Instructor Newsletter 18th September

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another inspiring newsletter with follow up
articles from Lisa and Helen.

We all received such great feedback from last week,
so thanks to everyone who messaged us,
it’s so rewarding to hear from you all about how you find the articles.  I hope you all enjoy the part 2’s

Are you going to the Big One South on Saturday?

I’m looking forward to team teaching
with Steve Watson and doing a new
KSFL HIIT workout, so do pop over
and say HI if you are coming
along to Lodden Valley.

I’ve now uploaded all the 2015 Fitness
Pilates dates as there is so much demand
for the course.

All the courses are held in Derby,
unless you would like to hold an in house
FP Training, then we can come and train your staff.
Email Kelly@Choreographytogo.com for details and prices.

Do you want to gain the Level 3 Pilates qualification?
I only have a couple of spaces now on the 17/18/19 October in Derby and London 21/22/23 November. The 2015 dates are also up. If you are looking to book ahead click here.

Have you booked onto KS EXTREME we start in Southampton on 5th October Grab your place here

Do you need some new Choreography DVDS’s click here
for all my DVDs that are £10 + Vat + p/p

My ‘Life Changing’ Experience in Los Angeles, by Lisa Cuerden, Part 2

So firstly I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone that contacted me after my article in last week’s newsletter. The things I’d experienced and wrote about seemed to resonate with a lot of people, especially fitpros.

This week I want to explain the effect the spiritual side of yoga has had on me.

As I said last week, the reasons I’ve practiced and taught yoga in the past were all based around the physical benefits – improve flexibility, strength and core. I’d not looked into the spiritual side. I suppose it was my own ignorance and disinterest that prevented me. I thought it was all a bit out there – how wrong I was!

I believe life is a journey and especially now, more and more, I am beginning to believe in fate….things happen for a reason. The reason I booked the course in LA wasn’t only to enjoy the experience of being there, sightseeing, gaining another awesome qualification, but to actually help me in my life going forward.

I’m your typical hardworking fitpro (well I was)! ALWAYS working, if I’m not teaching, massaging, personal training then I’m doing admin work. I can start work at 6.30am and switch my computer off at 9.30/10pm. Now we all know this isn’t healthy, and certainly not the right way to run a business or live your life. I’ve changed a lot of things in the past 12 months due to my ill health last year. I’d stopped working so many weekends, and spent more time with friends and family, but my working week remained the same
I was always on edge, a little stressed, never felt I was successful enough, pressurised by others, constantly exhausted, trained too much, suffered insomnia – anyway you get the picture.

This wasn’t the life I wanted to lead. It took for me to go away for a month to focus on myself, to realise what I was doing to me. I was constantly punishing myself in work and training. This also obviously affected my personal life due to being so tired and stressed out so much of the time.

I explained last week the actual real reason for practicing yoga:

‘Although yoga is a physical activity the primary goal is to gain balance and control in your life, to free yourself from confusion and distress, and to provide a sense of calm.’

Understanding this and going deeply into the spiritual side of yoga, which we did on the course, and I am continually studying as there is so much to learn, meditating every day and practicing yoga 5/6 days a week, I’m actually slowly starting to achieve this.

People are shocked how calm I now am, I feel so much more relaxed, everyone has commented – my family, friends, class participants, clients. Everyone I bump into says how well I look and I’m sure it’s not just the LA tan 😉

In fact, when I got back I was too calm, I had to get myself out of it a little to start teaching my upbeat classes like I used to.

My sleep has improved and I believe meditation has had a massive effect on this. I always struggled to meditate because my mind was all over the place, so cluttered, but through sheer determination and being forced to do it every day whilst in LA, I am gradually getting better and better. It takes time and dedication, but I love doing it now. It clears my mind of all the clutter and helps me to focus on the important things. My mind just generally feels clearer.
I meditate my way. Is my mind ever completely clear? Am I focusing solely on the present moment? No I haven’t achieved this yet. Well maybe for a minute at a time! Take the pressure off yourself, just sit with your legs crossed for 5 minutes to start with, close your eyes and just enjoy a sense of calm. Gradually you’ll find 5 minutes won’t be long enough….I need a minimum of 10 minutes now.

