Christine Alexander is the author of 2 books on water exercise each published by Human Kinetics.
Water Fitness Progressions (2019) was written for water fitness instructors and aquatic personal trainers. It describes how to use periodization to help class participants and clients progress in their level of fitness. It contains lesson plans that illustrate how to progressively increase intensity for both cardiorespiratory endurance and strength training.
Water Fitness Lesson Plans and Choreography (2011) was written for water fitness instructors. It has 36 class ideas for shallow water exercise and 36 class ideas for deep water exercise. Individuals may find the exercise descriptions and photos useful for building a personal exercise routine.
It’s a brand new year and many of us made a resolution to exercise more. We all know that exercise has many benefits for our hearts and lungs. Did you know that it also reduces your risk of dementia later in life? The best exercise is one that you will actually do, so pick something that you enjoy. For me, that is water exercise, hands down!
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 30-60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise five days a week, or 20-30 minutes of vigorous exercise three days a week. So it is important to know how hard you are working. That’s not so easy in the pool. Immersion in water relaxes your blood vessels so that stroke volume increases, that is, your heart pumps more blood to the working muscles with each beat than it would on land. Hydrostatic pressure compresses all body systems, including the blood vessels, which means the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to return blood from the limbs back to the heart. Therefore your heart uses fewer beats per minute while exercising in water (called your aquatic deduction) than the equivalent intensity on land. You can measure your heart rate on land and in water and use formulas to determine your target heart rate. All that is too much trouble for most people, including me. Instead, many of us wear fitness watches. These do not take your aquatic deduction into account to accurately tell you how hard you are working, but they can tell you whether your heart rate is increasing or decreasing. I use my fitness watch to give me a general idea and then combine that with a rating of perceived exertion.
The Rating of Perceived Exertion is a method of assessing effort, strain, discomfort, or fatigue experienced during exercise. Research has shown that although this method is subjective, it is fairly accurate. The Aquatic Exercise Intensity Scale was developed to take into consideration the unique aspects of training in water. it uses a scale of 1-10 to help assess intensity levels.
No effort at all (lying down).
Extremely little. Your heart rate is near resting.
Very easy. You are comfortable but breathing a bit harder.
Easy. You are working a little bit, and you could do this all day without any problems.
Somewhat easy. You are working a little harder, but you can still talk easily and sing.
Moderate. Your breathing has increased at a noticeable level. You can still talk, but not sing.
Somewhat hard. You now have to breathe through your mouth. You can still talk, but you don’t really want to.
Hard. Your heart is pounding. You can grunt in response to questions, but you can only keep this pace a short time.
Very hard. Your breathing is rapid and so is your heart rate. You can’t do this much longer.
Maximum effort. All you can think about is how much you would like to stop because you can’t go any further.
If you are wanting to do 30-60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise five days a week, you would work at level 6 to 7. To work at level 6, use long levers at full range of motion. To work at level 7, increase the speed of your movements without decreasing the range of motion. If you are wanting to do 20-30 minutes of vigorous exercise three days a week, you would work at level 7 to 8. To work at level 8, add acceleration and power to your movements.
If you are just starting out. It is common to go all out in your enthusiasm to begin a fitness routine. But if you have not exercised for a long time, you can easily overdo it, and suffer from muscle soreness, fatigue or even sustain an injury. It is better to focus on form (maintaining good alignment) and performing the exercises correctly at first. Work at a somewhat easy level. After you have gotten comfortable with that, then start to increase your intensity gradually. Your goal is to make your exercise routine a life long commitment.
For many people (and that includes me) working out in the water is perceived as fun. Adding some exercises or activities with a ball makes a class seem like play. Balls and fun just go together. I like to include fun activities occasionally as a mental break from the hard work of doing cardio, intervals and strength training throughout the year. During the holidays at the end of the year, when there is often so much shopping, baking, decorating, and entertaining stress, I like to tone down the training a bit and spend more time on fun and games. These can be relay races, obstacle courses and a variety of things with noodles, but nothing brings out the smiles like walking into the facility with a bag of balls.
