If you're a fitness or movement professional, we need to learn more about your work, your life, and your health. Take this anonymous survey today!
Learn more about this industry-changing data gathering effort here:
Our Vision
For every fitness instructor to have access to basic and necessary employment benefits: healthcare, paid time off, sick leave, vacation, contract negotiation, retirement funds, maternity leave, a fair and equitable workplace, employer checks & balances, environmental health & safety, basic minimum wage, and fair hiring practices. To do so, we believe that all instructors should be licensed as the professional healers they are-- and be held accountable for keeping their students safe.
In the process of advocating for the rights of fitness instructors, we will further standardize, protect, and regulate the fitness industry as a whole. Legislation that meets the unique needs of our industry will ensure it's efficacy, legitimize the small business owners within it, and create systems of transparency, reporting, and sustainable development.
The first step on this path is legitimizing our jobs by licensing fitness instructors. We're currently working with the SHARP research & development group of the Washington State Department of Licensing & Industries to create a survey about GFIs that will capture REAL DATA about the nature of student, instructor, and employment safety.
In the process of advocating for the rights of fitness instructors, we will further standardize, protect, and regulate the fitness industry as a whole. Legislation that meets the unique needs of our industry will ensure it's efficacy, legitimize the small business owners within it, and create systems of transparency, reporting, and sustainable development.
The first step on this path is legitimizing our jobs by licensing fitness instructors. We're currently working with the SHARP research & development group of the Washington State Department of Licensing & Industries to create a survey about GFIs that will capture REAL DATA about the nature of student, instructor, and employment safety.
Read about GFIU and our cause in this
Men's Health Magazine article:
Who are GFIs?
Group Fitness Instructors are anyone who leads public and private movement sessions for two or more "students" or "clients." We might also be known as Coaches, Teachers, or Trainers. Our job is to incite, encourage, and safely maneuver people through movements in whatever format. Our aim is creating a healthier physical and mental state. Whether we teach adults or children; cycling or yoga; indoors or outdoors; classes of 50 people or two, their job is to get people to move-- and to enjoy doing it!
Unfortunately, the under-regulated and mismanaged fitness industry has allowed our people to become undervalued. It's time to recognize our power, to protect each other, and to stand up for our rights! We are more than "just group fitness instructors." We change lives. We power an industry with our own bodies. And, we literally touch the bodies and souls of our students.
As one GFI said, in this industry "we spend more hours off the clock than on." We often teach in a variety of spaces, with a variety of contractual types (or, more of then not, no contracts at all). Some of us are full-time, some of us do this on top of other jobs, and some of us do this as our only source of income. All of us are passionate about our students and movement. Most of us pay extreme amounts of our own money to "certify" and "re-certify" in our modalities. Often, we pay our own employers for the right to teach their formats, in their spaces. That's right: most of us pay to work. That's not efficient, sustainable, or effective. Yet, the world places great social value on our work. Most of the world doesn't understand the cost and effort our work actually entails.
We aren't traditional employees. We aren't gig workers. We're Group Fitness Instructors. We deserve to be organized, recognized, and benefited. We deserve to work in an industry that is equitable and accountable. Becoming part of GFI United is a step toward becoming a licensed professional who receives adequate pay, proper and affordable certification, and employment benefits. It might not happen tomorrow; it might not happen next year; but it WILL happen, and we need your support to rally our leaders and galvanize our fellow GFIs.
Unfortunately, the under-regulated and mismanaged fitness industry has allowed our people to become undervalued. It's time to recognize our power, to protect each other, and to stand up for our rights! We are more than "just group fitness instructors." We change lives. We power an industry with our own bodies. And, we literally touch the bodies and souls of our students.
