[On My Sleeve] Why Exercise Is About More Than Weight Loss - My Experience Getting Certified to Teach an Exercise Class at My Gym

This past weekend, I stepped out of my comfort zone and became certified to coach a fitness class at my gym, and the experience taught me so much more than just how to lead a workout.

In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of what the certification process was really like, the lessons I learned along the way, and why this experience completely reinforced my belief that movement is about so much more than burning calories or changing your body.

If you've struggled to stay consistent with exercise, feel intimidated by fitness, or only see workouts as a tool for weight loss, this episode will help you shift your perspective. Because the goal isn't just to exercise... it's to build a body that allows you to live a longer, stronger, healthier life.

In this episode, we'll talk about:

• What it was like to earn my fitness coaching certification
• The biggest lessons I learned throughout the process
• How to stop viewing exercise as punishment
• The importance of training for strength, energy, and longevity
• Why consistency matters more than perfection
• Simple mindset shifts that can make moving your body feel enjoyable instead of overwhelming

Whether you're just beginning your fitness journey or looking for fresh motivation to stay active, I hope this conversation reminds you that every workout is an investment in your future, not just your appearance.

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💌 Connect With Laura:

1. Website: Health Coach for Teachers & Busy, Working Women
2. Instagram: LAURA B. | Teacher turned Health Coach | Podcaster🎙️ (@laura.b.healthy) • Instagram photos and videos
3. TikTok: Laura B. | Health Coach (@laura.b.healthy) | TikTok

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Topics: exercise motivation, fitness mindset, healthy habits, strength training, longevity, healthy aging, exercise consistency, movement, women's health, sustainable fitness, mindset shifts, wellness podcast