You can find inexpensive play balls at discount and dollar stores. You want them to be approximately volley ball size. Take a little air out of them so that participants can grasp them, otherwise they can be hard to manage. You can do strength training exercises with balls. Push and pull them while jogging, lunging or squatting. Push them across the midline of the body or sweep them from side to side. Push them down under the water with a jacks tuck or Cossack kick. Put them between the legs and squeeze them for inner thigh work. With the ball between the legs go suspended and travel with breaststroke or reverse breaststroke. Use them for hand exercises. Squeeze with all five fingers to improve grip strength, or squeeze one finger at a time. For finger flexibility lift one finger off the ball at a time.
Then there are the games!
Eye-Hand Coordination. Have the class stand in a circle. Give them 1-3 balls to toss around the circle. Periodically add another ball to make it more challenging. Call out “Switch” and they must change from passing the ball clockwise to counter clockwise, or back to clockwise.
Pass the Ball. Form a circle with an even number of players. Every other person is on the same team. Give one ball to a player on one side of the circle and a second ball to a player on the opposite side of the circle. On signal, pass the ball from one team member to the next in the same direction around the circle. The first team to have their ball overtake the other team’s ball wins the game.
Ball Toss. Partners stand 6 feet apart with one ball between them. They toss the ball back and forth. Periodically have them take a step backward to increase the distance the ball is tossed.
Batting Practice. Partners stand 6-8 feet apart. One partner has the ball and the other has a kickboard. The one with the ball tosses it to the other who bats it back to the pitcher. Then they trade the ball and kickboard and change roles.
Walk the Dog. Divide the class into 2 or more teams, depending on the size of your class. You don’t want to have too many people standing in a line waiting for their turn. Give each team a ball and each person a noodle. Each person in turn keeps one end of the noodle in contact with the ball while walking to the turning point and back, where they hand off the dog to the next player in line. The first team to complete the relay wins.
Waiter Relay. Divide the class into 2 or more teams, depending on the size of your class. Give each team a ball and everyone a kickboard. The first person on each team balances the ball on the kickboard while walking to the turning point and back, then hands the ball off to the next person on the team. If the ball falls off the kickboard, that team member has to chase it and return to where they lost the ball. The first team to complete the relay wins.
If you have some other ideas for games with balls, put them in the comments section below.
Stabilization is the ability to maintain balance and control during movement. This requires coordination between the muscles, tendons, and ligaments that support the joints. When you perform any type of movement, the prime movers, or agonists, are primarily responsible for creating the movement. The antagonist muscles oppose the movement of the prime movers. There may also be some muscles that assist the movement. The stabilizer muscles provide support and stability to the prime movers. The muscles of the core, including the transverse abdominis, multifidus, gluteus medius, and pelvic floor muscles, function as stabilizers in nearly every movement. Ideally the stabilizer muscles fire first, that is, movement begins from the inside, ensuring that the movement is executed with proper form.
When we were born, we all moved from the inside out. Eventually our bodies found it was easier to move from the outside in. Our superficially placed muscles fire first when we are being efficient or mobility focused. When we are safety or stability focused, our deep tissue muscles fire first.
Our bodies want to be efficient, so they often find the easiest way to do things. The easiest, most efficient way to lift your arms during ‘the wave’ in the stadium is to propel your head forward. The safest way is to stabilize your core so only the arms move. The easiest, most efficient way to lift your knee up high is to propel your torso forward. The safest way is to stabilize the torso before lifting the knee.
Other common efficiency examples you’ll see or feel:
Rib flare and lumbar extension to reach overhead instead of letting the thoracic spine/ribcage mobilize.
Knee collapse (valgus) or foot collapse during squats and stairs because the hip isn’t stabilizing in the frontal plane.
