The Ugly Side of Group Ex: The Truth About Teaching that Gyms Don't Want You To Know

[@heleneraybould6506]

Thank you for getting this out there, been a group ex instructor for last 10 years, now earning less than I was then. some gyms pay better but the big expensive ones pay the least. when I started I Paid £107.20 for personal PPL, then the gyms took it over yay on a winner, then DL started taking money off each class for PPL meaning higher payment than previously when we all had our own licence!!! i now purchase both PPL free version & original Body pump but have 10 years back catalogue that would be nice to use which isn't PPL free! waste of money. i also have to buy licence free music from pure energy or alternatives for freestyle stuff - costs can go on & on. Im too old now to find an alternative career, so will have to continue being a sap for another couple of years. No job is worth compromising your health for though so please look after you!!

[@Natika101]

Hey Danny. I agree with you here. One thing I would like to add that specifically with Les Mills, we don't have the option to just up and rent out our own space and charge per member. If I was able to charge £5 per participant I could takehome more like £100 per class. Or even if I charge £20 a month for 4/5 classes a week, at an average of 20 people you are looking at £400 a month for 5 hours work. But LM doesn't allow that. (obviously there are cost like hall hire, extra insurances etc)

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

They don't want to empower you to really be your own boss in this game.

[@chrisogrady28]

I'm with you man, I've been teaching for a decade now and the pay does not take into account all the shit we have to deal with ontop of the time in class. I'm increasingly finding it less and less acceptable that we don't get at least £50 per class. This isn't a job just anyone can do, it requires both talent and years of practice. As we are coming out of lockdown on one half I desperately need the money, but on the other hand I was doing 15 classes a week and could still barely afford my rent and food. It's an enormous amount of work for fuck all. I love it but it's taking the piss now and I'm never going to be able to buy a house at this rate.

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

I feel you, brother. One of the aspects that caused me to feel this stressed is that my fiance and I have just had an offer accepted on a place and I feel like I have next to nothing to contribute. I work really damn hard to be the best fitness instructor I can be but sometimes it feels like it's all for next to nothing.

[@anitaamarissa]

Great vid, ref PPL music I totally agree with you!!!!! I use Pure Energy Go music which is awesome as its great quality and royalty free. As for the gym's, they're getting away with paying instructors their worth and instructors probably don't know their worth either so until now, never thought they could set up doing it online or gain support doing this until Covid came along. Uniforms that's the same with Zumba clothing we pay them to advertise their merchandise! Yep gyms are happy to replace when they want to and with not much warning either. If you want to change or stop your class most get shitty about it! You bring in a full class they keep you but don't pay your worth, if your class numbers lower they're fast to take you off the timetable. That made me LOL about pump and guys didn't get buff doing that! 😂 Fitness industry in the last 30yrs has not changed one bit when it comes to finance. Due to Covid, I've been working on other things that make money and it's not group ex.

[@bonnieconlin9727]

Well said and very succinctly put Danny. This has been happening to group ex instructors for a long time and is one of the reasons I gave up being an instructor after 25 years in the industry. Instructors are seriously undervalued, especially in the past 10 years and the continually rising costs for everything we need in order to teach group ex classes are off the scale. It’s all about the money and Les Mills are the biggest offenders. Take care of yourself and Good luck.

[@VituvianMan]

Thanks for making such a raw uncanned video. We all know about the elephant in the room, but more often than not, turn a blind eye to it. It does really hit home when you really thank about it. If the costs of teaching a GroupEx class really outweigh the gain, you do think twice about it. Hopefully, with this new normality of gyms reopening and classes starting up in May, instructors will have a bit more appreciation, clearly not in monetary terms. Thanks again!

[@chrisogrady28]

Going forward I think we should all make a stand and host our own classes with our own programming on our own platforms. I am experienced in the technical side of filming, editing, streaming etc so I could form a coalition with the other well known instructors in my city and go it alone. Explaining this publicly and in plain English is important and we need to continue making our voices heard!

