Expert: Daphne E Brown MS CPRP - 8/16/2011

Question
I would like to know if the whole class has to act as participants for other people demonstrating their class demo 1-2 minute section.  I feel well prepared for the written test and the group demos, but I don't know that I could do 100 push ups if that is what everyone chooses to demonstrate.  Worried that I will be judged on my inability to do a large amounts of push up sets.

Answer
D,
Congratulations on pursuing an AFAA certification.  To answer your question, during the 1minute teaching demo part of the exam, examiners are usually focused on the presenting partiicipant.  I would not worry too much about being critiqued while performing exercises, but examiners hope that you respectfully attempt to appropriately execute exercises while your classmates are being graded. I am sure you would want your classmates to do the same when you are being graded.

Also,  if the certification specialist is choosing exercises for each person, she usually varies the exercises enough. You won't have to do so many reps of one particular exercise. In exams I've seen where participants get to choose, most of the time everyone chooses abdominals and squats, not pushups, since those are easier for most people to teach under pressure. AND if each participant nails the 1 minute teaching part, there won't be much exercising classmates have to do........to me as an examiner, a person nails it by intergrating the AFAA 5 questions into their demo, by speaking clearly and confidently giving specific executional/safety/biomechanical instructions, by having correct body form and movements, and by showing all appropriate exercises with modifications considering several fitness levels......letting me know they have achieved an acceptable degree of professioanlism and care for those they teach....... all in a minute.

Hope that answers your question.  Good luck on your test and all the best in pursuing you fitness career (and packing your classes where ever you teach).  ;-)