Building a Video Exercise Library
When I was training people in person, a video exercise library wasn’t a necessity. I would show people how to perform exercises in person and give form feedback in real time. As I made the transition to online training, I quickly discovered that a video exercise library would be crucial to my success as a coach and my clients’ success with their programs. In this blog, I’ll be discussing how I’ve created my video exercise library. If you’re a coach, this one might be useful for you!
I transitioned to online coaching about a year and a half ago and began building out my exercise library as I programmed various exercises. TrueCoach, the training platform that I use, allows me to attach videos directly into my client’s programs, so that’s what I’ll be discussing today. If you use Excel or Google Sheets, you can take a similar approach, but obviously your end product would go into your training platform of choice rather than TrueCoach.
Here are the steps I took to begin building my video exercise library:
Plan my current clients’ programs.
I programmed for my clients and wrote down which exercises I would need to film. The exercises that I had programmed were my priority for filming, because these are the exercises they would be doing, so they would need videos for them!
Take my list of “to be filmed” exercises to the gym and…film them!
I just use my iPhone to film all of my exercise demos. I have a tripod that I ordered from amazon. I generally set up my phone and put a dumbbell or water bottle in the frame to get an idea of what the shot will look like. I try to film any exercises that use the same equipment at the same time. For example, if I need to film a dumbbell squat and a dumbbell RDL, I’ll film them back to back to save set up time. I prefer to film all of my demos as separate videos, rather than one long continuous video. It’s also important that you have decently good lighting, so maybe film near an open window during the day time, or near a decent light source.
Trim and import videos into editing software.
Since I just use my iPhone, I trim the videos and import them into iMovie. I’ve found that iMovie is the quickest and most convenient way to edit my demo videos, especially because I don’t really do anything fancy with them. I prefer to get right to the point, so I cut out all of the set up and exiting the frame shots. I like to remove the background sound and record a voiceover.
Record the voiceover, add music, etc.
Sometimes I add music to my videos, but usually I don’t. For exercise demos, I want my clients to be able to watch a quick video (25 seconds or less) and have the tools to complete the exercise. In my opinion, demo videos don’t need music if there’s a voiceover, but music might be nice if you choose not to do a voiceover. Personally, I choose music with no lyrics. I’m partial to some type of lo-fi because it’s generally nice and chill music. :) We want to think about what the videos will look and sound like from the perspective of our client.
Save to your phone then upload to YouTube (or some other video platform).
After I’ve added the voiceover, I save the video from iMovie to my phone. I open up the YouTube app and begin uploading my demo videos straight from my phone’s video library. YouTube will let you title the video, add a description, and choose privacy settings.
6. Grab the video link from YouTube and import to your training platform!
As I mentioned previously, TrueCoach allows direct video links within my programs. My clients use the TrueCoach app, so everything is available to them on their phone. My clients and I find this very convenient. I used to use Excel or Google Sheets for my programs, and I definitely still like these methods, but for client and programming ease, I think I might prefer TrueCoach. If I were using Excel or Sheets, I would just hyperlink the videos into my programs!
That’s pretty much it! I’ve made the choice to build out my exercise library as I go, but you could also make a giant list of exercises that you want to film and do it that way, too. Either way, I find a video exercise library to be an important part of an online fitness business.
As always, let me know if you have any comments or questions!
In strength,
Jory