Hip hitch or leaning the trunk forward during walking/running when the lateral hip can’t hold the pelvis level (Trendelenburg).
Neck tension and breath-holding when the diaphragm isn’t leading the breath, forcing accessory neck muscles to overwork.
Back rounding and twisting to pick objects up when the hips won’t hinge.
None of these mean you’re “broken”. It means your brain / nervous system chose a strategy that worked once and then it became automated. Habit, fatigue, aging, pregnancy/postpartum changes, and sport repetition—can prompt the body to find “workarounds” that feel efficient in the moment but quietly tax joints, tendons, and the nervous system.
Sometimes an injury or surgery can change the muscle firing sequence. When you injure a body part it will hurt to use the muscles around it, so other muscles get involved. This is called compensation. Your body should return to normal after healing, but it often doesn’t. You may end up with muscles that shouldn’t be involved firing for the rest of your life. When a joint that should hold can’t, the neighbor tries to move less or move too much.
The good news is that we can teach our bodies to choose safety, which means moving from the inside out (stabilize first). At its simplest: stability is controlled stillness—the precise amount of muscular co-contraction that lets other segments move freely. It is not “rigid bracing all the time.” It’s dynamic and follows two steps.
The first step is the breath. Real core stability starts with the pressure system inside the torso. When the diaphragm descends on inhale and the pelvic floor responds, the abdominal wall and deep spinal muscles (transversus abdominis, multifidi) create 360° intra-abdominal pressure that supports the lumbar spine like an internal airbag. Exhalation then organizes the ribcage over the pelvis so force transfers cleanly from the ground up through the hips, trunk, and shoulders. This is why “stack your ribs over your pelvis and breathe wide into your sides and back” is such potent coaching; it sets the platform before you move.
Step two is brain entrainment. Brain entrainment, also called neural entrainment, is a phenomenon where the brainwaves synchronize with external stimulation. It is how the brain picks movement patterns (helpful and not). Your brain has two top priorities: safety and efficiency. If a pattern feels safe and lets you accomplish the task quickly, your nervous system will favor it … even if it steals stability from one place to create motion somewhere else. Practice engrains these choices into durable habits. Some habits are protective and powerful; others become compensations that limit performance or invite overload. Therefore, it is necessary to relearn stabilization.
The Heavy Concept is an excellent technique for relearning stabilization. It puts the focus back on the synergistic and stabilizing muscles and takes it away from the prime mover. Here’s an example. While you are sitting, do 4 alternating knee lifts. You probably will notice that your body rocks either side-to-side or forward and back. Now imagine that someone has super-glued your foot to the floor. Try to lift it. It won’t come up but continue trying harder (without letting the body lean). What you did was activate the deep tissue trunk/core muscles, the stabilizers. Next, imagine that you are slowly overcoming the super-glue as you lift your leg. The Heavy Concept is neuromuscular retraining.
Another re-education option is to organize from the center out (a 60-second reset)
Stack: Stand with ribs over pelvis, soft knees, long back of the neck.
Diaphragmatic 360° breath: Inhale through the nose, expanding low ribs, sides, and back; exhale through gently pursed lips to feel the lower ribs glide down without crunching.
Set pressure: On the end of the exhale, keep a gentle 15–20% abdominal tone (not a hard brace) while you begin the next inhale.
Move: Keep this quiet pressure while you hinge, reach, step, or perform any exercise. If you lose it, reset.
There are exercises you can do to strengthen the stabilizers. On land the exercises typically challenge the body in an unstable environment, such as on a stability ball. But the water is a dynamic environment, making it ideal for stability challenges. Here are some examples:
Knee lifts using the Heavy Concept
Yoga plank on a noodle. Try lifting one leg toward the surface.
Yoga side plank on a noodle. Try lifting the top leg toward the surface.
Single leg stand. Try extending one leg forward as you stand on the other foot. Or raise one or both arms overhead.
