How to Use Zoom for Fitness Classes

During Covid, plenty of fitness professionals adapted to use Zoom for their fitness classes. This is still an incredibly lucrative option and, if you want to know how you can do it yourself, our step by step guide is here to help!

If you want to boost your practice and offer more online services, check out our advanced qualifications, starting with our Level 4 Sports Nutrition Course.

You can also download our free course prospectus here, for more information and details of other courses to help you develop a niche.

Step 1 - Get Qualified to Teach Fitness Classes on Zoom

The minimum qualification you’ll need to teach your own fitness classes via zoom is a Level 2 Gym Instructor qualification. The best way to maximise your potential income and career prospects is by qualifying as a Personal Trainer.

Most people using Zoom for fitness classes like The Body People, pictured below, have this qualification:

In order to compete with existing Zoom fitness classes online and make money as a personal trainer, you’ll want to have the same qualification to guarantee quality and expertise to your potential clients!

You need to make sure that the course you choose is regulated and accredited by the appropriate bodies, CIMSPA and Ofqual.

Choosing a course that’s accredited by CIMSPA acts as a stamp of quality assurance. This shows your clients that your qualification, and therefore your skills, are of the highest standard.

Ofqual is a government body that regulates courses. It ensures that every course of a certain level contains the same information and provides the same level of knowledge.

This signals to those taking part in your Zoom group fitness classes that your skills meet the required level to get results and help them get the most out of their experience!

As part of our CIMSPA-endorsed Level 3 course, you’ll build on skills from Level 2 in regards to motivating groups. This will be especially important for teaching fitness classes via Zoom because you’ll be working in a different way to keep people engaged over a screen rather than in person.

You’ll also learn how to cater classes and instruct specialist populations at Level 3, like the elderly or training people with disabilities. 

This will broaden the range of people you can teach when using Zoom for fitness classes. You can potentially double or triple your income with two or more versions of the same class, that cater to different groups’ needs!

Depending on what kind of Zoom workout you’re planning, you may need a further, separate qualification that’s specific to the style of class.

For example, you can further your knowledge and develop a niche with CPD courses in areas of fitness such as Kettlebell Training.

Find out more about gaining more qualifications to advance your career with our article 'Types of Professional Development for Personal Trainers'.

Step 2 - How to Set Up One of the Best Zoom Fitness Classes

Now we’ll run through some of the essential things you’ll need to decide, and acquire, before you can get to actually teaching your classes!

Find the Right Location for Your Zoom Fitness Classes

Before learning exactly how to teach fitness classes on Zoom, you need to decide where exactly you’re going to be doing them.

Some people will have access to their own facility, or a private studio space, but most people use a designated space in their home. 

You want to make sure that you choose somewhere with plenty of light and airflow so that you’re comfortable, as well as providing optimal conditions for filming.

Obviously, you’ll also need plenty of space. You’ll be moving around no matter which style of class you choose to teach, so you need to make sure you pick somewhere with enough room to move around freely. 

Part of this includes choosing somewhere without clutter too because you don’t want to be worrying about knocking things over, or creating a distracting visual for clients, when you’re teaching! 

Your fitness classes on Zoom should be somewhere like Bodybyrod’s below:

Stretch out, like below, to do the movement that’s the most spread out, as a test of whether where you’ve chosen has enough room:

Equipment You’ll Need

Once you’ve found the ideal location, you’ll need to invest in the right equipment for teaching fitness classes via Zoom. 

You’ll Need a Camera

Obviously, the most important piece of equipment you’ll need for teaching fitness classes on Zoom is something to film yourself with during class. This might be:

• Built into your phone
• Built into your laptop
• A separate webcam to attach to the laptop

Though you can get Zoom on your smartphone, a laptop has a much better processor and so is better equipped to deal with streaming in this way. 

You’re much more likely to get lag (when the video and sound doesn’t match) if you’re straining the tech. 

This is super important for exercising to music where timing is everything. So, to ensure this doesn’t happen, your best bet is to use a laptop if possible.

You’ll Need Good Lighting

Lighting is also super important as people need to be able to see exactly what you’re doing. You can choose a room with plenty of natural light, facing a window, or invest in some lighting.

