Online Fitness Education - Worth it?

In the digital age, information has become cheap and readily available. A startling amount of new information is created each day, and far exceeding what was created previously. The exponential growth of all this information has created far more access to knowledge, but a far greater challenge to understanding. How so? Sadly, the speed at which information is produced and the competition to gain the attention of the consumer creates an environment ripe for cursory learning. You can easily learn just enough about a topic to be dangerous. Very often, what you learn is heavily influenced by the motivations of the source or producer. Even in the best of circumstances it is hard to provide unbiased content, and rarely is anything produced today unbiased. This week I would like to share my experiences and advice for online fitness education. If you are driven either by career or by a genuine desire to learn and apply what is learned for yourself or someone else, I’m speaking to you.

What you need to know if you’re going to pursue online education:

1.?????Find a mentor guide with a lot more experience – doesn’t matter if they’ve done that course or program and it’s probably better if they didn’t. Passing a test and actually learning are mutually exclusive.

2.?????In the absence of a mentor guide, work in an environment where you can put what you learn to the test. Combine 1 & 2 for max effect.

3.?????Online education isn’t about the content, it’s about the network and access to great leaders. Pick a topic and you’re likely to learn relatively the same thing, so do your research and look for access to leaders, or the network and support it can give you access to.

4.?????Career Advice: Having hired hundreds of professionals, we really don’t care where your Certification is from. Don’t stress over it. We’re hiring on your personality, willingness to learn and dedication to your work.

The short answer, it's worth it but you will need to take some additional steps or you might not think so.

My first real experience with online education was in the form of my first Masters Degree. I enrolled in a distance program at PennWest California University in 2005. My focus was to gain a higher understanding of Exercise Physiology and Human Performance. Since then I’ve had the chance to sit on all sides of online fitness education programs. I’ve taken courses online, taught courses online, started an online academy, worked with companies that provide online training to my students/staff, and represented companies that do the same. I’ve seen every side of this and would like to give you some advice to get the most out of it, know when it’s great and know when it’s not.

My Masters program in 2005 coincided with a new job – Performance Director of Velocity Sports Performance in Manhattan, New York. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this turned out to be the perfect crucible to further my understanding of how to be a performance coach. It was hell to be honest, 15 – 16 hour days between work and study almost every day, along with a long commute to and from the office. But the higher degree wouldn’t have been possible live, and it wouldn’t have been worth it without the daily work. What I understand now is that much like Dante descending through the levels of hell, we must experience it for ourselves to understand it but we can’t get through it without a guide. My Virgil at Velocity was its founder, Coach Loren Seagrave, and the excellent network of Sports Performance Directors in the company at the time each sharing and contributing their deep knowledge and expertise to the community. Why did it work so well? Each week I had a task or assignment that required some thought in an area of performance or coaching science. The information delivered was sometimes perfectly aligned with what we were doing. But often it wasn’t, and sometimes not even close. I quickly discovered how to put theories to the test, check my assumptions and consult a vast network of highly experienced people about the practicality of what I was learning.

I’ve also had to work with online course providers to educate a workforce. I had a great experience with the PTA Global team. I would like to share what we did that made it a very successful approach to developing our team, and how it may influence your decision and what to do. We put in place a method to get our new hires through the PTA Global course as fast as possible with a positive result. Why? We didn’t want them to get stuck in a long process of getting qualified to train people. But the real training began after they had completed the course. We integrated some of the course content into our own systems and education programs with constant reinforcement. The most impactful were the Program Design Questionnaire, a great way to understand client motivation and preferences, and a few unifying principles around exercise prescription and delivery.?We would find ways to connect back to these regardless of any other course we would do.?

What does this mean to you? Just get the course done. The truth is you will probably only retain 20% of the material after you finish the course. It’s more important to think through how you will use this course as a future reference point, balancing against more learning from other sources.

and on to that...

Finally, in building our Academy and working with a few global partners we have landed on a method we call drip learning. Our method is pretty simple and straight-forward. Learn one or two key concepts then go away and practice them for a bit. Come back later and we’ll discuss them, then introduce the next concept. We’ve found this has a big impact on student satisfaction and learning. This is an evolution from our PTA Global methods. I still suggest you get through the material quickly, but then upon completion break it up over a long period and dive into each concept individually with a bit of practice and practical ideally with your mentor or network giving feedback. Retaining the information will go through the roof and you will get a strong command of the material.

If you’ve read this far, I appreciate you sticking around and listening to my experience. I have one last bit of advice for you that is easily the most impactful thing I personally have done to learn in this industry. Wherever you go, whatever you do, look for a variety of opinions and listen, really listen, to what they have to say. Seek opportunities to meet people, find differences in thought and you will continually be challenged to grow.?That will make you, and the industry we work in, far better. Information is cheap, but understanding is priceless. Happy learning!