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

That sounds like a fantastic idea! Use what you have and create meaningful competition so you can be heard

[@gwennyroserobson509]

Thank you so very much for articulating this so well and humorously I should add. You put things so well and it is a lot of what I have been thinking for a while. So glad to see that so many people feel the same way and I'm sure we could go on! Some really good points made Danny and Chris I agree with you too. I am sure we can help one another. P.s of course we watched it through and I'm glad we heard you! Speaking for all of us! (Probably)

[@Atykifobia]

Thank you for bringing up these important points. Being a group x instructor is so much more than just yelling "use your core, release the heel". You really have to love it to keep doing it.

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

Absolutely. Thank you for taking the time to watch

[@brianendicott7778]

Thanks for this Danny. First up. Please talk to someone about how you're feeling physically. I'm no medic but it looks like an anxiety attack. Look after yourself. I would make your video compulsory viewing for anyone wanting to do Group Ex. It speaks the absolute truth. For the tax year 19/20, thanks to COVID, I had the time to sit down and work out my actual hourly rate. Not what I was paid - my rates are in line with those you quoted (& I'm at the other end of the country) - but taking into account travel time, prep time, extra time in class giving extra instruction/customer interaction etc in order to complete 8 classes per week plus some covers minus the cost of programmes, fuel, insurance, etc. It turns out for the year, my actual payment rate was £5.25. I didn't think the position on payment rates would change and I think COVID has made that more likely. ( I think gyms have found virtual / stream classes as a cost effective solution.) Its simply supply & demand. The supply of Grp Ex instructors is never ending. Fitness package suppliers (LM, Plus others) will continue to sell certifications, existing instructors will be persuaded to get qualified in more programs and so will look for classes, some class members will still be fall in love with programs and want to become instructors, colleges etc will churn our people with sports qualifications who want / need to work in a gym etc. It is hard to accept but we are replaceable. If I gave up my classes today, my Grp Ex Managers would have no problem in finding replacements. I would not be surprised if it took only a matter of hours to replace me. If I'm honest, I think I'm part of the problem. My aim is that my classes should at least break even, I enjoy them, and they are part of my fitness routine. I think GrpEx instructors who do classes as a side line would say something similar if they're honest. So Gyms are able to benefit from this (or exploit it) by paying the minimum they can get away with. What's the answer? F@#$ if I know! Thanks again. Please take care.

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

Thanks for the reply. You're right absolutely, it's like a factory line out there of good intentioned people getting their certificates. No wonder it gets likened to a pyramid scheme. Take care

[@louiseross8251]

I used to work for PRS and it it up to the VENUE to pay licence fees not the instructor. PPL should only be paid by an instructor if they run the class from a venue they own or if they do virtual classes. I actually called PRS to ask about this and that is the information they gave me.

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

Wow, great information! I'm currently trying to coordinate with the PPL official body to see if I've/we've all been ripped off.

[@PaulMcNevin]

I alway questioned Reps, like what Continual professional development do they offer and why they campaign/ set standards for better pay. The same apply to Chimpspa...

[@transilohs]

I think you're saying what most if not all of us instructors are thinking. But unless we come together collectively it won't make a difference. I think also if the government treated us as health professionals they'd be a lot more respect for us. We genuinely change people's lives physically and mentally; look at the difference we make to people and our participants. We just need to be respected. I would never be able to be a full time instructor I just can't afford it but it is rather an expensive hobby. I agree with everything you've said. Thanks for being honest and speaking out. Let's see if we can make a stance for the future of instructors. Take care 💜

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

Thank you. I have plans now to do more as I've seen that the amount of us that are feeling like this is astronomical. Another video coming (hopefully) Monday

[@livingmartialarts]

Interesting video. The fitness industry is really tough. There was a time in the 90s where I was a week away from losing my house. The last 12 months I've been living off my pension, so I do feel your pain. I could do a video of when I started teaching TKD and didn't actual make anything for a very long time. Peace & love ;-)

[@1nathalina]

That's exactly how I feel!! You are not alone. There hasn't been any pay rise for about 20 years for group ex. Maybe 20years ago getting 20£ per class was awesome, but now it's a joke. Since lockdown I've taught only one Pump... Doing Hermes delivery driver now... bit upset about that but I earned £3500 nearly every months now! Who cares what people think... I'm not giving up my LM licences yet, still paying for all my 4 programs, because I have or had the passion for it. If I put it on hold, thats it and I'll never come back I think:(

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

It's very difficult to make that final jump when you've committed so much. And I think LM know that and play on that.

