Why We Built an Online Barre & Strength Instructor Certification

Why Choose an Online Group Fitness Certification? If you’re thinking about becoming a group fitness instructor - or you’re already teaching and need CEU's - choosing the right certification matters more than most people realize.

We’ve taken a wide range of certifications ourselves, including in-person barre trainings, strength education, and group fitness programs. Some were incredibly inspiring. Others left us excited… but still unsure how to confidently teach, cue safely, or program a full class once we were on our own.

That experience is what shaped how we think about instructor education - and why online group fitness certification can be a genuinely effective option when it’s done well. ** The Pros (and Limits) of In-Person Certifications** In-person certifications absolutely have value. Moving with other humans, feeling exercises in your own body, and learning in a shared physical space can be powerful.

Longer, immersive programs often provide deep education - but they also come with high costs, fixed schedules, travel requirements, and time commitments that simply aren’t realistic for many instructors. We’ve seen talented instructors miss sessions due to work, injuries, or life obligations - and still pay full price.

Shorter in-person certifications, like one-day barre teacher trainings, can be energizing and motivating. But after 8–12 hours of information, many instructors walk away inspired yet unsure how to:

• Build a full class from scratch
• Modify for different bodies
• Teach strength safely and progressively
• Apply what they learned outside that one day

We’ve been there - and we’ve heard the same thing repeatedly from instructors who come to us afterward looking for clarity.

Why We Built an Online Barre + Group Fitness Certification We built the Coydog Fitness certification because we wanted an affordable, online option that actually prepares instructors to teach - not just memorize choreography or pass a test. Our goal was simple:

• Make education accessible
• Remove gatekeeping
• Focus on how to teach, not just what to perform
• Give instructors tools they can use immediately in real classes

At $250, our program includes over 20 hours of education - with no hidden fees, upsells, or locked content. Everything we believe instructors should know is included from the start.

This approach grew directly out of our own experience teaching, training instructors, and seeing where traditional certifications often fall short.

Who This Certification Is Designed For This online group fitness certification works well for:

• People curious about teaching barre, mat Pilates, strength training, or group fitness
• Barre instructors seeking continuing education
• Instructors needing NASM 1.9, ACE 1.9, or AFAA 2.0 recertification
• Personal trainers looking for affordable CEUs
• Lifelong learners who want a deeper understanding of movement and coaching

You don’t need to know exactly what you want to teach yet. Many instructors figure that out through the education - not before it.

A Smarter Way to Earn CEUs Online Our certification supports: Continuing education for group fitness instructors NASM recertification 1.9 (Group Fitness & Personal Training) AFAA recertification 1.9 ACE recertification 2.0

Instead of cramming information into a single weekend, our online format allows you to learn at your own pace. In our experience, this leads to better retention - and more confidence when instructors actually step in front of a class.

Built for How Instructors Actually Learn This is not just a video course. Our program includes:

• Video lessons
• Written education you can reference later
• Self-practice prompts
• Quizzes to support retention
• Real-world teaching context pulled from actual classes

Everything lives on one platform we built ourselves. You’ll also get access to our custom exercise library, designed around how instructors actually plan classes. You can:

• Search exercises by movement pattern, joint action, equipment, or starting position
• Find built-in regressions and progressions
• Save and organize exercises for future class planning
• This supports instructors teaching barre, functional strength, core training, and mixed-format group fitness classes.

No Hidden Fees. No “Secret” Knowledge. Many certifications place essential education behind additional purchases or advanced levels. We don’t. If it’s something we believe instructors need in order to teach safely and confidently, it’s included. Affordable doesn’t mean watered-down.* It means accessible.*

Final Thought An online group fitness certification doesn’t replace in-person learning - it expands access to it. Based on our experience teaching, training, and continuing our own education, we believe instructor education should be:

• Affordable
• Thorough
• Flexible
• Human
• And most importantly: useful in real classes

That’s the standard we built this program around.