A sophmore is someone in their middle year (2nd) of an educational facility, be it school or college. I think Beth is in her 2nd year at college

The only way you can get certified as a Les Mills instructor (whether it be Body Pump, Body Jam, Body Balance….) is to be sponsored to do the course by a gym that holds a Les Mills licence.

You also MUST have a Les Mills licence to run any BTS (body transformation systems) classes at any venue.

If you do not have the proper certification you will not be able to get instructor insurance.

You must also hold a BTS music licence to be able to use any of the Les Mills instructor CD’s in a public forum (ie a class).

When you do your certification for any of the BTS systems – including Pump, you will receive a full instructor training pack. You will be assessed on 5 (as far as I can remember) core areas including execution, class magic, communication, instruction and some aother areas which I can’t recall off the top of my head.

The instructor training pack includes instructor DVD, choreography notes, health and safety, etc…

I don’t know what a sophomore is as I’m from the UK, but you should be able to teach from 16.

Before you can apply to be an instructor you will have to complete your gym instructor certfication and your Exercise to Music module.

There are several reputable companies that offer this certification but it’s not cheap.

If you are serious about training as a fitness instructor then go for it as you will earn your education fees back, but it takes a while.

Hpoe that helps.

Here’s the Les Mills site for certification

http://www.lesmills.com/global/en/instructors/public/becoming-a-les-mills-instructor.aspx

Body Pump is a studio class designed by Les Mills to be taught by instructors only. It would not be safe to produce a home workout DVD because of the nature of the exercise involved.

Sorry!

There are loads of great reasons to go to a bodypump or any other aerobics class – They are great social interaction, the musci is motivating and fun and if you have a great teacher it can be really inspiring.

The workout IS GOOD – for what it is – a muscle endurance aerobic workout, that really challenges your cardiovascular system and your muscle endurance. Sure your muscles will be fatigued after a class – So they should be, you’ve worked the slow twitch fibres really hard. BUT you haven’t touched the fast twictch fibres, or worked the muscle for power or strength. A muscle needs to be worked across all 3 of these areas to be truly efficient at performing it’s job.

So I’m not slating pump – just spelling out the scientific facts. It does not give you the same results as a targeted resistance workout plan, because it does not act on the muscle fibres in the same way as resistance training – I think we can at least agree on that because you FEEL the difference between the two workouts and you recognise that they are different forms of training.

Now heart rate is not an indicator of whther something is aerobic or not. EG. try squatting 70kg a few times and tell me that your heart rate is not elevated… Nor is whether you are standing or lying down. An exercise is calssified as aerobic if it uses the oxidative aerobic system for energy production. (the hand baike is a good example – it sitting down and only using your arms – but still aerobic yeah?)

In fact if your heart rate is ONLY going up in the lunge track then you’re definitely not working hard enough on every other track. Either because your body has adapted to the class and you are now at a plateau from doing the same training every week, or because you need to use heavier weights or a higher step to increase the difficulty of the exercise.

Look, I think I’m gonna sign off here before I end up writing war and peace ;0) .

Let me say again – Pump has it’s place – it’s a great class otherwise I wouldn’t teach it but I think people need to know the facts. It is what it is, a great aerobic workout.