Transcript

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Hello everyone and welcome back to another Isn't She Powerful Podcast episode. This is an on-my sleeve episode, and I haven't done one of these in quite a few months. I typically do one every single month just to kind of let you know what's going on in my life, where my head's at, how my health journey is going, because it is always a journey. But with that being said, I just haven't done one in a while. So this past weekend, I went and got certified to teach a fitness class at the gym that I go to. And it was first of all a fun experience. It was a very tiring experience. And it was overall really eye-opening. So I'm gonna kind of just talk through what did my weekend looked like, what does it look like to become a certified fitness instructor, why I chose to do it, what are some of the things that I learned. I'm just gonna kind of chat with you about what went down this past weekend. So let's just go on and get into it. Welcome to the Isn't You Powerful Podcast. I'm your host, Laura B, health coach, educator, and founder of the Be Healthy Lifestyle. I'm here to bring you all the health education and motivation so that you can sign off each week feeling equipped and empowered to tackle all of your health goals. Come along with me as I teach you the basics of healthy living so that you can have everyone in your life saying, Isn't she powerful? So, first of all, I want to say I never saw this coming in my future. Like, much like most of my health journey, to be honest with you, I never saw any of this being my reality. For many, many years. I expected that I would live a life where I kind of yo-yo dieted and I tried really hard to stay away from certain foods, and then I binge ate on those foods, and then I said, screw it, and then I came back, tried to get back on the horse, and so went the process. And then eventually I learned how to shift my mindset and learned a lot about nutrition and exercise, and so began my health journey. And my journey to becoming a fitness instructor was no different. When I first started working out, it was following at-home workout videos, working out in my living room, and to keep myself accountable, I would take videos of myself working out and then post them to my Instagram stories for nobody else's entertainment other than my own. I just wanted that it was like a cool accountability tool for me. And at one point, my best friend messaged me and she was like, So are you eventually going to be on the videos, like leading the workouts, or what's the deal here? And I was like, Oh my gosh, I am never going to lead a workout. Like, I'm just here for the entertainment, I'm just here to get some exercise in. I am in no way, shape, or form going to lead a workout. And that was truly how I felt for many, many years. I never had any desire to do any form of leading exercise classes or anything like that. I never would have posted videos like teaching you how to work out on social media, but that was never my thing. I was just doing it for myself. I never wanted to be a teacher of fitness. Then, so last October, I started going to the YMCA, and there were a couple different classes that I would take. I would take some of them that were like strength exercises, some of them that were more cardio-based. And there was this one particular class that I would take that uses a tool called a Viper V I P R. It's this weighted cylinder, and the whole intention behind the classes that I are at my Y, they have so many different classes that use these vipers. Some of them are more intense, some of them are less intense, but the intention behind the one that is at my YMCA is that it is helping you with everyday functional movement. It is trying to make the simple acts that we do every single day to be done well and to be done without injury and to be done for your life. This is considered healthy aging. And a lot of times that's like, oh, you know, this is for old people or whatever. But no, we all need to be able to load groceries in and out of the car. We all need to be able to get that heavy jug of milk off the top shelf of our refrigerator. We all need to be able to climb up on a stepladder and grab something that we wouldn't be able to reach unless we were on the stepladder. Like we all need to be able to do these everyday functional movements. And by participating in classes like the one that I'm going to be teaching, it helps to strengthen those areas of your body to be able to do those things more effectively. One of the sayings that this company uses for this class, which by the way, the company is MOSA, M-O-S-S-A, and the class that I will be teaching is Move 30. So it's a 30-minute class, and again, it's practicing movements that you will use in your everyday life. So this can be things like ground to standing, where you practice literally getting down on the ground and then standing back up. Think about how much harder that gets as we age. It might be you, it might be your parents, it might be siblings that you have that have trouble getting into the floor and then getting up with ease. And studies prove that you are five times more likely to pass away sooner. And again, that's relative, but five times more likely to pass away sooner if you're not able to easily get in the floor and get out of the floor. So that is such a crucial thing for you to be able to do. I mean, think about like you trip and you fall. That is absolutely something that we want you to be able to get up and get down. You need to get down and help a child with something. You need to get into the floor to pick up something that you lost. Like all of those things are things that are what we're teaching in this class that we are working on the skill of being able to do that. So it could be ground to standing, it could be squatting down, like whenever you need to squat down to sit on the toilet, it can be bending, like whenever you bend down to put your shoes on, it can be lunging, like whenever you drop something over to the side, you use one leg to kind of bend down and pick it up. All of those things are the functional type of movements that we are building in this class. And the tool that I mentioned, the viper, that weighted cylinder, the smallest one starts at eight pounds. And the reason for that is because that is about the weight of a gallon of milk. So the idea is if you can lift this viper and move it with efficiency, move it without hurting yourself, then you can do regular, everyday, basic task, such as moving that jug of milk out of the refrigerator, onto the counter, and then back into the refrigerator or out of the shelf at the grocery store, into your cart, through the scanner, into your car, and then into your home. That is the goal that you can complete everyday task with ease. And a saying that they shared this past weekend that I absolutely loved was that the point of this is movement for the sake of health, not exercise for the sake of fitness. I'm gonna kind of break that down for a second. Movement for the sake of health. We want you to be able to live, not just live longer, right? Like