LIFESTYLE AUTHOR
Laura Bond Williams
AUSTIN’S FITNESS INSTRUCTOR SHORTAGE n Fitness studios and trainers across
town discuss the growing need for instructors and how they hope to meet the demand.
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very day, in every way, Austinites are moving: high-intensity interval workouts, suspension training, kickboxing, spin, dance and barre, plus mind-body favorites like yoga and Pilates. With such a large population of workout-minded citizens, local studio owners say there’s a growing need for more welltrained teachers and plenty of opportunities. Just a quick Google search for “Pilates jobs Austin’’ will bring up dozens of listings for Pilates, yoga and barre teachers. Jobs are full-time, part-time and by contract; in-person and online; in both local studios and national brand gyms; at dance studios, K-12 schools and even healthcare offices. Some businesses are expanding their teacher training programs to meet the demand, preparing teachers to work in their own studios or others. Other businesses hire a stream of independent contractors, while some hire instructors as employees. Most studios hire teachers who are already certified, but others may have proprietary brand training.
OCTOBER 2021
Clearly, would-be teachers have a range of choices for both training and employment. “I personally don’t think we have enough yoga teachers,” says Michelle Young, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500 and owner of My Vinyasa Practice. My Vinyasa Practice alone has 50 employees and 20 contractors working online, in studios and on location in diverse industries like healthcare and education. Young says that just because there are a lot of teacher training opportunities doesn’t mean there is an abundance of teachers. “We can have 20 people in training and only one or two will want to teach, and they only want to teach
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