As one GFI said, in this industry "we spend more hours off the clock than on." We often teach in a variety of spaces, with a variety of contractual types (or, more of then not, no contracts at all). Some of us are full-time, some of us do this on top of other jobs, and some of us do this as our only source of income. All of us are passionate about our students and movement. Most of us pay extreme amounts of our own money to "certify" and "re-certify" in our modalities. Often, we pay our own employers for the right to teach their formats, in their spaces. That's right: most of us pay to work. That's not efficient, sustainable, or effective. Yet, the world places great social value on our work. Most of the world doesn't understand the cost and effort our work actually entails.
We aren't traditional employees. We aren't gig workers. We're Group Fitness Instructors. We deserve to be organized, recognized, and benefited. We deserve to work in an industry that is equitable and accountable. Becoming part of GFI United is a step toward becoming a licensed professional who receives adequate pay, proper and affordable certification, and employment benefits. It might not happen tomorrow; it might not happen next year; but it WILL happen, and we need your support to rally our leaders and galvanize our fellow GFIs.
Our Mission
In order to create a more effective, efficient, and sustainable fitness industry for all those involved, our mission is threefold:
Licensing Instructors
One of the biggest issues in our industry is the prevalence of "certification" programs with no real oversight as to the quality of these programs. Yes, there are some "associations" in fitness that "approve" of training programs-- like NASM, IDEA, and the Yoga Alliance-- these organizations simply take money and give stamps of unresearched approval. While we support new styles of fitness being certified and perpetuated, we do not support poor-quality training that puts students and instructors at-risk of physical and emotional injury. So, we advocate for the creation of an over-arching body that evaluates instructors through a sort of "fitness bar exam." When the instructor passes the exam, they will be licensed. Only licensed instructors shall be allowed to teach.
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Building Organizational Support
Fitness instructors don't know where to turn when their employment or client situations turn sour-- or, worse, dangerous. We have no unions. The monopolistic "membership associations" that purport to serve us only take our money in exchange for "more training," promoting the idea that issues in our job are our fault alone. We advocate for an organization in any form-- union, association, Guild, whatever!-- to provide employment and work resources specifically addressing the needs of fitness instructors. This may include assistant with contract negotiation, healthcare benefits, cheap or free training/ licensing, childcare assistance, immigration assistance, a sense of comradery with fellow instructors, and more.
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Regulating the Legal & Fiscal Structure
Any fitness instructor who's been asked to "choose their job from the dropdown menu" knows that our work lies in a grey area of fiscal and legal employment structures. Are we educators? Are we health and wellness? Are we leisure? Accountants shudder to work with us; many of us have 10+ W2s, 1099s, and sources of income. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, many of us were left without assistance as mixed-income earners. Even if we worked as a traditional W2 employee, we rarely earned enough hours to see enough vacation time, sick leave, or benefits to last us many months. We advocate for the clear definition of fitness work in economic and fiscal policy, for appropriate taxation and representation, and for laws that support our ability to earn a living, no matter what that looks like.
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The realityBeing a professional or semi-professional group fitness instructor is not a hobby. Our industry rakes in trillions of dolalrs. And GFIs depend on this income. Here are some of the stats we've collected.
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1/3 to 1/2how much of a GFIs working hours are unpaid
6 out of 10out of 10 Group Fitness Instructors earn 100% of their professional income as fitness instructors
46%of instructors work in venues with
inadequate health & safety standards |
Lead GFI Galvanizer
Emily Stewart
Like many Group Fitness Instructors, Emily never planned on making "fit-tainment" her job. She began teaching yoga in England before she was even certified. Now she's got 8+ official fitness certificates and has taught in Europe and the USA. She's taught at retreats, to all kinds of folx, in a myriad of formats, and many types of fitness spaces. With so much experience in so many different environments, she's come to the conclusion that the fitness industry is a global mess, and she's hell-bent on changing that. She first contacted the AFL-CIO in January 2020. And while the unionization effort still eludes her, she's learned enough in the process to know that the fight is a valiant one. She hasn't looked back. Find her website here: http://www.emilystewartfitness.com/
Can't find what you're looking for? Here's all the links, in one place:
USA Europe Call Emily: (206) 488-5563 or +43 6766446816
