Who Chooses The Selection of Exercises
I will say 9/10 exercises are great and I truly love my time at F45, but I also have a degree in kinesiology and every week there are 2-3 exercises in the rotation that are not really connected to any peer reviewed literature for being particular effective at building endurance or helping your body.
Two weeks ago there was one where everyone was required to stay in a squatting position while doing a shoulder press. This is a junk exercise that's not based on anything. Doing a FULL squat into a press is a very studied movement, but I literally could not find anyone with a PhD in kines who thought this movement was a good idea. Unless you've already trained the area, staying in a squat with loading another muscle can lead to a very serious injury.
Most half kneeling movements that involve weight loading are also not really a thing experts do anymore. It's not really a position you can load much weight in and because of injury occurrence, it's not seen as being the most optimal for strengthening the hips.
As someone with a bit of expertise in the space, sometimes it feels like everything is designed by an expert, but other times it also feels like a random person who has no background in kinesiology is either inventing something or doing something most people in the industry think is antiquated.
No personal trainer with a full university/college degree is ever going to have you do a shoulder press while sitting on the ground with your legs out or while staying in a full squat.
It's getting to the point at my F45 where people ignore those exercises competently and do something else, so I know I'm not the only one experiencing this. I am just a bit concerned F45 has someone on their team who is helping select exercises who really should not be doing that.