Make sure you use warm, white light as this will be the most natural and flattering. You can buy lights separately, like a ring light or panel light, or get a webcam with one built in.

Combining lighting with an external webcam though, like in the Razor Kiyo below for example, can save you money as you’re combining two of the most important pieces of equipment:

Though there will be a built-in microphone to a laptop, and even a webcam depending on which one you choose, the audio quality on either won’t be as high as with a separate microphone.

You can buy bluetooth microphones that are wireless and you can connect them to your laptop or computer so that you can isolate the different audio streams.

You’ll Need Music

Another important thing to remember is that if you’re going to use music for your online Zoom fitness classes, you’ll need a licence to do so. 

You can find out more information about who needs one and pricing plans here from the Performing Rights Society.

How to Set up Zoom for Fitness Classes  

Though there’s plenty of great features with the free version of Zoom, if you want to set up one of the best zoom fitness classes there’s a few extras to bear in mind.

For instance, you can only record content if you pay for the “pro” subscription, as pictured below. You will get 1GB of cloud storage for recordings so you can keep your classes for a certain amount of time.

This will mean that you can record your zoom fitness classes to offer your clients on demand viewing. 

Giving your clients the option to browse a bank of existing content, say with a subscription or package price, will be more attractive to potential clients and mean you can charge more for your services.

As you can see, people like Barrecore who use Zoom for fitness classes, offer a live streaming subscription:

They also offer a subscription for on-demand content, streaming a bank of existing recorded classes:

This doesn’t just benefit the client by giving them different options but you can use this recorded content to create promotional material and show potential class members what your classes look like!

The other main reason to pay for a pro subscription is the extended meeting time. You can only have 40 minute meetings with the free version.

So, your group fitness classes would be limited to 30 minutes with this which severely limits what you’re able to do.

Choose What You’ll Charge Clients for Your Zoom Fitness Classes

Part of how to use Zoom for fitness classes will involve deciding what, and using what method, to charge clients for your classes. 

Usually people will have an option to pay per session or sign up to a subscription or package service.

How much you charge is entirely up to you based on your market research and what you feel is fair once you’ve looked at the competition from other people running Zoom fitness classes online, especially within your discipline.

Online fitness classes tend to range between £6 and £15 depending on the popularity of the class and the expertise of the instructor.

Package Deals vs Individual Payments

There’s two ways you can decide to charge your clients for your classes: package deals and individual, pay as you go payments. 

Letting people pay for one class, or take part in an introductory offer, works like the video content to show people what they can expect and decide whether to invest in a package. 

Psycle is a great example of this. They charge £6 for individual classes which you can do as part of a pay-as-you-go scheme:

There’s also the option for a monthly subscription service, however, as shown below:

Packages are ultimately the best option as your clients will then be making regular, scheduled payments and it’s a stream of income you can rely on. 

If you have a direct debit too, as most packages use a rolling payment, this will prevent you having to resell to the client each month. This frees you up to focus on obtaining new clients and growing your brand! 

You also want to make sure that the price per class is lower the more classes clients sign up for per month, as shown below:

Decide How Your Members Will Pay for Your Online Zoom Fitness Classes

The next thing you will need to decide is how your clients can pay you for your classes.  

You can do this by getting set up on some free personal training software as plenty of this has an integrated payment system. 

Software like Legitfit has plenty of other features to help you manage your finances too.

These include:

• Predicted income for each month
• Payment scheduling
• Automated billing so you don’t have to worry about chasing clients every month

You can also use PayPal but the benefit of using software is that you’ll have everything you need for your home fitness business in one place.

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Interested in finding out more about how you can increase your income? Check out these articles below:

• A Complete Guide To Personal Training Over Zoom
• 9 Innovative Ways To Earn Passive Income For Personal Trainers
• 6 Additional Personal Training Revenue Streams

Step 3 - Source Clients for Your Online Zoom Fitness Classes 

If you want to know how to teach fitness classes on Zoom then you’ll need to source plenty of clients for you to teach! 

You could have incredible content and ability, but if you can’t get your name out there then your business won’t be able to grow.

For this reason, you’ll need a few fitness marketing tips if you want to know how to do Zoom fitness classes that attract plenty of clients and help develop your brand!