Single leg squats.
Fall forward, tuck your feet under you and stand up.
Fall sideways, tuck your feet under you and stand up.
You can practice stabilization using the Heavy Concept in daily-life situations:
Lifting the dog/groceries: imagine that they are heavier than they actually are and you should feel deep tissue muscles in the torso engage.
Stairs: As you shift your weight up, imagine that your body is incredibly heavy and you should feel your core engage.
Reaching high: imagine that it’s really hard to lift your arms, and you should feel your shoulder blades depress.
The benefits of improved stabilization include reducing the risk of falls, reducing the risk of suffering from an injury, improving your brain-body connection, increasing your overall body awareness, and quicker reaction times. Stabilization isn’t about bracing harder, it’s about breathing, stacking, and timing so that the right parts hold while the right parts move. Nail that first, and the Heavy Concept will feel intuitive: add the right kind of “heavy,” and your brain upgrades the pattern for keeps.
Rubberized equipment is a strength training tool that is not like either buoyant or drag equipment, which makes it a great way to add variety to your water fitness classes. You can get flat bands, loops, resistance tubing, and tubing with a velcro closure ankle strap on one end. Rubberized equipment comes in a variety of resistance strengths from extra light to extra heavy. Since Latex and rubber tend to deteriorate quickly in chlorinated pool water, it is important to inspect the equipment before using it to make sure it is not on the verge of breaking. Chlorine resistant rubberized equipment lasts longer and is available from places like Theraquatics, which sells equipment specifically for use in an aquatic setting. Rubberized equipment works virtually the same in the pool as it does on land. You need an anchored point. Any muscle action away from the anchored point is resisted and concentric, that is the muscle shortens as it contracts. Any muscle action toward the anchored point is assisted and eccentric, that is the muscle lengthens under tension.
Bands.Latex flat bands are economical, costing $2.99 each. They come in 4-foot lengths and are 5-and-a-half inches wide; they come in 7 resistance levels. Latex-free-flat bands made of synthetic polymer material are available for $2.05 to $3.25 each, depending on which of the 5 resistance levels you want. They come in 5-foot lengths and are 4 inches wide. You can also buy a 150-foot long 4-inch wide latex-free bulk roll that you can cut into whatever lengths you choose. There are 5 resistance levels for these bands. The cost is $52.90 to $109.99 depending on the amount of resistance.
Loops. The Budget Fitness Loop is 99.998% free of latex allergens and costs $2.99 each. It has a 24-inch circumference and is 1-and-a-half inches wide. It comes in 5 resistance levels. The Aqua Loop costs $9.99 and comes in one resistance level. The blue extreme resistance level loop has been discontinued. My experience with the Aqua Band made by the same company is that the white lettering on the band began to peel off after several uses, leaving small white flecks in the water, but their band has been discontinued. Hopefully they have solved that problem with the loop. Loops are good for placing around the ankles or thighs and doing lower body work. You will have to be the judge on whether to use loops with your water fitness class. Many of my participants would have difficulty stepping into them or taking them off in the water.
Resistance Tubing. The Resistacizer comes in 4 colors/resistance levels, yellow/light for $5.25, red/medium for $5.80, blue/heavy for $7.00, and black/extra heavy for $8.95. The tubes are made from rubber with handles at both ends. A Safety Tube is also available. It is enclosed in an elastic nylon sheath to prevent the tubing from snapping and hitting the exerciser. This is especially important in assisted living centers and nursing homes where safety is paramount. The Safety Tube costs $9.99. I have 3 sizes of the Resistacizer that I use with my classes.