[@rebournefitness]

This is so true. I speak to my instructors about this all the time. The effort we put in, the fact we haven't been offered a pay increase in more than 20 years! It is shocking what we do for the money. Something has to change

[@deborahcollins5857]

Oh Danny, I did watch your entire post as you deserve the respect to be listened to and use this platform to be open and honest.. It is such a shame to hear this though I’m not surprised by your revelations. Please take care of you x

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

Thank you Debs. I'm feeling better today, I think the right thing to do will become clear for me very soon

[@bumblebeebea]

I've been a group-ex instructor for 12yrs and my manger has basically Replaced me like I'm nothing! Not because I'm shit but my classes have been taken off the timetable without any word to me!

[@MrLyramion]

Came for the Jump Knee Tutorial. Stayed watching all this.

[@JodyBunting]

Everything is always about supply and demand, while there is more people wanting to do the job than doing it, the pay will always go down. Most new instructors now get practically free qualifications via student grants/adult learning loans, free Les Mills if they are employed at gyms (or at least half price on black Friday), insurance is good value for money and CIMSPA is good if you work in the community so people can see your profile online that someone has verified your qualifications. My advice is to use group fitness in gyms as just "networking" and turn that face to face contact to your advantage by getting them to follow you on social media and bring them into your private community classes, online work or what ever else you can do

[@leahclyne7832]

Thank you for speaking out !!

[@anitaamarissa]

Unfortunately CIMSPA is required at certain gyms as they want you to be an up to date instructor and spend your hard earned cash on education you probably will never use just to collect points each year to show you're a great instructor, which to me is absolute rubbish, some people can be crap instructors with a CIMSPA membership and vice versa!

[@BeckyPoleninja]

Been in the industry for 20 yes, never joined REPS or CimSpa

[@mradampolly]

These are required by most major chains so therefore you have been lucky to not need them

[@BeckyPoleninja]

@@mradampolly and a total waste of money REPS was too

[@zobags23]

I felt your pain quite a few years ago... teaching classes. Especially with Zumba...as I didn't go down the les mills route... I gave it all up and went freestyle... I now have another job teaching Falls prevention classes which I love and teach 1 freestyle outdoor class per week...which I'm happy with.

[@GaryBultitude]

Bro! Well done, this needed to be said!

[@gloriawilkinson]

I had to have REPS to teach in David Lloyd. DL paid less hourly as well so I resigned 😊

[@stuartmilne281]

