Benefits of Water Exercise

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This is not the first time I have promoted the benefits of water exercise! But research is ongoing and the list of benefits is getting longer. Two organizations, the National Swimming Pool Foundation and Playcore, created a resource called Water Immersion Works in 2015. The document contains a series of research vignettes written by medical doctors and PhD’s who are studying the benefits of immersion.

Each contributing scholar discusses one benefit of water exercise. Their research concludes that water exercise:

  • Relaxes the blood vessels so they can carry more blood while presenting less resistance to the heart pumping the blood. With regular aquatic exercise, the vessels remain pliant.
  • Improves blood flow to the brain, which may preserve brain function for many years into the future.
  • Provides biological benefits for individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder.
  • Increases energy expenditure, which lowers all causes of mortality risk.
  • Strengthens low back muscles and reduces pain better than similar land-based therapy.
  • Promotes balance and fall prevention.
  • Is effective in improving physical fitness and body composition.
  • Offers impressive rates of energy expenditure and caloric burn.
  • Has an effect on attenuating bone resorption and enhancing bone formation.
  • Offers a lower weight-bearing option for performing high intensity interval training.
  • Is recommended for obese individuals who find water a desirable environment for increased physical activity.
  • Reduces blood pressure for patients with hypertension.
  • Reduces joint stress while improving vascular functioning for individuals with arthritis.

The research continues to evolve and further document the plentiful benefits of water immersion. If you are reading this Blog, you are already involved in water fitness. It is our job to promote these benefits to others. We also need to support the building and maintaining of public swimming pools with our votes and our tax dollars, because doing so promotes our nation’s health.

Aquatic equipment

If you would a copy of the Water Immersion Works document, go to www.playcore.com/WaterImmersionWorks.html 

If you would like to sign up for one of my water fitness classes, check out my schedule on my website at www.waterfitnesslessons.com

See you in the Pool!

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Chris Alexander

Benefits of water fitness / water fitness

Change

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IMG_4468This seems like a good time to talk about change. I have been teaching MWF deep-water classes at 8:00 and 9:00 AM and a MW shallow-water class at 6:30 PM at Oak Point Recreation Center since 2002. That will go away on February 3 when Oak Point closes for renovation. The facility is expected to be closed until sometime this fall. My class participants and I have to deal with this change. What will we do?

I have agreed to teach a MWF deep-water class at 9:30 AM and a TTh 9:30 AM deep-water class at Rowlinson Natatorium on 1712 Avenue P starting February 6. Rowlinson is much smaller than Oak Point and their parking lot is small. There will be a shallow-water class going on at the same time as my deep-water class. My participants are concerned about not being able to get a parking space and about the pool being crowded. Those who come at 8:00 like getting their workout done early in the day so that they have time left in the morning for other things. By the time they get home from a 9:30 class and get showered, their morning will be almost over. In order for the TTh class to make, some participants will have to switch from a class that meets 3X a week to one that meets twice a week. How many participants will decide to switch? How many will decide to stop taking a class? So far, ten have signed up for MWF and four have signed up for TTh. We need six to make the class.

I have also agreed to teach a TTh shallow-water class at 7:30 PM at the Plano Aquatic Center at 2301 Westside Drive starting February 7. My MW class participants and I not only have to deal with switching our schedules to a different day, but we also have to come an hour later. The Plano Aquatic Center is on the other side of I-75, which is a barrier to some. How many participants will decide to stop taking a class? I don’t know how many are signed up so far, but we need six to make the class.

We might as well admit it. This change is messing up a routine that works for us and that we are comfortable with and we don’t like it! Acknowledging our feelings is a first step in dealing with change.

The second step is to do our research. Many of us have gone to Rowlinson to check out the facility and the parking lot and to scout additional places to park. We’ve looked at the pool to see how big the deep end is. Four participants in the night class are familiar with the Plano Aquatic Center and said they plan to sign up there.

The third step is to look at all the options. My participants have to figure out how to change their own routines but I have thought about all the possible scenarios for me.

  1. The MWF 9:30 class has made so I am sure I have that. If the other classes don’t make, then I go from 8 classes a week to three. Since Rowlinson is smaller, I might be able to take my class into the shallow water for strength training occasionally. I will still be able to work out at the gym on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and I will have my evenings free. I will accept as many sub classes as possible.
  2. If the MWF and TTh classes at Rowlinson make but the night class does not I won’t be able to work out on Tuesday and Thursday mornings as I do now, but I might have time to do a shortened workout before class two days a week. I will be teaching 5 classes a week.
  3. If the MWF class at Rowlinson and the TTh class at the Plano Aquatic Center make but not the TTh deep-water class, then my regular workout is back on. I will have 5 classes as in the previous scenario.
  4. If all the classes make, then I am close to having the same number of classes as I now have, only less compactly. I probably won’t be able to accept any sub classes.