Pool Aqua Band. The Pool Aqua Band has been heavily advertised in Akwa magazine. It is tubing with a velcro enclosure ankle strap. It costs $25.50 and comes in 5 resistance levels. The velcro strap can be attached to the ankle before you get in the pool and you only have to hold the other end so that you do not trip on it when going down the pool ladder. That makes it easier to use than loops. You can use your ankle as the anchored point and work the upper body or you can use your arm as the anchored point and work the lower body. This makes the Pool Aqua Band truly versatile. However, you cannot use the Pool Aqua Band in the deep end since you could not stand on one foot and stabilize.
Using Rubberized Equipment. In the pool you could wrap your band or tubing around a pool ladder to use as your anchored point, however that is impractical in a class setting. Therefore, you need to find other ways to create anchored points. You can hold one end of the equipment stable with one hand for your anchored point, and pull the equipment with the other hand. That works for scapula retraction, shoulder flexion, shoulder extension, and triceps extension. From a single leg stance with the other knee lifted, or from a seated position you can place the band under your thigh(s), making the thigh your anchored point. That works for shoulder abduction and biceps flexion. Place the tubing behind your back, making your back the anchored point. That works for chest fly, chest press, and rotator cuff internal rotation. Hold the ends of the equipment in front and pull the ends apart for shoulder horizontal abduction and rotator cuff external rotation. This makes the center of the of the tubing the anchored point. With bands, you wrap the ends around the hand until the length is appropriate for the exercise you are performing. With resistance tubing, I hold the handle in one hand, and thread my wrist through the opposite handle, then I position my hand on the length that is appropriate for the exercise. In this way I avoid having a loose handle flopping around in the water. (See the photo at the top of this post.) Modify your exercises by pulling away from the anchored point quickly, pausing, and then releasing the resistance slowly to focus on eccentric muscle actions. Another option is to pull away from the anchored point, pause, release the resistance halfway, pause again, then release it the rest of the way. There are pictures of sample exercises or videos on most of the Theraquatics links above. Check out my YouTube video link for a demonstration of shoulder horizontal abduction. Water Fitness Progressions has sample lesson plans and circuit class ideas using rubberized equipment in both shallow and deep water.
After a strength training class using rubberized equipment, I fill my bath tub with water to rinse the chlorine off, then hang them across the shower bar to dry. It is recommended to store rubberized equipment in a cool, dark place, away from direct sunlight. Put a comment on the box below and let me know which you prefer: bands, loops, resistance tubing or pool aqua bands?
Drag equipment comes in all sizes, shapes and colors. Drag is the resistance you feel to movement in the water. There is friction between the water molecules (viscosity) causing them to adhere to each other. This friction causes resistance to motion. Sweep your hand through the water, and that resistance you feel is drag. You can increase the amount of drag by increasing your speed of movement or by increasing the surface area of your hand. Do this by spreading the fingers slightly and make your palms face the direction of motion. Drag equipment increases the surface area even more. If the surface of your drag equipment has bumps, edges, fins or other irregularities, these create eddies, or currents that move in directions different from the current you are creating by the direction of your movement. Turbulence is created when the eddies become chaotic. Drag, eddies and turbulence all increase resistance and can effectively provide overload to improve muscular strength and endurance.
The muscles of the human body are primarily organized in pairs. When one muscle of the pair (the prime mover) contracts or shortens, the opposite muscle lengthens or stretches. When you return to your starting position, the opposing muscle contracts and becomes the prime mover, while the opposite muscle stretches. When you use drag equipment you are providing resistance to the muscle that is contracting. You do not have to get into any special positions to work both muscles because, unlike buoyant equipment, drag equipment provides resistance in every direction. There is resistance moving the equipment down toward the pool floor, lifting it up toward the surface of the water, sweeping it from side to side, moving it in diagonal patterns, and rotating it in circles. You can target every muscle group with drag equipment. That is why I am a big fan of drag equipment.
