A few hours after taking my first BollyX class, while sitting on my bed tired and sore, I thought to myself “That was SO much fun”! Oddly enough, my first class was the master class that kicked off my BollyX Instructor Certification Training. Having been on a dance team in college, a year after graduation, I was severely missing not only dancing, but the sense of community that came from a group of people who were as passionate about something as I was. I knew from my first experience with BollyX that getting more involved with the BollyX community was going to be the perfect way to fill that hole in my post-college life. A year and a half later, I am now thankful and ecstatic to be teaching two classes every week. As someone new to the fitness industry, I had no idea what the right path was to becoming a group fitness instructor. What I learned was, there is no one right path since everyone has different experiences. However, if your goal is to begin teaching weekly classes, there are definitely some things you should do that will get you closer to your goal.

Go to other instructors’ classes, especially your Regional Trainer’s class

As a fitness instructor, you are always learning. It’s been a year since I started teaching my own class, and yet I still go take other instructor’s classes. You are not only getting an opportunity to practice dance technique and choreography, but you also get to observe how other instructors engage with their class participants. As a new instructor, this is extremely beneficial in helping you find and build your own teaching style. Also, your BX Regional Trainers are great resources. Pick their brain about their experiences with teaching, get tips on anything from pre-cueing to “coaching”, and ask them for feedback on your teaching by sending them videos of you practicing teaching at home. Depending on the facility’s policy for guest instructors, the RT may occasionally ask you to teach a song in their class so they can give you feedback. Wait until they invite you to teach (vs asking if you can teach). Always keep practicing at home so that when these guest teaching opportunities arise, you will be ready. Practicing teaching in a live class instead of in your own home helps you feel comfortable being in front of many people you don’t know and builds your confidence. The more you practice, the more comfortable and confident you will be at teaching and pre-cueing. This brings me to my next point….

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer

If there are free community classes or fundraising events available in your city, volunteer your time to teach a song. You will find that there are many BollyX outreach events in your region, whether it’s teaching at a college or leading free demos at the local Athleta store. Usually these are organized by a Regional Trainer so keep tabs on postings in your regional Facebook BX group. Offer to help out at these events and try to attend as many as you can (even if you aren’t teaching). If selected to teach, you will gain experience teaching to a live class and to people of various fitness levels and demographics. If attending, you can learn a lot by watching the RT or instructors teach in a non-traditional class setting (this is when I learned how to teach facing the class and about switching lead leg). The best part: you’ll have a whole lot of fun doing it!

Reach out to gyms and/or connect with the BX community (on Facebook and in person)

If you go to or know of a gym that may benefit from BollyX on the schedule, go ahead and reach out to the Group Fitness Manager or the studio owner via email about the possibility of a demo at the location. BollyX has a great piece on their website that will help you formulate an email to send out! Also, make sure you are a part of your region’s Facebook group because you’ll find that people will often post opportunities that are inconvenient for themselves, but they want to share with the group in case anyone else is interested in pursuing the opportunity. Furthermore, if you remain active in the BollyX community, some of your fellow instructors may know of opportunities and share them with you personally. The more proactive you are, the more likely you will be able to set up a regular class!

Wear your BollyX swag loud and proud!

You at least have one piece of BollyX gear from your training day. I encourage you to wear your BollyX swag not only to BollyX classes, but also to your other workout classes or athletic events! It helps that we have some amazing looking tees and tanks. I wore my “Be A Beast” tank to a fitness class at my local gym, and the class instructor commented on how awesome the shirt was. Over conversation, I found out that he was the general manager of another fitness club in my region, and he was interested in putting BollyX on the schedule! Having said all this, please note that I’m not saying that wearing your BX gear will lead to you getting hired to teach a regular class. However, since BollyX is a relatively new fitness format, not everyone will have heard of it. Once they see your shirt, people may come up to you with questions. Wearing your gear will definitely help bring the workout that we all love into the lives of many more people!