Source Clients by Approaching Your Existing Contacts 

If you’re starting to use Zoom for fitness classes you may well have taught in-person classes in a facility or gym.

If that’s true then you’ll have an existing pool of clients and contacts that you can use to promote your online Zoom fitness classes. 

If you’ve already gotten consent from existing clients to be contacted then you can use the following for promotion: 

• A newsletter
• Email 
• Messaging features of PT software

Obviously you have to make sure that you’re acting under GDPR and you’re never emailing anybody who hasn’t consented to be contacted by yourself or the facility where you currently teach from. 

You can also verbally communicate, speaking to existing class members and mentioning it in your current classes to extol the benefits of combining online classes with in person. 

The reason this is such a strong way of promoting your classes is that you’re speaking to people who already know you, your services, and you’ve done some rapport building with. 

Utilise Social Media to Advertise Your Online Zoom Fitness Classes

The best Zoom fitness classes will also have a strong presence on social media platforms such as:

• Facebook
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Instagram

If you’re interested in how to teach Zoom fitness classes using social media you’ll want to focus on video content to grow your brand and engagement.

This is because it will give people a taste of exactly what it is that your Zoom fitness classes are offering.  

Some social media ideas for video content include: 

• Instructional videos to demonstrate your expertise
• Reels on Instagram which get more reach and engagement than average posts
• TikTok videos that capitalise on the latest fitness trends

Use Calls to Action in Your Social Media Marketing

In any captions or written content, you also want to make sure there’s a clear call to action. This means something that directly encourages people to click through and book your services.

You want to give people a reason they should sign up to your classes and make sure you include the link to do so in your posts and stories! 

For example:

Click here to start your fitness journey with me!

Book your class now and start your transformation!

If you want to know how to use Zoom for fitness classes, you can also check out the competition to see what social media content they use and what works for them.  

Ask questions like:

• How does this person interact with their clients?
• What does their content look like?
• How do they mix things up? Is there personal content as well as business content?
• How do they promote their business? Is there a particular kind of content they use?

Once you build up your brand you want to make sure you’re using your classes to generate content and get more class members.

A great way to do this is to encourage people to leave feedback and give testimonials about their own fitness journeys. 

A good example of this is Marion Pearce, who heads up the Allez team:

As well as her content being aesthetically pleasing, there’s a story highlight dedicated solely to testimonials, showing how popular her classes are:

Use Google Ads to Promote Your Zoom Fitness Classes

Another way to promote you’re teaching fitness classes on Zoom and increase your revenue streams is by using Google Ads.

This is one of the most important marketing options, combined with social media, as you’ll be directly reaching your target audience!

Essentially, this works by paying Google to display your website higher for certain search results. The more you pay, the higher your website will be.

However, Google ads are Pay Per Click. This means that you will only be charged when somebody clicks on the link and is directed to your website.

This is a great way to drive traffic when you’re just starting out and getting people’s attention so you can source your clients and build up your class attendance. 

Some personal trainer software options will have a built in Google Ad campaign generator too, that will help you promote your packages and services. 

Once you’ve grown your brand, and are starting to develop your business further, you can invest in some longer term strategies like blog marketing with SEO. 

Step 4 - How to Do Fitness Classes on Zoom

Now you’re ready to actually teach and use Zoom for fitness classes! We’ll run through some of the key features of Zoom, and how you can use them, so you’re prepped and ready to go. 

One of the most important things to remember, though, is you need to do a practice run with friends or family before you invite people into the real thing.

That’s because you need to make sure everything runs smoothly both in terms of the tech you’re using and the particular class you’re teaching.

You also need to ensure that all participants have downloaded the app and have access to Zoom and are sent a link to the meeting ahead of the class.

Do a Run Through of Different Zoom Features Before Starting

There will most likely be new faces in each of your Zoom fitness classes so you should operate on the assumption that there’ll be at least one class member who’s unfamiliar with Zoom.

This is why you should provide some instructional material and make it available to people when they sign up for classes so that they can set themselves up on Zoom for your classes.

You can direct people to the appropriate pages on the Zoom website before you start so they’re familiar with the features you’ll be using. 

