Dear Fitness Professionals, We Need to Take Care of Ourselves
By: Christin Everson, MS
We are in the business of educating, guiding, motivating, inspiring, and providing care for others. We leave our emotions at the door of each session or class to show up for those who need us. It’s extremely rewarding work. But it can also be mentally, emotionally, and physically demanding. Giving care can wear on us and cause burnout or a lack of our own comprehensive wellness behaviors. This is a reminder that it is crucial that you come first. As the saying goes, you cannot pour from an empty cup. You do not deserve to be empty, so someone else can be full.
This article is not about the business importance of program consistency or how our clients need us. Sure, there are business or client reasons why we can rationalize pushing through our own health struggles to show up for others. But this article will not address those items because today, you are all that matter.
Mental, Emotional, and Physical Demands
When people think of our work, they likely think of all the physical energy we utilize through movement. But as you know, we also give away a great deal of emotional and mental energy. I have yet to encounter an activity that makes my brain more tired than being in the middle of running a 32-count cardio kickboxing combo: Continuously providing modifications and progressions, calculating how much time I have left to finish this combo before I need to begin combo two, remembering the 3rd move of combo two, giving the appropriate attention to my new members in class, all while teaching, talking and moving my body through moderate to high-intensity choreography.
Our work is fun and fulfilling, but it can also be tiring and hard to find the energy to inspire others on days we are not feeling inspired ourselves.
How many times have you taken care of your clients before yourself?
Here are a few examples that I can remember when I took care of my clients and class participants before myself:
I have chronic migraine. At the peak, I was having 25 migraines a month, and I never canceled a class, a session, or a meeting. One day, after teaching a two-hour course to my fitness instructors, I walked out of the studio, got in my car, and could hardly drive because of the pain. “If I cancel this workshop, it’ll affect next quarter's schedule, and the participants won’t be happy. I can push through,” I rationalized.
I taught a beat-based boot camp class less than 24 hours after breaking my tailbone in a snowboarding accident. I tried to teach a squat but couldn’t hinge more than a few degrees. “Sure, I’m in pain, but I still showed up! The show must go on!”.
I taught a 6 am cycling class with my right eye swollen shut after an accident just 60 minutes before my scheduled class. “Can’t let them down!” I thought. I remember apologizing to them for having to look at me.
I once had the flu that took me out for a few days, and I had to cancel two classes. When I couldn’t get a sub for the third class that week, I taught the boot camp class with a fever and a box of tissues and cough drops in hand. I remember the participants being horrified that I was there. “I can’t cancel on them again!” I thought.
I taught a series of classes and trained clients for a week while passing kidney stones. “It’s not that bad; I can push through.”
Those are just some of the physical injuries I can remember in the last 16 years, not to mention the mental or emotional challenges I’ve had.
I've seen friends and colleagues teach through illness, injuries, pregnancy, depression, and medical procedures. We would boast with each other about how tough we were, or how the clients or business needed us, or that we needed the money. Those reasons are all valid. But do they always need to take priority over our well-being?
These experiences make me a more compassionate, informed, and empathetic instructor, trainer, and coach. It’s great that I’m a more compassionate coach for my clients, but where is the compassion for myself?
Our Operational Systems Make it Challenging
The current operational model can make it hard to prioritize our care:
Getting subs is hard (if not impossible sometimes).
Many of us only get paid if we have the session or teach the class.
Your client/class needs you. They are showing up to care for themselves, and you need to be there to facilitate.
You don’t want to let people down. Not your clients, supervisors, or yourself.
We Must Prioritize Our Care
It can be easy to forget about the comprehensive elements of our well-being. Many of us spend all day discussing health and wellness and/or participating in low to high-intensity exercise. Yet we don’t always prioritize practicing all elements of wellness. Here are some examples (from personal experience):
Muscle imbalance because you always demo on your dominant side or are missing key movement patterns because you regularly teach one mode of exercise.
Lack of sleep because you teach a late-night class followed by an early-morning client.
Lack of rest and/or recovery time
Not enough quiet/downtime
Not enough dedicated time for adventure, play, or joy
Not making enough time for nutrition consumption in your day.
To the trainers, instructors, and coaches:
How can you take more control over your comprehensive well-being? Can you build in time for your own care? Can you modify what you give away during sessions or classes to keep more for yourself? What boundaries can you put up to support yourself?
To the fitness managers and owners:
How can you build structure in your operations to allow staff more flexibility in their care?
The skills and knowledge we use to support others do not make us immune to our own well-being struggles. Make time to care for yourself.
Want to give yourself dedicated time to engage in more care for yourself? Take my ACE-Approved digital course Caring for Yourself While Supporting Others.