we talked about the difference between lifespan and health span. Lifespan is like, yeah, we all how long you live. And actually, studies are showing that the average life expectancy is rising. It used to be like 65 or something like that, but now it's 80. So people are living much longer than they used to live. But the years that they are able to be active to take care of themselves, to find enjoyment in their everyday life, that is shrinking or at least staying about the same. So for 15 plus years of your life, you could be not able to go to the bathroom by yourself, not able to pick up after yourself after you cook, you might not even be able to cook for yourself. It's the simple things like you might not be able to even lay down in your bed and then get yourself out of bed every single day without needing help. The point of this is to help you build those skills and build the habits and build the abilities within your body so that you can continue doing those things for your literal entire life, not just for your health span, but for your lifespan. We want those two things to be the same, one in the same. So movement for the sake of health. You aren't coming to the gym so that you can pump iron and get super buff and like be super skinny. Sure, that might be one of the things that kind of motivates you to get there. You might want to go to the gym so that you can look and feel good in your body, but overall, the point of doing all of this is so that you can have a healthy, happy, strong body until the day you die. You don't want to have to have somebody come wipe your butt, do you? You don't want to have to have somebody put your shoes on. You don't want to have to have somebody walking you to the car, you don't want to have to be sitting in one of those things when you ride around in the grocery store. You want to be able to walk through the grocery store. You want to be able to keep living your life and doing the things that bring you joy and movement is at the key of that. One of the other cute things that I liked in the training that we did was something that they call movement snacks. And so it's the idea that many of us will go to the gym and that's our movement for the day. We go to the gym this one time, we get in our 30 minutes or our one hour of movement, and then we're pretty sedentary for the rest of the day. We sit in the car, we sit in our chair at work, we sit in our couch, we're pretty much at a resting, sitting position for the majority of the day. Movement snacks are whenever you build in little bits and pieces of movement throughout your day. Just a little uh 10 10 squats while you're waiting on your food to cook, 10 uh arm circles while you're waiting on the shower to warm up. It's those little things that you can do throughout your day that can add in more movement. And actually, studies have proven that it is more beneficial for you to move uh at snacks throughout the day, like move multiple times throughout the day rather than just do this one chunk. And I'm not saying not to do that one chunk. I personally still go to the gym and I'm I'm there for 30 minutes to an hour every single day. I get in my chunk of movement, but then I also throughout the day I'm trying to get up and move, whether that be on my walking pad after lunch, I like to walk while I like watch like 10 minutes of a show after I eat lunch, or whether that be walking around the neighborhood in the evenings after dinner, whether that be, like I said, doing squats or arm circles or lunges or whatever that might look like throughout the day. I have one client, she'll do like leg lifts or something along those lines while she's waiting on food to cook or while she's waiting on coffee to brew and little things like that throughout the day. And those are just movement snacks that really help your body, they help your cardiovascular system, they help maintain your muscle mass and therefore your bone density. It is super beneficial to do those things. So I got to the gym. The the training was hosted at my gym. It was a small group of us that were going through the training for the program. And honestly, what shifted me into wanting to do it, I don't know. It was just I heard her talking about, I actually overheard the coach for this class saying to someone else, yeah, I hope that I can find somebody else who would be willing to take this, take a training and start teaching on the days like whenever I can't be there or whatever. And something in my mind was like, I could do that, I think that'd be super fun. And so I spoke to her and told her, like, hey, I I might be interested in that. I don't really know what that looks like or kind of what goes into it, but I might be interested. So I and I don't know where it came from, I don't know why, but honestly, I think it's just like I truly believe in the mission. I really, really want people to live full lives for the entirety of their life. Like I watch my grandparents and they just aren't able to take care of themselves. And my papa, he has cancer, and he's been in the hospital a lot this year, and it's just really weak because of it. My nanny has osteoporosis, and so she has broken multiple bones and is honestly just kind of scared to move, if if I'm being honest, and I see what they're going through, and I see the impacts that it's having on my mom and her siblings trying to care for them and be there like pretty much every single day to do the simple daily tasks for them. It's wearing them out, and I just want more people to not live like that, right? Like, I want more people to live a life of like being able to. It's I'm not talking like I want you to be able to go play pickleball at 80. I mean, that's awesome if you can. I'm just saying I want you to be able to do the basic task of daily living with more ease and more confidence throughout your entire life. So, this program that I'm talking about here, it's good for somebody who doesn't really have a lot of like comfortability when it comes to the gym. Like, you go to the gym and you feel a little bit scared and uneasy. It's also great for people who are like coming back from having a baby or coming back off with an injury, and so you're unsure of is my body good? Like, can I do this? It's a it's a slow-paced class, but it also gets your heart going a little bit and you're lifting weights. It's it's considered a strength training class because of the weighted viper. So it's just I really see the value in it of how it impacts somebody's longevity and again their health span versus just their lifespan. So I told her I would be interested in it. She started gathering a couple other people to come to a training, and I got there on Saturday morning for the training at 8 a.m. We spent some time kind of sitting and learning some of the things that I've been talking to you guys about. We did a couple workouts and then we also had to learn a portion of one of the workouts so that we could present it to the class, like get a get a practice run for it. That was really fun, but I will say it was so challenging to talk while working out. I've never had to do that, but I do find that to be