GROUP FITNESS INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATE (AFAA GFI)

To be eligible for this course, you must have a high school diploma or equivalent. Additionally, you need a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) certification and an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) certification. You may enroll in the course before having your CPR and AED certifications; however, you must have them before you take your final exam.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Group Fitness

Learn about the state of health and fitness today Explore your what and why as you learn about common characteristics of Group Fitness Instructors. This chapter provides foundational benefits of group fitness classes across all formats and introduces you to the instructor mindset.

Chapter 2: Professional Expectations of a GFI

Helping others reach their fitness goals requires the knowledge to analyze the basics of human movement thoroughly. Biomechanics and the interactions of the muscle action spectrum provide you with the language of exercise science and a foundational understanding of the human body.

Chapter 3: Career Development

Identify various possibilities of employment and how developing a personal brand supports your journey as a Group Fitness Instructor. It will also provide career development opportunities and self-care tactics to help keep you a top instructor.

Chapter 4: Legal and Ethical Responsibilities

Identify your scope of practice as a Group Fitness Instructor and keep you within your legal and ethical boundaries as a fitness professional, in-person and virtually. It will provide information about safety responsibilities, emergency protocols, insurance considerations, and music licensing.

Chapter 5: Human Movement Science and Exercise

Review the benefits of exercise and connect them to applied human movement and exercise science. This chapter will go over the major systems of the body, planes of motion, and other exercise science topics as they relate to movement and bioenergetics.

Chapter 6: Training Science

Provide basic training principles and their relation to participant outcomes. This chapter will also go over acute variables, integrated fitness, and how to accommodate all participant levels through modification.

Chapter 7: A Supportive Approach to Group Fitness

The intent of this chapter is to make group fitness applicable and safe to all participants through inclusivity of individual considerations and adjusting external environmental variables.

Chapter 8: Defining Your Class

Connect the vision of your class to its desired objectives and explore how vision and objectives help you select other class considerations to ensure your class meets the needs of your participants.

Chapter 9: Building the Body of Your Workout

Discuss the selection of the intensity, exercises, arrangements, and modifications in alignment with your class vision to meet the needs of your participants.

Chapter 10: Other Vital Components of Your Workout

Show how to use the body of your workout to select other components of your workout in alignment with your class vision and objectives, as well as to support the expectations and success of your participants.

Chapter 11: Music

Show the connection between music and movement as well as explain components of music and how they can be used to align with your class vision and objectives and meet the needs of your participants. This module will also provide an overview of different sources of music and the legalities connected to each source.

Chapter 12: Communication

Discuss the different types of communication, their value to participants, and how you can use inclusive communication to engage, motivate, and build trust with your participants.

Chapter 13: The Art of Cueing

Identify various cueing techniques, establish their purpose in group fitness, and explain how to effectively deliver them. This chapter will also review proper exercise technique, safe body mechanics, and how to build your own cues.

Chapter 14: Monitoring Participants and Adapting to Class Dynamics

Review monitoring techniques for your participants’ exercise technique, form, and intensity as well as how to appropriately modify to ensure the success of your participants. This module will also explore unexpected events in the group room and how to best resolve them.

Chapter 15: Instructing Virtually

Explore instructing virtually, the relevance of virtual instruction to instructors and participants, and how to create an engaging virtual workout. This chapter will also review legal, ethical, and safety considerations when designing and offering virtual workouts.

Chapter 16: Your Journey as a Group Fitness Instructor

Review your next steps as you prepare for your final exam and explore employment opportunities as a Group Fitness Instructor.

Successful completion of the final exam is required to become an AFAA Group Fitness Instructor. This non-proctored, open-book exam has 100 questions and requires a passing grade of 70%. This exam is administered online only. You will have 3 hours to complete the exam, and you must take the exam within 180 days of your enrollment date.