Learn to love yourself, your body, your mind, your personality, be proud of who you are and enjoy your life. I’m at the beginning of my journey to achieving this and right now I am so much happier in myself than I can ever remember.

AUGUST 2014 and getting deep into yoga physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually really has changed my life for the better.

I’d love to hear from you so please don’t hesitate to connect with me via:

Facebook: Lisa Cuerden
Twitter: @lisacuerden
Instagram: lisajcuerden
E-mail: lisa@lisacuerden.com

Helen Carpenter-Waters
Creative Director – DYBO Academy
www.dybo.co.uk

Passing The Baton – Part Two “Building Creative Muscle”

Last week I shared with you why I believe I’m still making a good living as a fitness professional and why I still love it. This week I want to expand upon the issue I raised regarding creativity.

For me one of the joys of teaching dance and dance inspired fitness is having the opportunity to express myself, my feelings and emotions, and express how music makes me want to move. It’s an outlet for my creative energy and inspiration. Whilst I’m no artist, singer (you would definitely agree with that), songwriter or author, I assume it’s the same feeling for them. As an ETM instructor I love the challenge of taking fitness concepts/theories and blending them with a dance flavour, honouring both science and artistry in one class.

I’m not alone in my love for taking my fitness training with a huge dose of dance, my clients and I take our heart rates to the maximum, pushing ourselves till we could drop, move fast, slow, perform plyometrics, balance, stretch and move in every direction and plane, all in one class. I often work harder when dancing than when doing any other form of class (I’ve been doing HITT for decades).  Combine the physical workout with the psychological and emotional benefits and the sense of camaradery and it’s no wonder that dance fitness products are popular – all you need is space, music and inspiration – Ah, so there’s the problem, inspiration!

Dance and dance fitness has always been around (going in and out of fashion but never becoming extinct). What is relatively new are the pre-packaged products available for clubs and teachers to reproduce without their unique input. I fear for the creativity and originality of dance inspired fitness and exercise to music classes.

When I started teaching there were no franchises, downloads or pre-choreographed programmes. We chose our own music and took inspiration from pop videos/MTV/’Top Of The Pops’ etc. and created routines to suit the needs and likes of our clients. We put in the effort and reaped the rewards – I’m glad I did! I was given the freedom to use my training and creativity to compose unique classes.
When did being unique, creative and an individual become unfashionable?

Much of today’s class material is produced from a few lead choreographers (depending upon which franchise, pre-choreographed programme or download source is preferred) – this has resulted in less variety out there at the ‘coal face’. Everything looks and feels the same, so what happens when teachers/clients get bored or are ready to try more, grow and progress – how is that accommodated or facilitated when everyone is doing the same thing? How will teachers learn the skills to choreograph original classes that suit them and their customers if they are spoon fed material? How will they grow in confidence to be different and try something different in terms of style or delivery?
You see, creativity is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets; the more you stretch it, the more flexible it gets; the less you use it, the more it will atrophy.

The public are hooked on TV dance shows like Strictly, Got To Dance, Dancing On Ice, Britain’s Got Talent etc. and want to dance themselves. We (ETM teachers) have a brilliant opportunity to provide them with a broad variety of dance fitness styles to suit taste, age and fitness but how can that be achieved when we are all delivering the same type of class to the same music, same level, moves, styles etc.? I often hear “I’m too busy to choreograph my classes myself” but with practice, creativity also becomes more efficient and routines come together quickly. I also hear “I don’t know where to start”– what if I told you that there are lots of tricks and techniques that can be used as triggers and stimuli for your creativity… honestly! In my view, creating your own class content is what a teacher does, it’s part of the job just as a pilot has to land a plane, and a surgeon has to stitch up a patient, it’s part of their job! If they couldn’t do it or be bothered, they would be out of a job.

