If you’re like me, before you take a class you want to make sure it’s worth your time, right? For me, there’s nothing worse than taking 45 minutes to an hour out of my day for a fitness class and leaving there feeling like it wasn’t a good workout or what I was looking for. I HATE wasting time, so often times if I don’t know who the instructor is, I’ll usually opt to just do my own workout because I know I’ll accomplish what I’m looking to accomplish for that particular day.

And, on the flip side, maybe a tough, challenging workout is NOT what you’re looking for. Imagine how that would feel walking into a class and feeling intimidated by the type of workout- maybe too much jumping or heavy weights or complicated moves. Maybe the music is too loud or the instructor is too “in your face”.

Whatever the reason may be, we all have different likes and dislikes when it comes to exercise and fitness classes, which is where Instructor Insider comes into play. Instructor Insider is a site where you can find out more about various instructors at boutique indoor cycling studios in and around the Boston area (think: Flywheel, Recycle, Velo-City, Handle Bar, Pursuit, Turn Style, Soul Cycle) by reading the reviews that other people have posted. Right now, this is only a site for indoor cycling studio instructor reviews, but my contact said that based on requests from users, they plan on adding in other boutique studios to the mix soon (think: Barry’s Bootcamp, Barre classes, yoga classes, etc.).

As far as what the site offers right now, there are a number of different categories to rate your instructor on such as Motivation, Choreography, Clarity, Music, Attendance and Soreness. There’s also a place to write out some thoughts/comments/feedback in case the categories don’t touch on everything you want to talk about.

When the founders of this site reached out to me to see if I wanted to help spread the word about Instructor Insider, it was something I was excited to share with all of you, especially since boutique studios are pretty much taking over the city and city suburbs, right?! I just love the idea of getting to rate your instructor which not only gives THEM feedback about what people think of their class, but also gives others like us a glimpse into what we can expect to get with various instructors and allows us to pick classes that align with our fitness goals and class preferences.

Here’s a little more detail from the founders:

Who we are:
Instructor Insider was started by a group of 5 friends living in Boston who love boutique workout classes. We all have very different interests but have found a common passion for butt-kicking workout classes. We’ve also discovered that we each define “butt-kicking” very differently. Our collective class experiences have convinced us that there should be a better way for people to find the best fitness class that’s right for them.

Why we started Instructor Insider:
We recognized a lack of actually helpful information on individual instructors at studios. Our mission is to give workout class participants the knowledge to confidently select the instructor that best fits their preferences. We want to build a collection of genuine experiences that you can depend on to choose the best instructor for you.

 What makes Instructor Insider unique:

• Quality Reviews. Our reviews highlight what really matters when deciding on an instructor, rather than just being a free-form response prompt. We spent a lot of time selecting the 6 pre-populated questions, which highlight the qualities we think are critical to understand the class experience. The sliding scale bars require thought since all the way to the left or right isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing.
• Simplicity. Instructor Insider was built to be as simple to use as possible. It will always be focused solely on reviews of individual instructors, be easy to read, and show you want you want to see within 2-3 clicks.

Sounds pretty great, right? I spent some time perusing the reviews and found them super helpful- they also made me want to get out there and take an indoor cycling class! Which is super easy to do right from their site- they have a “sign up” button for each studio which links you to that particular studios sign-up page. It’s almost TOO easy 😉

What we are asking from those of you in and around the Boston area who visit boutique indoor cycling classes, is for you to head on over to their site and rate your instructor! Make sure to use the code “B2B” because there’s a 1 in 10 chance for you to be picked to win a free class to one of these studios (you get to pick which one!). I know I’ll be heading over to rate some instructors I’ve had because I loveeee free things 🙂

So, to recap: Instructor Insider is a site set up to rate your indoor cycling instructors. They are asking for help to build up their site traffic and reviews, which is where YOU come in. By reviewing, you have a 1 in 10 chance to win a free class to an indoor cycling studio of your choice. Here’s the fine print:

• 1 out of 10 reviews wins a free class to the studio of his/her choice (max value $30)
• Reviewers must put in the “B2B” promo code in the “promo code” field located on the review submission page.
• Contest open for 2 weeks from today, April 6th (Ends on April 20th)
• Winner will be notified via email from Instructor Insider and I’ll post on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks in advance for your reviews and help with promoting this new site!! And good luck 🙂