The holidays are coming soon, and if there are water fitness instructors or fitness enthusiasts on your gift list, here are some books you might want to consider purchasing for them. The name of the book is a link to order.
Water Fitness Lesson Plans and Choreography by Christine Alexander. I wrote this book 16 years ago and I still haven’t seen anything published that is similar. It was written to help new instructors learn the basics of class organization and keep veteran instructors out of the proverbial teaching rut. It has 36 lesson plans for shallow water exercise and 36 lesson plans for deep water exercise. The lesson plans include a warm-up, a main set, and a cool-down, plus a teaching tip. There are a total of 576 exercises described accompanied by 253 photos that depict the key features. The two sets of lesson plans correspond, so if you are teaching both shallow and deep water classes, all you have to remember are the specific exercise modifications to take the routine from one end of the pool to the other. This allows instructors to learn, remember, and feel comfortable offering a variety of class formats. Available for $35.06 on Amazon.
Water Fitness Progressions by Christine Alexander. I wrote this book for instructors who want to take the next step in their lesson planning. Scientific research tells us periodization is an important training technique that organizes fitness sessions into specific cycles. The benefits are continuous improvement leading to consistent performance gains, allowing participants set and achieve both short-term and long-term goals. Periodization helps prevent injury by minimizing the risk of overtraining because it includes recovery periods essential for muscle repair and growth. The lesson plans in this book are organized in cycles of pre-season, transition season, peak fitness and active recovery. Continuous aerobic training, interval training, and strength training options both with and without equipment are included. This is periodization made easy. Available for $42.00 on Amazon.
The Heavy Concept by Christine Alexander and Ruth Sova. This book describes how to train your deep core stabilizers. The big superficial muscles may get all the glory because they create visible movement and shape. But the deep muscles are the silent engineers that make powerful, pain-free efficient movement possible in the first place. You can feel them activate by sitting in your chair and trying to lift one knee while imagining that it is too heavy to lift. Try to lift it with all your might without letting your body lean. The quiet stability you feel in your trunk is your long-lost stabilizers waking up and doing their job. I like to use the heavy concept in my water fitness classes to help participants feel their stabilizers before we pick up the foam dumbbells for strength training. Available for $24.95 on DSL LTD.
The Strength Training Bible for Seniors by Dr. Karl Knopf. Strength training is essential to prevent sarcopenia, the gradual loss of muscle mass, strength and physical function that can make everyday activities harder, leading to frailty. Dr. Knopf’s book includes stretching exercises, core strength exercises, weight and resistance training exercises, and kettlebell exercises designed for people 50 years old and older. Many of the exercises use no equipment. Some use dumbbells, exercise bands, foam rollers, stability balls, or kettlebells. All of these are fairly inexpensive and you can use them at home. Every exercise has complete photo illustrations making them easy to understand. There are also sample programs for people with arthritis, back pain, breathing conditions and more, or you can put together your own strength training session. I have used this book myself and I can definitely recommend it. Available for $20.08 on Amazon
Stretching Anatomy by Arnold G. Nelson and Jouko Kokkonen. I found this book fascinating. It describes stretches for the neck; the shoulders, back, and chest; the arms, wrists, and hands; the lower trunk; the hips; the knees and thighs; and the feet and calves. Each stretch is illustrated with a drawing showing how to do the stretch. The fascinating part was that most of the drawings showed the muscles that were being stretched, both the most-stretched muscles and the lesser-stretched muscles. There were additional drawings of the muscles which were all labeled. I appreciated being able to see the muscles in action, as opposed to the usual static figure standing in the athletic stance. I am not able to get into every stretching position, but I have used many of the stretches following my strength training workouts out home, and even some at the end of my water fitness classes. Available for $9.23 on Amazon, as well as a newer version which I have not purchased for $23.21.
Find Your Balance by Ruth Sova. Ruth wrote this book as a practical guide for individuals. It explains how to assess your balance and interpret your assessment results so that you know where you stand. Then she explains exercise progressions for seated balance development and standing balance development. You start where you currently are, based on your assessment results, and work your way through the program from there. You can then take your balance exercises to the pool, which is the perfect place to work on balance because the water’s buoyancy supports you and takes away the fear of falling. You are never too old to improve your balance. Available for $19.00 on DSL LTD.
Balance and Fall Prevention by Ruth Sova. This book was written for aquatic professionals, and it goes into more detail than the book for individuals. It describes how to assess your client’s balance if you are an aquatic therapist and provides training progressions that go from seated balance to standing balance to balance in daily life. There are sections on aquatic exercise progressions that aquatic therapists and even aquatic fitness instructors can use. You can’t just improve your balance and then you have it for the rest of your life. It must be maintained. So there is a section on creating your personal lifelong balance plan, which your client can practice at home or in their water fitness class. I can’t say enough good things about these two books! Available for $49.95 on DSL LTD.
These are some of the books on my book shelf that I refer to frequently. You might know someone who would appreciate a copy. If there is a book you would like to add to this list, let us know about it in the comment section below.
See you in the pool!
Chris Alexander
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