I am on a mission to bring originality, creativity and teaching back to the forefront of our role as a fitness professional.  Who will replace the current lead choreographers and routine providers if we haven’t taught the next generation how to do it and given them the confidence and belief that they can? Creativity is necessary to create original class programmes across all fitness disciplines. Encouraging original thinking results in brand new programmes and products. How will this happen if we stifle and suppress creativity? Everything out there today has come from someone’s original thoughts! Rachel Holmes KFSFL and Jayne Nicholls FFY were born from their creative thoughts. Zumba is an enormous brand now but it started with a creative idea and clever creative business minds – there are many more examples.

I have created DYBO Academy, (DYBO stands for Dance Your Butt Off!) offering advance training courses to passionate ETM instructors of dance inspired fitness, and in the new year, a membership to support them with choreography class ideas, teaching methods and how to develop their business further. To learn more, follow us – https://www.facebook.com/DYBOAcademy

My first course is “The Choreography Equation”, and will be held in Farnham, Surrey on 19th October 10-4pm. Call me on 01252 621280 or email me on helen@dybo.co.uk for more details and to book.

I know how busy life is (I’m busy too) but my belief and value is that originality is worth the effort. By maintaining and presenting your uniqueness, you attract clients and customers who like what you do – your USP !! You could be the person who creates the next huge thing (or not – it’s all just as valuable) How will you do that if you repeat what others do? If we all followed the crowd nothing new would be invented (medicine, telephone, cars, televisions, computers, space travel etc.) I know I’m rustling feathers but I’m passionate about this and will speak out – no offence is intended. I want to support instructors of ETM and dance inspired fitness in finding their USP and have a happy, long career in the industry I love and care about!

A final thought…

“If you imagine less, less is what you un-doubtedly deserve” by Debbie Millman

Oh…You’ll Take The High Road and I’ll Take The Low…….Yes or No??

By Andrew Crawford

I love me a nice bit of Scottish…………………………Salmon.

To think that after today (Thursday) you might be purchasing that from another country.

What would that mean for you???….

Increased prices,possibly.?? .imported haggis…passports!!

We will know later…. But this is HUGE….!!

Should Scotland split?  Yes or No?

Oh…..

Going back to the Pistorious decision …….

Was the murdering mofo, who should have checked that his girlfriend was sleeping next to him when he heard the noise in the locked bathroom or may have heard a scream from the locked bathroom resembling his girlfriend as he pumped the first of 4 shots into the door whilst the gated property was locked and secure guilty as hell or innocent? Yes or No?.

Even Stevie Wonder could see that…!!!

Question………..

If a woman hits a man, is it right for the man to hit her back? Yes or No?

So Andrew….

What has ‘Yes or No’ got to do with Accountancy & Tax?

This should answer your inquisitive minds…….

Are you ready? ……………………….. (Exactly….!!!) tee hee…gotcha..!!!

Do you teach?

Are you self-employed?

Do you do your own books?

Are they finished yet?

Have you submitted them to HMRC yet?

Have you done any shopping for Christmas?

Have you ever been investigated by the HMRC?

Do you have your books & records from 5 years ago?

Do enjoy doing them?

Do you receive cash from your business?

Do you drink alcohol?

Do you have a dedicated business account?

Do you have more than one property?

If you receive income from it, have you declared the additional income?

Apart from from employment, self-employment or rental income, do you get any other source of income?

Do you like paying tax?

Have you been to Scotland?

Are you going to Steve Watson’s ‘Big One South’?

Finally
Staying on the issue with our brothers and sisters up North, there are other considerations I know that would have been discussed.

Longer drinking hours
No more Queen for the Scots.
Bail out money for the bank -RBS
Would Wales & Ireland follow suit
Good old Tax System…Same or different?

……….and on and on…

Seriously…..There are more questions than answers……..
Aye or Nah?

Andrew James Crawford

www.fitnessindustryaccountants.com
www.facebook.com/fitnessindustryaccountants
www.twitter.com/tax4fitness

HAve a wonderful Day
LOve Rachel xxx