Better still, you can prepare a short instructional document or video that goes through the different features you’ll be using and how they will affect the class.

Not only will this save you time, and save you repeating yourself or eating into class time, it will mean you can get the most out of class members because they will be prepared and ready to go without any distractions!

Make the Most of the App when You Use Zoom for Fitness Classes

There’s plenty of reasons why Zoom has consistently been the go-to software for people teaching fitness classes online. 

There’s several features that are easy to use and should be utilised if you’re interested in teaching Zoom fitness classes yourself.

Some of the most important ones for you will be: 

• Mute - This can be used to stop class members talking over each other and interrupting the class or creating sound issues. You can unmute people throughout the class if needs be.

• Speaker View - This will bring your image to the forefront and put members’ display into tiles at the side. This can be great for any interactive part of your class.

• Gallery View - Alternatively have gallery view which is probably the closest to mimicking an in-person feel as you can see up to 49 participants on screen at one time. You can use this for synchronised workouts to keep people motivated and see everyone at once to gently correct any mistakes or provide any specific fitness motivation for people.

You can also, when using the ‘pin’ feature, use parts of the recording to generate social media content to promote your classes.

Ready to take the next step? Check out our Complete Guide to Personal Training Over Zoom.

Encouraging Students to Get the Most Out of Zoom

Make sure you encourage the people in your class to keep their videos on to foster a sense of community and so that you can help them with their form.

Spotlighting people will also help with their confidence - remember that what makes a good fitness instructor is paying attention to individuals as well as the class as a whole. 

People might be nervous at first but you can assuage their fears by utilising some of these features to: 

• Praise people when they’re doing well
• Offer specific encouragement for people
• Give people a better idea of the community building that your classes can provide 

You should also add registration for your Zoom meetings in order to: 

• Track attendance
• Send follow-up messages to promote further classes
• Foster connections with regular follow ups to boost people’s engagement 

This will help you to constantly improve and develop your brand, as well as generate social media content and marketing material.

Practice Digital Etiquette When Using Zoom for Fitness Classes

First and foremost you should always send the link for classes well in advance so that your class members are ready to go and can prepare. 

This should be around an hour before class. There’s no expiration on links so, if you’re prepared and have meeting IDs set up and ready to go, you can send them out to people the day before class.

Make Sure Your Class is Accessible for All of Your Clients

You should also prepare a class that’s an appropriate home workout for everyone. You don’t want to design a class with loads of equipment that the average class member just won’t have.

For example, if you’re going to be incorporating some group stretches, or plenty of floor work, give people warning so they can choose a place to workout that has comfortable flooring.

As we all know, no matter the quality of the tech you’re using for your Zoom fitness classes, there’s always a chance of technical difficulties.

For this reason, as well as doing a dry run like we mentioned earlier, you should have another trainer on standby, if possible, to take over should you have difficulties with your internet or tech.

Get Feedback on Your Zoom Fitness Classes From Clients

Last but not least, you want to make sure you get feedback from your clients and class members after they’ve taken part. 

As we mentioned earlier, this is an opportunity for class members to flag up anything they’re uncomfortable with or were struggling with.

It’s also great for you and helps you keep your work fresh in the following ways:

• You can change or adapt classes based on feedback to keep them relevant and engaging
• You can develop new skills and styles based on what people want to see and what’s popular
• It will help you generate content and grow your brand

What’s the Best Way for You to Get Feedback?

You can do this either by explicitly encouraging people to speak to you after class, or speak to you privately and separately, or by using a survey.

A survey can contain questions about the style and delivery of the class and you can directly incorporate this feedback into your classes.

You can also encourage people to leave comments and leave testimonials on your site and social media page via direct messages. 

Then you can use your feedback to promote your Zoom group fitness classes in a story highlight like Marion Pearce who we mentioned earlier:

Before You Go!

That concludes our step-by-step guide on how to teach fitness classes on Zoom! Hopefully now you feel more confident and know exactly how to use Zoom for fitness classes whatever your style!

Don’t forget, you can continue to increase your expertise and knowledge with advanced qualifications, starting with our Level 4 Sports Nutrition Course.

You can find out more by downloading our free course prospectus too! This is full of details of each course as well as all of the post-course support and business skills we help you to foster.