We Make Vocal Health a Priority for Fitness Coaches
Teaching fitness instructors how to protect their voices for a lifelong career in the fitness industry!
Liz Peterson Orangetheory Fitness Vocal Health for Colorado
Are You in The Fitness Industry Looking for Voice Training?
Did you know that school teachers and fitness instructors are the largest group of professionals to be diagnosed with a voice injury? Once the voice moves from feeling fatigued to injured, fitness coaching is indefinitely suspended, and speech therapy or surgery would be required.
When the vocal mechanism is compromised, fitness coaches, as well as gym owners, experience:
- Coaches requiring a leave of absence to regain their voice creates a staffing issue.
- Members are frustrated when they can’t work with their preferred coach.
- The reliability of the fitness studio or coach is at risk when there are too many absences. Members are frustrated and may feel they did not receive the full value of their costly membership dues.
Did you know?
Our training teaches fitness coaches how to keep a healthy voice to avoid harmful vocal injuries by:
- Revealing specific harmful habits that can create a voice injury during group classes without coaches realizing it.
- Correctly identifying where the best voice placement is located to safely coach high-intensity group classes.
- Coaching from a diaphragm breath. Many fitness coaches know how to take a diaphragm breath. It is another coordinated effort to continually teach from it and make it a habit across routines.
Often instructors comment how easy it is to slip out of the new skills and go back to old unsafe voice habits without realizing it. We help you put all of it together! We provide hands-on coaching during our training. Coaches cue up the music and demonstrate their routines while maintaining their voice and breathing skills. They are evaluated to ensure they are in their optimal vocal pitch range and instructing from a diaphragm breath. Coaching habits that can cause a voice issue are identified on the spot.
Teaching specific voice exercises for a correct warm-up before coaching and exercises for when the voice feels overworked.
Make vocal health a priority by understanding voice mechanics and coaching with a safe and healthy voice
- Elizabeth Peterson M.A., CCC-SLP is a licensed speech-language pathologist and voice coach with over 20 years of experience with a specialty in voice mechanics and operator of a Denver private practice for over 10 years.
- Author of Coach Your Voice to Optimal Health: Avoiding Voice Injuries for a Life Long Career in The Fitness Industry (2023).
- Trainer to Orangetheory Fit coaches on how to maintain a safe and healthy voice in the state of Colorado.
Corporate Clients
Look What Former Clients Say about Working with Us!
“Liz’s program looked very interesting to us to get us better prepared for presentations. I am an engineer and have not had any public speaking training. We are going to be much better prepared with her methodology. She is such a dynamic person with a lot of energy. She can really teach you how to deliver your message. She is very good at what she does and this training was very helpful for us. We would like to have her back.”
“Her class has taught me to slow down. Liz’s teaching style is so different from what I have had before. She is about how to deliver that message clearly and with impact. She also focuses on how you sound. You know that when you sound good that you are confident. She knows that based on how you sound is how you will appear. Her training has helped me so much. I feel ready to deliver a presentation.”
Begin Healthy Voice Training Today.
We Offer Two Training Methods:
Onsite Training Your Team
We come to your studio and work with your coaches onsite.
Online Training
Self-paced classes designed for fitness coaches and their vocal needs. Joining live webinars for feedback is included. Single purchase or bulk discount pricing to train your entire studio staff.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to the voice during high-intensity group classes?
When coaching fitness classes, you are placing a high demand on the vocal mechanism. When excited about the routine, client performance, and speaking over the loud music, vocal health is not on the coach’s mind. The voice is overworked and strained during fitness routines and over time can result in a voice injury.
What are the signs of a strained voice or a voice injury?
- When fitness trainers have a hoarse vocal quality during or at the end of a routine or the voice begins to hurt during the class.
- The voice mechanism hurts most of the time and feels hot or sore when swallowing or talking outside of class.
- Get a sore throat from the flu and the hoarse vocal quality remains for several weeks or months long after the cold has passed.
- The voice has a consistent hoarse or strained vocal quality sound to it.
- Feels like something is stuck in the throat and it can’t clear.
What is the treatment plan for a strained voice due to fitness coaching?
If it is caught early and treatment begins immediately, the voice issue can be resolved with a break from coaching, voice exercises, discontinuation of harmful behaviors that caused the voice injury, and incorporating new healthy and safe voice habits. If the voice issue becomes more developed, then a lengthy break from fitness coaching may be recommended along with formal voice therapy from a speech-language pathologist and working with an ENT.
What are some common voice injuries that can occur from a strained voice?
Vocal nodules and polyps. A vocal nodule is located at the 1/3 anterior region on the vocal folds. Vocal polyps are fluid-filled sacks that can be anywhere along the vocal folds and vocal region. Both issues can cause pain and a severe hoarse and strained voice making communication very hard to hear and understand, and often suspends or ends a fitness instructor’s career. Treatment is often surgery and formal speech therapy for several weeks. Given that many fitness coaches freelance and do not have medical insurance, educating themselves to avoid a vocal injury would be the best practice.
What are the two most important skills for fitness coaches to do when coaching fitness routines?
Coach from the optimal pitch range and instruct from a diaphragm breath. Optimal pitch is located in the lower throat, and it is the safest place to coach from because the vocal folds operate at their best in that area and it is the safest place for the voice during high-demand speaking situations. Many fitness coaches know how to take a diaphragm breath, however, coordinating speech and diaphragm breathing can be tricky to blend the two skills. We teach our fitness instructors how to coach from the optimal pitch range while speaking with a full diaphragm breath. It’s a small learning curve but necessary to maintain a safe and healthy voice during fitness instruction.