Here are a few examples of drag equipment, where to buy them, and a short video demonstration of an exercise using the equipment:
Webbed gloves.Webbed gloves are the easiest piece of drag equipment to use. Just slip them on and start your workout. The resistance is light enough that you can use webbed gloves for an entire class without risking an injury. Webbed gloves can be used in both shallow and deep water. Many of my participants bring their own gloves to class. Hydro-Fit gloves cost $19.95 a pair. Click on rotator cuff sweep for a video demonstration of one exercise using webbed gloves.
Boqs.Boqs are a brand new piece of drag equipment. They are advertised as omnidirectional, resistive aquatic exercise equipment that is big enough to create more and more resistance the faster you use them – challenging every major muscle group in your body. You can use them in shallow or deep water, which I presume means that they float. I have not seen them nor had an opportunity to test them out, but they look interesting. A pair costs $44.99. They are so new that no video demonstrations are yet available.
Hydro-Tone hydro bells.Hydro-tone bells have been around for a long time. They are large with multiple surfaces, fins and openings which create a lot of turbulence. They offer a lot of resistance. By doubling your speed of movement you can quadruple the resistance. All that resistance makes them popular with athletes. They can be used in shallow water, but you cannot create enough stability to handle that much resistance in deep water. A pair costs $79.95 on the Hydro-Tone website. Click on push-pull for a video demonstration of one exercise using Hydro-Tone hydro bells.
Aqualogix Training Bells.Aqualogix bells have three surfaces, fins and openings to create turbulence. There is a handle on the inside, and if you hold it one way, the fin is on the bottom and a flat surface is on the top, creating a larger surface area and more resistance for forward and upward moves. Hold the handle the other way and the fin is on top with the flat surface on the bottom, creating more resistance for backward and downward moves. They come in three sizes, low, medium and high resistance. I love my low resistance Aqualogix bells, and have used them with my participants in circuit classes. They float and the equipment is suitable for deep water as well as shallow. They are sold for $74.95 a pair by Hydro Revolution. Click on cross-country ski for a video demonstration of one exercise using Aqualogix training bells.
Liquid Stars. Liquid stars are buoyant equipment that can be used like drag equipment. They are a fun piece of equipment with a smiley face in the middle. You can put your fingers through the smile or put a finger through each eye hole. The yellow small stars and blue medium stars are sold as pairs. The red large star is the size of a small kickboard and is sold as a single. You can use them in shallow or deep water. They are sold by Indigo Aquatics for $26 for a pair of small stars, $30 for a medium pair, and $25 for a large one. Click on suspended push for a video demonstration of one exercise using liquid stars.
Aqua Ohm. The Aqua Ohm was created by a licensed physical therapist who wanted a piece of drag equipment that could be used for both upper body and lower body. It is made of a flexible flat surface with three handles. Two handles are fixed on the ends. The third handle is movable and can be used to adjust the length of the equipment. The website has a lot of information about how to use it. My shallow water class enjoys using the Aqua Ohm. Since it does not float, it is not appropriate for deep water. It costs $36.95 on the Aqua Ohm website. Click on biceps curl for a video demonstration of one exercise using an Aqua Ohm.
AquaFlex Paddle Water Fans.Paddles have a handle with a round fan on each end. The fans have adjustable blades that you can fully open for the least resistance or fully close for the most resistance. You can also adjust them to be partially open. I have been using them successfully with my shallow water class for years. Since they do not float, they cannot be used in deep water. You can get them from Theraquatics for $32.99 for a pair. Click on chest fly for a video demonstration of one exercise using AquaFlex paddle water fans.
This list of drag equipment is not exhaustive, but it gives you an idea of the variety that is available. Like any piece of equipment used in the pool, consider the safety of your participants. Choose a size that offers overload for strength training but is not so large that good form is compromised. Use the equipment for a section of your class, or alternate drag equipment sets with sets using no equipment to avoid overtaxing your shoulder stabilizers. Water Fitness Progressions has strength training lesson plans for webbed gloves, paddles, and drag bells, as well as circuit classes using them.
Let me know what your favorite kind of drag equipment is in the comment section below. See you in the pool!
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