Online Group Fitness Class Idea

Struggling to work out what kind of workout to run for your online sessions?

Here is a really simple workout using some classic bootcamp favourites which are super easy to teach through a camera.

Time: 45 minutes (plus a chat at the end)

Equipment needed: Exercise Band, Some Kind of Weighted Object (or no equipment with some modifications)

Warm Up

10 Minute Warm Up

10 minutes

Spend 1 minute on each of the following exercises or do 2 rounds of 30 second each. Do these exercises along with your clients so make sure your camera is set that they can see you standing and on the ground.

Exercises:

1. Squats
2. X Squats – touch the ground at the bottom of the squat, reach for the sky at the top
3. High knees
4. Kneeling stand ups – kneel on the ground, using a lunge technique stand up, kneel down again, repeat
5. Yoga push ups– do a pushup, go into downwards dog, do another pushups, continue
6. Mountain climbers
7. Push up arm circles – start in a push up position, keep your body ridged as you life one arm and make a circle, repeat with the other side
8. Bent knee squat thrusts – a squat thrust is a burpee with no jump, do not fully extend the legs at and point (keep the knees bent)
9. Side to side squats
10. Shake it all out – quite literally get everyone to have a good shake of their arms, legs and body

Main Drill

Starts Easy

30 minutes

Clients will work through this accumulator at their own pace. Write it on a whiteboard that you keep in the background, share your screen with the exercises listed on something like a PowerPoint slide and/or paste it into the chat.

Assign each client beginner, intermediate or advanced. The rep number below is how many reps they will do for each exercise.

Beginners: 6 reps
Intermediates: 8 reps
Advanced: 10 reps

(Feel free to pick out some clients and give them 7 or 9 reps if they fall between the categories. Or even give a complete newbie 5 reps per exercise.)

How to complete the workout: Start on exercise 1. Then go back to zero, then 1, then 2. Back to zero, then 1, then 2, then 3. Back to zero, etc.

This workout is meant to be a strength workout so make sure clients are taking the walk slow between rounds and really catching their breath.

Exercises:

0. Walk across the room and back twice to catch breath
1. Jump Squats
2. High Plank with forwards reach (like this plank but with straight arms)
3. Band Rows – elbows at 45 degrees (No band? Do Bench Dips)
4. HRPU
5. Static Lunges (sometimes called Split Squats)
6. Reverse Crunches
7. Band Rows – elbows out at 90 degrees (No band? Do Sea Turtles)
8. Band Shoulder Press (No band? Do Pike Push Ups)
9. Burpees
10. Run out the house and down the driveway 4 times

Once your clients have begun they can follow the workout by themselves. Switch your focus to coaching, encouraging and checking for technique. If you’re running the workout using live streaming, you may want to jump in and do the workout with them.

See how far clients can get in 25-30 minutes, then cut them off to have a good rest while they grab a weight for the finisher.

Finisher

Weighted Complex Pyramid

5 minutes

Have clients grab a weight. You can let them know before the session to bring one along.

If they don’t have dumbbells, a kettlebell or a weight plate they can use two cans from the pantry, a big bag of flour/rice or a used milk jug filled with water/sand.

Repetitions for this drill are completed as a group, count them out loud for your clients.

Complete the circuit below through once. Count 12 reps out for each exercise.

1. Front Squats
2. Squat Press
3. Reverse Lunges with Overhead Tricep Extensions – left leg
4. Reverse Lunges with Overhead Tricep Extensions – right leg

Take a 1 to 2 minute rest then repeat the circuit again with 10 reps on each exercise. After completing that round and resting, do one more round of 8 reps each exercise.

Cooldown

Take some time at the end of the workout to sit on the floor and so some stretches. This is really a time to connect with your clients and see how they’re going. Some questions to prompt a good end-of-session convo are:

• What activities have you been doing to help keep your kids entertained?
• What shows are you watching? What books are you reading? What podcasts are you listening to?
• What are you cooking for dinner? (Or where are you getting take-away from?)
• Have you been able to work on any projects that you didn’t have time for before?

And there you have it. Workout complete!

Three more things before I go:

I created the workout above using from the new virtual workout ideas on BootCraft. I’m running a special deal on BootCraft this weekend for Bootcamp Ideas readers.

Secondly, be sure to check out my tips for continuing to run your sessions during this time.

Lastly, how are you going with running classes online? What’s working for you? Share with us one thing that you’ve discovered works well for you below.

Kyle Wood

Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.