The Big Day: AFAA Primary Group Exercise Certification

Well, the big day has come and gone. Yesterday I made a sunrise drive down to Portland for my Group Exercise Certification exam. It was a long day! I ended up getting there 2 hours early (I'd never been to the facility, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to "get lost" on my way there. I spent an hour in the car reviewing my study guide, which I had dutifully filled out while reading the text book the past two months, and reviewing what I planned to do for the practical portions of the exam. When I saw a cab pull up to the facility, and a woman in full work-out gear and a large duffle bag get out, I figured the instructor had arrived (yup) and decided to go in. I wasn't the only would-be exercise instructor who arrived an hour early, but none of the others showed up until just 15 minutes before the thing started! (the registration information said to show up 1/2 an hour early!) I spent that time doing even more review and trying to stay warm in the very chilly facility. (and it didn't help that nervousness tends to make me feel cold and shivery, so I was just a big ball of shivering ice through out the whole experience! my muscles were so tense by the end of the day!)


The day started with a review of what the purpose of the certification was, and practicing applying the "AFAA 5-Questions".
1. What is the purpose of this exercise?
2. Am I doing that effectively?
3. Does this exercise raise any safety concerns?
4. Can I maintain proper alignment and form through out the duration of the exercise?
5. For whom is this exercise appropriate or inappropriate?


(BOOM! Whole thing from memory! LOL)


Then we practiced for the practical part of the exam. We practiced demonstrating a 3 minute cardio warm-up, and then a 5 minute "workout", followed by a 1 minute cool-down. The instructor gave us tips on things that would be appropriate and inappropriate for each section, as well as telling us which moves we should definitely NOT DO for ANY portion of the practical exam. (basically anything with a high risk-factor for injury)


Then we practiced for the "strength and stretch" part of the practical, where we demonstrated 2 strength exercises and 1 stretch for each of 10 muscle groups.


The only part of the practical that we didn't practice was the individual demonstration, where we were to demonstrate 3 levels of an exercise, with proper safety cuing, voice projection, and confidence, BUT we were given tips for what TO and NOT to do for that as well.


Then it was a 1 hour break for lunch. You never saw so much rabbit food! LOL. Lots of veggies and hummus and wraps and cut-up fruit. (I did bring some leftover Easter candy though. Jelly beans and Cadburry mini eggs) After I'd finished eating I wrote out exactly what I wanted to do for my individual presentation, to flesh out what I wanted to say, and really plant it firmly in my mind, since it was significantly than what I'd originally planned to demonstrate (which was a plie squat. I changed to demonstrating a grapevine). Then some of us started talking about what we would do during the cardio demonstration of the exam, and we jokingly threw around the idea of coming up with a group choreography to surprise the teacher with. (one of the ladies there was already a Zumba instructor) Kind of an AFAA exam "flash mob". We obviously didn't do it though. ;)


After the break the instructor took us through a review of the study guide, stressing which information would *definitely* be in the written portion of the exam.


One thing that surprised me during the day was how many of the people had NOT come prepared. Me and the other girl who were there an hour early had study guides that were completely filled out. We were by far the exception. I could not believe how many BLANK ones I saw!!! And when it came time to practice for the practical portion of the exam I heard a lot of the ladies say that they were most nervous about this part because they had "no idea what was expected or what they were going to do". WHaaaaa???? It was only spelled right out in the study guide! I had my "cheat sheets" of moves I planned to do for each.and.every.portion. of that darned practical exam, and these ladies had showed up expecting to wing it! Almost made me feel like a shmuck for spending 2 months studying for this thing, but at least I didn't look as nervous as they did. :op (and I knew what a 32-count phrase was)


After the study guide review we went right into the actual exam. We did the 8 minute cardio "workout" demonstrating a warm-up, workout, and cool-down. Controlled chaos. We each had a number (mine was 008), and we lined up in 2 rows and just did our thing to the music as the instructor and her 2 assistants walked around the room and wrote down scores. When the music stopped we grabbed mats and went right into the strength and stretch portion, doing the two exercises and one stretch for each muscle group as they were called out. Then it was the individual presentations, and I demonstrated 3 levels of the cardio "grapevine" move. I feel pretty confident about how I did for this portion because made sure I did *everything* mentioned in the text for what a good instructor should do: demonstrated the move before I had the others start it, projected my voice, gave pre-cuing before moving up to the next level, and labeling the levels as "1, 2, and 3" instead of "beginner, intermediate, and advanced" and gave the participants permission to "stay at current level" if they didn't feel up to moving onto the next one. (basically pandering any to egos that might be in the room, so they didn't feel like they HAD to do at least the "intermediate" move so they didn't look like a shmuck for being the only one doing "beginner" stuff. LOL)


Then came the written exam. 100 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes. I answered them all in 25. :-D But I still went through the test again to double-check my answers. There were only 1 or 2 questions where I didn't feel 100% confident that I had the right answers. Even the muscle identification questions I had no doubt I'd gotten right! (and that was the part I'd been most nervous about! memorizing a bunch of tongue-twisting names and their locations??? But I did it!!)


Overall I feel really confident. The only "flub" I feel like I *might* have done, is in demonstrating one of my strength moves for the triceps. I'd meant to do a triceps kick-back, and ended up having a brain-freeze doing an over-head tripceps lift, which I *hadn't* done during our practice demonstration, so I don't know what advice the instructor would have given me for that, if it was one of the "iffy" moves, or whatever. BUT I'd gotten the idea to do it from one of the blogs I'd found written by another woman who'd done the AFAA certification, and *she* passed, so hopefully it wasn't too bad. :op


Now I get to wait 4-6 weeks for the results. Should be fun...

Edit to add: I should mention that, if all goes well with this, it'll be the "realization of an undreamed dream". If you'd asked me 2-3 years ago what I wanted to do with my life, I'd have given you a big ol' shrug. I had NO clue. In high school I thought I wanted to be an architect, or a home designer (until I actually went to college and found that it wasn't quite as exciting as I'd thought it would be.) Then I thought about maybe becoming a doula. But an exercise instructor? NEVER ever ever crossed my mind. And yet, after being a religious exercisor for nearly a decade, I suddenly "got it", and started being more and more interested in the journey of achieving fitness, rather than seeing it as some elusive "goal". I started seeing all these physical skills I now had, that so many around me seemed to assume it was beyond their ability to have, and began to realize just how amazing a creation our physical bodies are, and I got hooked. And things started to fall into place far better than they ever did when it was my dream to become a home designer. All of these seemingly UNrelated skills I'd had for years seem to fall into place and make it a realizable dream.

All those years in orchestra and marching band? I can keep a beat like nothing else, and I can "feel" music changes far enough ahead to be able to cue it.

Those years teaching in Relief Society? I have the confidence to stand infront of a room full of women and order them around. :op

That single semester speech class I took my freshman year of college? I can address a crowd clearly, at a good volume, and without a lot of "um's" and "uh's" and "you knows"

Not to mention I already have a burned-into-my-brain repetoir of strength and stretch moves for each muscle group from doing year after year after year of exercise videos.

All these things I hope will help me become a successful group fitness instructor. The very idea of standing infront of a group of people who don't yet realize what they're capable of doing, and helping them find out what they CAN achieve, and what talents they have hidden inside of them, has me feeling *really* excited. :D

All I need is to find a gym to hire me. :op