EMD UK and classfinder’s #SafeToBeBack campaign
About the #SafeToBeBack campaign
The #SafeToBeBack campaign gives instructors a chance to encourage participants back to indoor classes and an opportunity to provide information about how they are mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
EMD UK and classfinder wish to celebrate our industry reopening to participants. Indoor group exercise classes are now permitted in England, Scotland and Wales. Participants may or may not have taken part in the innovative change that virtual and outdoor classes brought to the sector, but many will feel more comfortable with their local gym-based or community venue classes and are excited to get back. We want to provide a level of confidence that indoor classes are safe to attend and promote the ways in which the industry is keeping participants safe.
How are we supporting instructors and participants returning to indoor group fitness classes?
Over the past year, EMD UK has been supporting group fitness instructors to navigate how classes can take place in a safe and COVID-19 secure way at each stage of the lockdown, tiered system and reopening stages. EMD UK has been at the forefront of helping instructors transfer their skills to online platforms to not only keep the nation active during lockdowns and restrictions, but to provide a revenue stream that can be used moving forward to boost an instructor’s portfolio of offerings and reach audiences that may not have been able to engage offline.
To support instructors in returning to indoor classes, EMD UK has created the Instructor Ready Scheme. The Instructor Ready mark is a self-assessment certificate that provides venues and attendees with the added assurance that they are complying with COVID-19 guidance. This service is available for free to ensure safety for the industry. Over 1,200 instructors have already been issued their Instructor Ready certificate.
During the most recent lockdown, we have provided a series of instructor webinars that cover topics that helped instructors build their brand, monetise on-demand content, tackle imposter syndrome and ensure attendees with Long-COVID are catered for. All webinars are available free and on-demand here.
Finally, throughout the pandemic, we have provided up-to-date and relevant information to group exercise instructors. EMD UK’s Group Ex Roadmap for Instructors Pack has been curated from discussions between EMD UK, Sport England, and the Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. The free to download resource contains risk assessments and guidance for indoor and outdoor classes. Our current iteration provides date-specific content in line with the government’s COVID roadmap and guidance on social distancing, class numbers, hygiene standards, ventilation, test and trace and checklists to ensure adherence to the rules.
About us
classfinder.org.uk, owned and operated by EMD UK, the national governing body for group exercise, is the UK’s largest directory of group fitness classes. It aims to get people active by making it easier to search for local and virtual class listings. Users simply use their postcode to find activities and contact the instructor. With over 2 million class views, and national campaigns such as This Girl Can and Moving Medicine signposting people to classfinder, it has rapidly established itself as the definitive search engine.