Ex instructor here; taught classes 'full time' for 11 years before chucking it and I watched your video with interest. Some of it I agree with you on, some I don't and there were certainly some things that I hoped you'd have touched upon in more detail, but you didn't. Yes, the costs - and the benefits gained from paying them - are often ridiculous. We shouldn't have to pay a PPL tax for example. But I don't think you can complain about costs in general as a freelance instructor because you're not an employee; you are your own business and there are very few businesses that don't have costs. And it's something people forget. The gyms don't employ you; they hire you on a freelance basis to deliver a class and you agree to those terms beforehand. If it's the case that once you do your sums and you can't make enough money to live off, then you should take the view that you shouldn't do it. I was able to make a good living. And that sounds like we're accepting being treated badly, but there are benefits to it. You choose your hours, you have as many holidays as you want, you work in the gyms that you want to work in. The wages don't go up, and in real terms, what we're paid is less and less every year, and I agree that's not a good thing, but also understand it. Gym memberships don't go up; in fact they often go down as cheaper gyms out there make it a bit of a race to the bottom. So if gyms are also making less money in real terms, they can't really be expected to pay more for freelancers when we aren't making them more money. I think the bit you absolutely nailed - and it's without a doubt the ugliest side of being a group exercise instructor - is that we are replaceable. This should be the greatest concern that anyone who makes a living off group exercise should have. As a freelancer, your income is constantly dangling off the edge of a cliff because any gym could simply say "I don't want to use you anymore" and tomorrow you'd be gone. Whether it's quarterly reviews of timetables, new managers coming in (because the salaries gyms pay these people is so low that the turnover of regular staff is very high) and changing things for the sake of it or wanting to give classes to their mates or changing hour long classes to 45 mins as you said, it's industry with no security. Similarly, if you injure yourself, that's you done. So it was a constant source of underlying stress for me. I had this situation happen to me towards the end of my 'career'. At one point I was teaching 23 classes a week, 7 days per week - sometimes from 6:30am to 8:30pm - but a new manager came in and would slowly reduce the number over the course of a year and a half (they'd do things like decide to turn two half hour classes into one hour class meaning I was working the same time for less pay) so I ended up with 15. So my gross income went from £23k to £15k essentially through no fault of my own. I took the view that it was my business that was being harmed so I complained. I complained that nobody at the gym did any marketing for the classes and if they didn't market them - especially in some unpopular school venues - nobody would come. They didn't understand that because they weren't trained to run a business; they were cheap labour whose qualification to market a business was that they once got a Level 2 fitness certificate and had stood on the gym floor for a few years. So I'm sure I was an inconvenience to them, and when I got injured and was looking to take a bit of time off I was told "We just don't want to work with you anymore". Just like that, no money from that gym and because I was a freelancer, no formal process of appeal And two things struck me there... 1) Loyal participants who came to class every week by and large thought it was a shame but kept going to classes regardless because it wasn't their life that was affected by it 2) Other instructors - even if they thought I had been poorly treated - instantly agreed to take on the classes I had vacated. I had one instructor message me the same day I was punted to say that she hoped there were no hard feelings but that they had agreed to take over a number of the timeslots vacated because she 'needed the money'. And that second point is key. Freelance instructors are a primary reason freelance instructors have it bad. What the manager you reference in your video said is the absolute truth. We ARE replaceable because there are so many people out there willing to step on our fresh corpses to take over a timeslot. Les Mills allows instructors to go on courses without the guarantee of a regular class, so when these newly qualified instructors go out into the world they have to claw and scratch their way to be noticed. There ARE people who say they'll teach for free for the 'love of it' etc and what people need to realise is that they are doing it as a way of making their own business more profitable in the end. Other instructors are not your colleagues; they are your rival businesses. Hopefully, COVID has shone a light on how precarious this industry is which in turn will make people realise that nobody owes them a career and that really, there's just no security in it. Anyone wanting to start a life teaching exercise classes in 2021 needs to consider that and then turn around and run in the other direction in my view.

[@DannyDowlingFitness]

You've raised some great points. I understand what you're saying from a business perspective. I will say that your view that other instructors are rivals is another piece of the problem; you've allowed divide and conquer to happen. Maybe I'm not being real but that's how I see it. I am at a point of pivot; either the industry listens or I leave. Maybe I'm not big enough to make the change, maybe I'm not David, but one way or another the Goliath won't be dampening my life anymore. I'm a fighter, I always choose to fight.

[@BeckyPoleninja]

Nope £25 and I live in an expensive area.You shouldn't pay PPL, in a gym ir centre, niw they have to. But in the community it is for you to have.I don't mind that hiw else do you expect them to make a wage

[@mradampolly]

Incorrect. The gym can pass this cost into the instructor and most do

[@BeckyPoleninja]

@@mradampolly none of he ones I work at do. I have my PPL for community classes, but the gyms pay for it for teh classes we teach for them,

[@stephenbeere3571]

You can't teach circuits off a level 2 gym instructor any more, you need a stand alone 2 day course in circuits. This changed about 10 years ago. Agree for the cost of education and progression to teach is greater than return in income, however this is dependent on venue and volume. I don't get why people buy into things like Les Mills, your buying a licence to deliver a pre- choreographed workout, surely its better to mot pay the fees and have creative control over your own workouts? The market is saturated with studio instructors and fitness instructors are more gym cleaners now. Because of this the industry loses quality instructors and facilities go for the cheapest option to bring cost down. Facilities are competing against eachother more so with the budget gyms so I can understand why they are looking for cheap options

[@kirstymckenzie8989]

Thank you.