Source: Christine Alexander
Step back and take a long view of your water fitness program. Are your classes on the same level year round? Or do you offer your participants an opportunity to improve their fitness? Overloading, or putting a greater-than-normal demand on the body’s musculoskeletal and cardiorespiratory systems, improves fitness. Over time, however, the human body adapts to the workload it is given in an exercise program, and if no further progression is made, the class becomes a maintenance program. On the other hand, progressing too aggressively increases the risk of injury and chronic fatigue. An annual plan can be helpful in creating a program that gradually and systematically progresses your participants so that they have time to adapt safely to one fitness level before moving to the next.
One type of annual plan is periodization. Periodization is a training cycle used by athletes to achieve optimal development in all aspects of fitness. Periodization divides the year into a preseason, a transition season, a peak fitness season, and an active recovery season. Athletes arrange the cycle so that they achieve peak fitness during the season of their sport. Your participants may not be elite athletes, but it takes a certain amount of fitness to perform the activities of daily living. Why not train like athletes for the sport of daily life?
If you decide to use periodization with your water fitness class, you will want to choose an objective for each season. Since the preseason establishes a baseline from which the following seasons progress, the ideal objective is to work on performing the exercises correctly. Exercises are performed correctly when the spine is in neutral – when the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar sections of the spine are aligned in their natural curves. Once the spine is in neutral, the next step is to brace the core, and only then are you ready to begin your workout. When the body is correctly aligned, you can maximize the use of the water’s resistance. Failure to maintain neutral alignment while working the muscles of the arms and legs puts stress on the spine. Repeatedly performing an exercise incorrectly can cause microtrauma that eventually leads to an injury.
In an annual plan, the preseason lasts two to four months. Activities for the preseason include strength training using the properties of water for resistance, cardiorespiratory training performed at Level 5 (50% of heartrate max) and intervals performed at Level 6 (60% of heartrate max). You will need to teach your participants to use a scale of perceived exertion to judge whether they are working in their training zone. Level 5 is somewhat easy. Participants feel like they could exercise at this level for hours. Their heart and breathing rates are slightly increased, but they are still able to carry on a conversation. Level 6 is moderate. Participants heart and breathing rates are starting to increase noticeably. Their muscles feel like they are working, but they can maintain this level for a while before having to stop. A good way to increase the intensity to this level is to take basic exercises and increase the range of motion.
The transition season progresses from the baseline established in the preseason. You will continue to emphasize good posture and correct performance of the exercises, but your objective for this season is to help your participants improve the quality of their exercise by paying attention to how their arms and legs move the water. You want them to become more aware of how they use their hand positions to push and pull the water and how the water moves in response to their leg exercises. As their awareness grows, they will have more control of their body movements. Being able to manipulate the water intentionally improves stability, helps control travel, and allows participants to use acceleration at will to increase intensity for intervals and strength training.
In an annual plan, the transition season lasts two to four months. Activities for the transition season include strength training with equipment, cardiorespiratory training performed at Level 6 (50% of heartrate max) and intervals performed at Level 7 (70% of heartrate max). Level 7 is somewhat hard. Participants must breathe through their mouth because breathing through their nose doesn’t give them the oxygen they need. They can only say a few words before taking a breath. A good way to increase the intensity to this level is to take basic long lever exercises performed at full range of motion and increase the speed. The temptation is to reduce the range of motion when increasing speed. Tiny moves are not an effective way to increase intensity. An exercise should not be performed so fast that the range of motion is lost or that good form is compromised.
The preseason and transition season prepares participants for the highest level of fitness they will achieve this year. Peak fitness will be different for everyone, but participants should notice that the exercises seem easier even though they are performing more repetitions. The objective for this season is to increase power. Power is a function of strength and speed. It is the ability to transfer energy into force at a quick rate. Your participants will use power to push the intensity of their interval training into their anaerobic zone for short periods.
In an annual plan, the peak fitness season lasts two to four months. Activities for the peak fitness season include strength training with equipment and high intensity interval training (HIIT). During strength training you may wish to focus on eccentric muscle actions by using buoyant or rubberized equipment. Plunge the buoyant equipment toward the floor and pause, then control the equipment so that it rises slowly toward the water’s surface. Pull the rubberized equipment to the full extension of the working joint and pause, then release it slowly. All your cardiorespiratory training will be high intensity interval training performed at Level 8 (80% of heartrate max) or Level 9 (90% of heartrate max). Level 8 is hard. Participants’ hearts are pounding and they are breathing hard. They would rather breathe than talk and the intensity is uncomfortable. A good way to increase the intensity to this level is to use acceleration, either by pushing off the floor in a rebounding or jumping move, or to push hard against the water’s resistance in a power move. Level 9 is very hard. Participants are not able to talk because their breathing and heartrate are rapid. They have crossed the anaerobic threshold in which their bodies’ demand for oxygen exceeds the oxygen supply available and they are relying on energy sources that are stored in the muscles. The interval time must be short, and the recovery period must be long enough for the body to recover. One way to increase intensity to this level is to combine two intensity variables, such as performing a power move at full range of motion. Another way is work in two planes at the same time, for example kick side to side (frontal plane) while sweeping the arms side to side (transverse plane). Some of your participants may not be willing or able to achieve this level of effort. Encourage all participants to modify the intensity of the work interval to their preferred challenging level and focus on their own optimal training. In fact, you will want to encourage participants to modify intensity to levels that work for them throughout the seasons so that your classes will meet the needs of those who wish to improve fitness, those who wish to maintain their current level of fitness, and the new participants who join your class in the middle of a season.
The active recovery season lasts one to two months. The body needs rest to repair any microtrauma it suffered during the previous months of training to avoid a cumulative injury. But rest does not mean that activity ends. Fitness continues as long as some training takes place, but fitness gains are lost if training stops altogether. Activities for the active recovery season include light cardiorespiratory training, core strength training, and fun activities such as games or relay races to provide a mental break. You may wish to include active recovery activities occasionally during the other seasons when your participants have been working especially hard or whenever you sense that they could use a break from interval training.
Periodization is typically considered an annual plan, but it can also be used for shorter cycles of six months, four months, 12 weeks or whatever works for your class. After completing active recovery, the cycle begins again, only now your participants are starting from a level of greater fitness and will have to work harder to achieve the desired percentage of their maximum heart rate. Congratulations! You have successfully progressed them toward their fitness goal. For more information on periodization, see my book Water Fitness Progressions.
Resources:
Alexander, Christine. 2018. Water Fitness Progressions. Human Kinetics: Champaign, IL.
Aquatic Exercise Association. 2018. Aquatic Fitness Professional Manual. 7th ed. Human Kinetics: Champaign, IL.
AUTHOR
Christine Alexander is the author of Water Fitness Lesson Plans and Choreography (2011) and Water Fitness Progressions (2018) and a blog at www.waterfitnesslessons.wordpress.com. She is an AEA CEC provider and President of the Metroplex Association of Aquatic Professionals in Dallas, Texas. She teaches water fitness classes for the City of Plano Parks and Recreation Department. She holds certifications through AEA and USWFA. Chris can be reached through her website at www.waterfitnesslessons.com
