be sure to return the favor. Plus, who doesn't love extra money?)

The fitness center where I currently teach is your typical CrossFit gym: no machines - just barbells, kettlebells, dumbbells, and rowers. They only offer classes and there’s very little open gym time. While the classes are great, I’d love the option to do my own thing sometimes. I wanted to pick up another class at a more traditional gym so that I’d have access to a facility with the hours and equipment I need to get my weightlifting routine back to full throttle. And I found the perfect place!

This new gym is beautiful and has both free weights and machines. It also has a sauna and steam room! Not to mention, the group fitness classes sound pretty awesome. They offer incentives for getting high numbers in your classes, which I love! I'll be teaching at this gym on Thursdays, which brings my weekly teaching schedule to 3 classes per week (when I’m not subbing). Although I taught 4 classes this past week, I think 3 is more than enough for me right now.
(Pro tip: Dying to work out at that gorgeous gym but don't want to pay that monthly membership fee? Consider getting a part-time job there. Even if you aren't an instructor or trainer, just working at the front desk will more than likely get you a free membership. Free classes/memberships are one of my favorite perks of being a barre instructor!)


So, my audition at this gym went so well that I was offered the position on the spot! While this audition went great, my first ever group fitness audition (at the fitness center where I currently teach) wasn’t so great. Although I ended up getting the job, my nerves got the best of me. I was required to do a couple of weeks of shadowing other instructors before I could teach my second demo class and be added to the schedule. I picked up some useful tips along the way, though. I hope they help you nail your audition!

1. Understand the format of your audition/class. If you’re teaching a regular class as your audition, understand how the class normally operates. Is it 45 minutes long? 55? You need to know how long the class is ahead of time so that you can create a playlist that’s an appropriate length. Are you just leading part of a workout? Understand how long it should be so that you don’t run out of music.
2. Leave time for a good intro. If the class is 55 minutes long, your choreography/playlist shouldn’t be 55 minutes long. That leaves you no time for an introduction, which is especially essential if you’re leading a workout with real participants. Give them your name, thank everyone for coming, and let them know what to expect in the workout. It shouldn’t be longer than a minute, but make sure you ask if anyone has injuries that need to be accounted for. If they do, it’ll take a minute or so for them to explain their injury to you. So, leave a couple of minutes in the beginning for your introduction and any questions. It’s imperative to show that you can manage time well and end your class on time. Participants will have places to be after class and there will likely be classes that need the studio immediately after yours. Finishing class a minute early is acceptable - finishing a minute late isn’t! Show the group fitness director that you can accurately time out and plan your classes.
3. Get an armband for your phone and keep choreography notes digital. This comes down to personal preference. But keeping choreography notes on my phone instead of on paper has been a game changer for me. Fumbling around with a piece of paper or trying to glance at a notebook on the floor just didn’t work for me! Now, I keep choreography notes in my Notes app and use an armband to attach my phone to my wrist. That way, my hands are always free to show moves and I can quickly glance at my notes without having to grab my notebook or look down at the floor.
4. Keep choreography notes short and sweet. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using notes and having choreography written down. But you shouldn’t write down every last step of your 55-minute class! At my first audition, I had WAY too much written down. This made it challenging to actually find what I needed. Keep the notes concise and easy for you to understand. You’re the only one who has to read them, so make sure they make sense to YOU. If it takes you more than 2 seconds to figure out what you need to tell your participants to do, you’ve probably written too much down.
5. Never use exercises you haven’t tried yourself. That fancy move with the cool props that you saw on YouTube is probably great, but until you’ve done it yourself, don’t include it in your class plan. There’s nothing wrong with keeping choreography simple, especially in a format like barre. If you haven’t tried the exercise, you’re going to have a hard time explaining how to do it in your audition. Stick to what you’re confident in cueing; this will drastically reduce the number of nerves you’re feeling.
6. Blast your playlist on your way to the audition. Use music that gets you pumped and blast it on your way to the audition. Envision how great it’s going to be and how happy everyone is going to feel after doing a workout led by you!
7. Fake it till you make it. You may get nervous to the point of feeling sick. Jitters before teaching are completely normal, especially when it’s an audition for a position you really want. You may not be confident at all, but the best thing to do is fake it until you are. Before you even step out of your car, take a few deep breaths and tell yourself “I’ve got this”. Literally, say it (or whatever positive affirmations work for you) out loud. Before you open your door to walk inside, put a big smile on your face. And keep it there. Walk in with good posture and your head held high. Eventually, the way you feel on the inside will start to match your confidence on the outside.
8. Look the part. You don’t need $150 leggings or the most expensive gear. But you do need to wear whatever makes you feel confident and look like a fitness professional. Leave the baggy sweats and linty t-shirt at home! Everyone should be able to tell that you’re the instructor in the group fitness studio of 20 or more people. When you look your best, you feel your best. And being confident in your appearance will help you put on your best performance.
9. Remember your “why”. Chances are, if you’re auditioning to be a group fitness instructor, you’re passionate about the benefits of group exercise. Whether you’re auditioning in front of two group fitness directors or twenty class participants, you have a chance to make their day better by providing an awesome workout. You’ve done the preparation, so think about why you’re doing this. As a group fitness instructor, you have the important job of motivating and inspiring a group of people as you lead them in a workout. Isn’t that exciting? Remembering this should help you deliver an awesome audition.
10. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Mistakes will happen. Whether you’re auditioning for your first real class or you’ve been teaching for 20 years, you’re going to make mistakes. No class will be perfect! You’re going to stumble over your words or forget a move. Who cares?! People are there to be taught by a human, not a robot. When mistakes happen, you’re probably the only one who notices them. Don’t apologize for stuttering - laugh it off and keep going. You can let a small mistake derail your entire audition, or you can show you’re a professional by pushing forward without skipping a beat.
11. Have fun! Your audition will fly by, so enjoy it! Let your personality shine. Don’t try to be anyone other than yourself. Get into the music and have a good time! Lead your participants through an awesome workout and have fun with it. When you love what you do, it shows. And that’s the kind of energy any group fitness director wants in their studio.
12. Ask for feedback. After your audition, ask how you did. Whether you get the job or not, it’s important to hear what you did well and what you can work on. It can be hard hearing criticism, especially as someone who creates your own playlists and choreography. But you need a thick skin to be a group fitness instructor and auditions are a great exercise in receiving feedback. Keep doing what went well and use what didn’t go well to make your next audition/class even better.

I probably won’t be auditioning again for a while. But these are all tips that can be applied to teaching regular classes when those pre-class nerves start kicking in. 


Check out my workouts from this week:


MONDAY
Weight training at Planet Fitness (legs/glutes)


TUESDAY
Taught 55-minute barre class


WEDNESDAY
Taught 55-minute barre class


THURSDAY
Taught 50-minute barre class (audition)


FRIDAY
Rest day


SATURDAY
Taught 55-minute barre class


SUNDAY
Barre workout at home


My goal for next week is to get in a lot more weight training than I did this week. Since leaving Planet Fitness a few weeks ago, I haven't been lifting nearly as much as I want to. That should change now that I'll be teaching at this awesome new gym!


Did you hit your workout goals this week? Do you have any auditions coming up, or any other tips I forgot? Let me know in the comments!


You may also like the following posts:
How I Became a Barre Instructor
How I Passed the ACE Group Fitness Instructor Exam
Les Mills Bodyattack Review