These are not the only changes coming to my schedule, since Rowlinson will not be available for classes in the summer. At that point I will have a 9:00 AM class 5 days a week (if they all make!) at  Jack Carter Pool on 2601 Pleasant Valley Drive.  Jack Carter is an outdoor pool so it is only open during the summer months. But the pool is new and attractive and this might be fun. The classes at the Plano Aquatic Center will not change in the summer.

The fourth step in dealing with change is to try to avoid negative feelings. This is only a temporary situation after all. We will be back to the original schedule when Oak Point reopens in the fall. And when it does, the weight room upstairs will be greatly expanded and we will have a nice large locker room which we will all enjoy very much!

If you are interested in signing up for one of my classes, check my website at www.waterfitnesslessons.com  I will post updates on what classes I’m teaching when that information is available.

See you in the pool!

Chris Alexander

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Uncategorized

Free Choreography #6

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fullsizeoutput_1e58   This is the sixth in a series of Blog posts on choreography. The last post described block choreography, which happens to be my favorite choreography style. I included a sample of simple block choreography, using 6 basic exercises.  The 6 exercises are:

  1. Knee-high jog
  2. Run tires (like running through tires at football practice)
  3. Jumping jacks
  4. Cross-country ski
  5. Kick forward
  6. Heel jog

Now I want to show you how to expand your blocks of choreography to make them more complex.

Use the same 6 exercises as before, adding  4 exercises to the beginning of the set. Change something about the 6 exercises in each succeeding set, but  repeat the 4 new exercises without change. How do you select the 4 exercises? Perhaps you would like to focus on upper body strength. Then you might choose:

  1. Lunge R with bowstring pull L
  2. Lunge L with bowstring pull R
  3. Lunge R with double-arm press-down
  4. Lunge L with lat pull-down

If you want to focus on flexibility, then you might choose some movements in a diagonal pattern:

  1. Jumping jacks cross hands over chest & bring arms down at sides
  2. Jumping jacks cross hands in front of thighs & bring arms out to sides
  3. Jumping jacks & inner thigh lift alternate
  4. Inner thigh lift

If you want to increase intensity, instead of adding 4 new exercises at the beginning, add a set of intervals at the end. Pick one of the 6 exercises and add an intensity variable such as speed, increased range of motion, or power for the work interval and then use the basic move for the recovery. For example:

  1. Work: jog faster 60 seconds
  2. Recovery: knee-high jog 30 seconds
  3. Work: knee lift & lunge R 30 seconds & L 30 seconds
  4. Recovery: Knee-high jog
  5. Work: Squat & jump 60 seconds
  6. Recovery: Knee-high jog 30 seconds

Another option is to insert 3 or 4 more variations of one of the 6 basic exercises in each set. Your first set might look something like this:

  1. Knee-high jog
  2. Knee-lift R, travel R
  3. Knee-lift L, travel L
  4. Jog syncopate
  5. Chorus line kick
  6. Run tires
  7. Jumping jacks
  8. Cross-country ski
  9. Kick forward
  10. Heel jog

For your second set, use your 6 basic moves with different arm movements, but insert 3 or 4 more variations of run tires, such as squat and lift one knee to the side, run tires syncopate, frog jump, and frog jump with a quarter turn. Continue to insert variations of the other basic exercises in each succeeding set.

In this series on choreography I have used 6 basic exercises to illustrate the different choreography styles, but you, of course, are free to choose any exercises you’d like. Writing choreography using these techniques will give you lesson plans that are easy to remember and enjoyable for your participants.

For more examples of block choreography and other choreography styles, see my book, Water Fitness Lesson Plans and Choreography. You can find a link to purchase the book on my website was www.waterfitnesslessons.com

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See you in the pool!

Chris Alexander

 

 

choreography / shallow water / water fitness

Free Choreography #5

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This is the fifth in a series of Blog posts on choreography. Your choreography is your lesson plan. It is helpful to have a lesson plan before you start teaching your class. If you write down your lesson plans, you will eventually end up with your own choreography library that you can refer to as often as you choose. Including a variety of choreography styles in your lesson plan library will set you apart from other instructors who may have a single technique that they tend to repeat over and over again. Your participants will definitely appreciate the variety.

Previous Blog posts featured samples of linear choreography, pyramid choreography, add-on choreography, and the layer technique. This Blog post is about block choreography. Block choreography is my personal favorite because it is so versatile. It can be as simple or as complex as you want. Let’s start out simply, using the same set of 6 basic exercises I used in all the previous choreography samples. The 6 exercises transition easily from one to the next. The exercises are:

  1. Knee-high jog
  2. Run tires (like running through tires at football practice)
  3. Jumping jacks
  4. Cross-country ski
  5. Kick forward
  6. Heel jog

These 6 exercises comprise your first set. In each succeeding set you change something about the exercises. In this example I will change the arm movements, add travel, increase the range of motion, change the impact option, cross the midline of the body and combine two moves.

