A guide to planning and creating your custom exercise video library. A walk trough essential steps for creating engaging content for your clients.
On the journey from idea to creating your personalized custom exercise video library, it is important to carefully plan and execute some of the following tasks.
In this short guide, I will walk you trough essential steps, for creating and uploading a high-quality content on your chosen platform.
Whether you are a fitness professional or just starting, these steps will help you create engaging content for your clients.
Key aspects are:
- Know your audience,
- Exercise selection,
- Recording the content,
- Editing the videos and
- Uploading the content.
With these tips you learn a smooth process and deliver high-quality fitness content.
- Know your audience
The most important question that will help you with your exercise selection is: Who my target clients are? If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably have an idea what kind of exercises are most common among your clients. Think of where your clients do most of their workouts. At home, outside or at the gym? Perhaps they do them in all settings. Don’t forget the equipment they most commonly use. Based on all those things, you will get the first idea about the exercises you want to include.
Secondly, think of the level at which your clients are. Perhaps you work only with beginners or mostly with advanced athletes. Do you want to create a library for just a specific group, or do you want to have a broader audience?
Next step will be to decide on the length of your videos. Do you want to show just a quick demonstration on how to perform the exercise, or will they follow you along, watching and performing the exercises?
Most common exercise library consists of short, 30s demonstrations and then the client performs the exercises on their own. However, you can choose to record longer videos in a follow-along format. It is important to consider, what your clients want and what is the most convenient way for them.
Don’t forget to think about the budget. Longer videos tend to be more expensive and not as versatile for later use as shorter clips. Therefore, think about the long-term use and ways you can re-use the videos.
- Exercise selection
Once you have an idea who your target audience is, you can go ahead and select the exercises. We advise you to create a sheet with the exercise name, target body area, target muscle group, movement pattern/exercise type, difficulty level, required equipment and possible modifications of the exercises. You can include less or more information, based on your target audience.
However, from our experience, we suggest including as much information as possible, to give you a better overview of the selected exercises. That way you can easily spot, if you missed anything. Once you have a complete list, review it, and make any necessary corrections, so you have a clean list of exercise content and you can proceed to the following step.
- Recording the content
Now, that you have your list ready, you can start planning how to record the content. You need to find an appropriate space, with good lighting. Depending on exercise selection, you will perhaps need to record them in the gym. Make sure the place looks nice and tidy, this way the content will look more professional. Again, it is important to know who your target audience is and where the exercises will be performed. There is nothing wrong if videos are recorded at home, they can look even better, especially if you are offering home workouts.
To record the content, you can use a phone or a camera – depending on your budget. Make sure to select the right settings. The key thing is to have a good source of light and a camera/phone holder/stand.
Even the best cameras, without a good lighting and basic stand, won’t be able to record good looking video content.
When you have a place and equipment set, you can record the exercises.
Start with a few test shots, to see if the set-up, lights and camera are working properly. Check if you are always in the frame. There is nothing worse than recording a bunch of exercises, just to realize you can’t use them (because auto-focus was focusing on wrong object, you are out of frame, lighting is changing and so on). Follow the list of exercises you prepared.
Our tip: We suggest grouping them based on their similarities. For example, record all videos on the floor, then move on, to record standing ones. In that way, you won’t need to move and adjust the camera every time and there are fewer possibilities for mistakes.
- Editing the videos
After you record the videos, it is time to edit them. If you have the necessary software, you can do it yourself, otherwise it is suggested to ask a professional. Usually, you will at least need to, cut the start and end points. Additionally, you will have to add elements, such as your logo, text, voiceover, transitions between workouts and music. It is up to you to decide, what you want to include, but again, consider what your clients prefer and how will you deliver the videos.
If you are on a budget, we recommend doing it on your own, since there are many affordable and easy-to-use video editing software solutions, especially if you do not intend to include advanced editing.
- Uploading the content
Once your videos are edited, it is time to upload them on your chosen platform. Will you use a software provider, where you can easily upload the videos, store them locally or create an app. On the market there are many great providers that make it easy to incorporate your exercise videos into a professional-looking app.
Most platforms have a free plan to start with. Some allow you, to just upload the videos and some give you more support, by allowing you to customize everything and give you a chance to communicate with the client and track their progress.
Here are some of the platforms you can use to host your videos:
| Vimeo | YouTube | Wistia | Kaltura | Brightcove | Dropbox | |
| Cost | Freemium, $0–$65/mo | Free | Freemium, $0–$99/mo | $$$$ Enterprise only | $$$$ Enterprise only | Freemium, $0–26/mo |
| Enterprise plans available | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Video quality | 4K HDR (Up to 8K) | 4K HDR (Up to 8K) | 4K HD | 4K HD | 4K HD | 4K HD (Paid plans) |
| Upload limits | 500 videos/yr | 256 GB or 12 hrs | 8 GB or 2 hrs | Unlimited | Unlimited | 2–250 GB |
| Ad free | Yes | No (free accounts) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Storage | 2 TB/mo | Unlimited | 10 videos/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited | 2–15 TB |
| Private videos | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Analytics | Yes | Some | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
With this we covered most of the things you need to know before creating your custom exercise library. If you find the process dauting or time consuming we offer assistance at FunMove and we are here to help!
We know that running a fitness business is hard. Your job is to be a trainer, not a content creator and video editor. Creating an exercise library is time-consuming. At Funmove we can help you create your dream exercise library. From selecting the exercises, organizing, recording and editing them.
We are here to help you save time effort and money. With delivering high-quality fitness video content, that will show your clients your expertise and boost your sales. We offer custom videos as well as a pre-recorded video library, that is immediately ready to use.
At FunMove we specialize in helping fitness professionals bring their dream exercise library. Let’s make your fitness journey not only effective, but also efficient and enjoyable.
If you have any questions or you would like to discuss the details make sure to get in touch with us by commenting bellow, or clicking HERE.
Good luck!