the most challenging part. The class in itself follows a pretty good, it's pretty repetitive, right? So, like once I understand the flow of the class, it's pretty easy to just do it on autopilot, like what comes next. It just kind of flows and makes sense. But the talking while doing the class and communicating what is happening, why it's happening the entire time, making sure people are having the right form while also talking to them about the benefits of this type of movement and all of those different things that I have to do. It's it can be a lot, not necessarily on my brain, but on my body and on my lungs specifically. So that is so far my biggest challenge. I'm definitely gonna find a lot of fun in it. I think it's gonna help me feel like I have a lot more community. When Shane and I moved to Florida, I felt so alone. I honestly haven't felt like I had a strong community since college. My where I went to school, that was the only place that ever felt like home to me that wasn't home, like where I grew up. And so this is, I think, gonna help me build even more of a strong community and continue to help this area that we live in right now feel more and more like home because I do love it here and I want it to feel homey, and it's it it really does a lot of times, but I think this is just really gonna help me put roots down even further. So my next step after this is that I have to practice and learn like the full routine for the entire 30-minute class, and then I have to video myself completing it. I need to do it in front of a class of at least four people, and it needs to be like people that like I invite into the room, right? So it can't be during a regular class time just because that we need consent from people and things like that. They didn't come to this class to be videoed, they came to get a workout in. So it has to be people that agree to being in this class while I'm videoing, and once I have done that, then I send in my video and I I get my true full certification to be able to do the class, and then I think what's gonna happen from here is I will start subbing for the coach that currently does it, and then eventually I will probably have my own class time, which just feels so exciting. I feel so excited for that because I don't know, it just is gonna be my own little group of people, and I love that. I mean, that's why I do group coaching, it's why I love teaching. Like, this is my little group of people, and I just get to teach them, and I'm really excited for that piece of it. Now, the last thing that I want to share here is something that we talked about. It was a quote, actually, and I don't know, I didn't write down who said the quote. So sorry, you can Google it if you feel concerned. But we were talking about how so many people, once they reach a certain age, they literally can't take care of themselves in the same way. They can't take themselves to the bathroom, they can't take themselves to the grocery store, they can't drive themselves anywhere anymore. We were talking about how actually the won't comes before the can't. So we a lot of times we feel resistance to like, for example, getting down in the floor. I don't want to get down in the floor because then I struggle to get up. Well, the more that you put off doing those things that are challenging to you, the harder they get, and then eventually you actually can't do them. But the won't comes before the can't. I won't do that. I refuse to put myself in a position where things feel uncomfortable and where it feels hard for me, and eventually that turns into my body no longer can do that. So I want to just leave you with this a little bit of encouragement to get your body moving. I hope that there were multiple things that I said in this episode that kind of lit a little fire under you and made you want to start moving a bit more. This is so important. It's not about the aesthetics of movement, it's not about having a six-pack, it's not about having biceps that you can see without flexing. It's not about those pieces of fitness. It is about moving your body so that you can move your body until the day you die. So stop letting yourself make excuses. Stop letting other things come in the way, whether that be other people, other priorities, or simply your own self-doubt. Stop letting it get in the way and start moving your body so that you can feel good and strong and confident forever. I wish that all of you could come to a workout class at the gym that I teach at, but I know all of you do not live nearby. In fact, you live all around the country, and some of you even in other countries, which is so fun. So, my encouragement to you is find a type of workout that you enjoy. Find whether that be group fitness, which to me is such a fun way, I said it already, to build community because there's there's people out there that are doing the same things as you, they're struggling to catch their breath after that move the same way you are, and it just really builds some camaraderie as you are moving your body. So I'm loving group fitness. I feel like it's motivating to help get you there. Whenever I don't go, the people at the gym ask me, Laura, where have you been? Why aren't you here? So I I find that that is very motivating. So maybe you find a gym where you can go to some group classes and you can start to build some rapport among the peers that are at those classes, or maybe you just find something where you can work out at home because that's what fits your schedule better. Maybe you find something like a routine you can follow using the machines at the gym, and then you start watching a TV show or listening to a podcast that you really enjoy while you're doing your workouts. Find something that can help you enjoy the process. You are so much more likely to stick to it if you have that piece and if you think about it from the mindset that I shared in this episode. It's not about making your body look a certain way, it's about making sure your body can move until it literally cannot move anymore. I appreciate y'all being here. I'm gonna keep sharing my journey. So if you didn't already know that I was doing this, I shared a lot about it on my Instagram stories over the weekend, and I will be sharing more as I move throughout the rest of the process. Whenever I do my test run, I will post about that. Whenever I do actually get my class and things like that, I will post all about that, those experiences. So if you find that stuff interesting, make sure you're following me on Instagram. You can turn on notifications so that you get notified whenever I post about some of these things. I appreciate all of you and every single thing that you do for me. Thanks for being here, listening to the podcast, following me on social media and engaging with my content. Thanks for joining my programs and being an active participant and not only my business, but in your own health and wellness journey. I love every single one of you, and I can't wait to see you again in the next episode. Thank you so much. I can't wait to see you again next week. And always remember the more you know, the more you grow.