Change the arm movements:

  1. Knee-high jog with pumping arms
  2. Run tires with shoulder blade squeeze
  3. Jumping jacks clap hands
  4. Cross-country ski with windshield wiper arms
  5. Kick forward with triceps extension
  6. Heel jog with rotator cuff sweep

Add travel:

  1. Knee-high jog travel backward
  2. Run tires travel forward
  3. Jumping jacks travel backward
  4. Cross-country ski travel forward
  5. Kick forward travel backward
  6. Heel jog travel forward

Increase the range of motion:

  1. Leap forward
  2. Leap sideways
  3. Jumping jacks with arms out of the water
  4. Cross-country ski with full range of motion
  5. High kick
  6. Skate kick

Change the impact option:

  1. Bicycle suspended
  2. Frog jump neutral position
  3. Jacks tuck
  4. Tuck ski
  5. Seated kick suspended, emphasize quads
  6. Seated kick suspended, emphasize hamstrings

Cross the mid-line of the body:

  1. Crossover knees
  2. Inner thigh lift
  3. Jacks cross
  4. Cross-country ski with rotation
  5. Crossover kick
  6. Hopscotch

Combine two moves:

  1. In, in, out, out
  2. Ski-jacks combo (ski, ski, jack, together)
  3. One leg kicks forward & back

You can probably think of more ways to vary these 6 exercises on your own. This is simple block choreography. So how do you make it more complex? That will be in my next Blog post!

See you in the pool!

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choreography / shallow water / water fitness

Free Choreography #4

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This is the fourth in a series of Blog posts on choreography. For our purposes, I use the terms choreography and lesson plan interchangeably. Being able to use a variety of choreography styles will make your classes more interesting for yourself and your participants.  Writing down your lesson plans ahead of time will mean that you come to your class fully prepared, plus you will be able to use your choreography again later on.

Previous Blog posts featured samples of linear choreography, pyramid choreography and add-on choreography. This Blog post is about the layer technique. To use the layer technique, you begin with a set of basic exercises, then you repeat all of the exercises except for one. Substitute a different exercise for that one. For the next set, repeat all of the exercises including the new one, but now replace another exercise with a new exercise. You will keep changing one exercise in the set as you progress.

The following example will use the same 6 basic exercises as the previous choreography samples. The 6 exercises transition easily from one to the next. The exercises are:

  1. Knee-high jog
  2. Run tires (like running through tires at football practice)
  3. Jumping jacks
  4. Cross-country ski
  5. Kick forward
  6. Heel jog
  • (A set)
  • Knee-high jog with pumping arms
  • Run tires with shoulder blade squeeze
  • Jumping jacks clap hands
  • Cross-country ski
  • Kick forward with triceps extension
  • Heel jog with rotator cuff sweep
  • (B set)
  • Knee-high jog with pumping arms
  • Run tires with shoulder blade squeeze
  • Jumping jacks clap hands
  • Cross-country ski
  • Kick forward with triceps extension
  • Hopscotch doubles
  • (C set)
  • Knee-high jog with pumping arms
  • Run tires with shoulder blade squeeze
  • Jumping jacks clap hands
  • Cross-country ski
  • High kick 3X, skate kick 1X
  • Hopscotch doubles
  • (D set)
  • Knee-high jog with pumping arms
  • Run tires with shoulder blade squeeze
  • Jumping jacks clap hands
  • Cross-country ski & tuck ski alternate
  • High kick 3X, skate kick 1X
  • Hopscotch doubles
  • (E set)
  • Knee-high jog with pumping arms
  • Run tires with shoulder blade squeeze
  • Jumping jacks, clap hands & lat pull-down alternate
  • Cross-country ski & tuck ski alternate
  • High kick 3X, skate kick 1X
  • Hopscotch doubles
  • (F set)
  • Knee-high jog with pumping arms
  • Frog jump with double-arm press-down
  • Jumping jacks, clap hands & lat pull-down alternate
  • Cross-country ski & tuck ski alternate
  • High kick 3X, skate kick 1X
  • Hopscotch doubles
  • (G set)
  • Tuck jump
  • Frog jump with double-arm press-down
  • Jumping jacks, clap hands & lat pull-down alternate
  • Cross-country ski & tuck ski alternate
  • High kick 3X, skate kick 1X
  • Hopscotch doubles

You can now peel back the layers by working your way backward from F set to end up with your original A set. Add a warm-up and 5 minutes of stretching at the end and your choreography is ready to go.

Next Blog post: Block Choreography.

See you in the pool!

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choreography / shallow water / water fitness