"I'm just not seeing the results that I want."
"I've hit a wall. My body isn't changing any more."
"The weight just isn't coming off."
Chances are you've felt this way before or you've had someone in your class with similar concerns. Often, our clients aren't achieving their fitness goals because they don't understand the principles of fitness and therefore, do not go about their exercise program in the right way. That is where we as water aerobics instructors come in. Not only is it our job to create fun and challenging aerobics classes, but we also need to educate our participants about the 3 fitness principles: overload, progression and specificity. The next few posts will explain these principles in detail and today's will focus on overload.
The overload principle simply states that in order to improve your fitness through physical activity you must do more than you usually do.1 You overload your body by increasing the intensity at which you are exercising. There are a few ways to do this:
- increase your speed (move quicker),
- increase the resistance (heavier weights) and
- increase the repetitions or time (do more or go longer).
Interval training is a great way to apply the overload principle to water aerobics. "Interval training is simply alternating bursts of intense activity with intervals of lighter activity."2 In a water jogging class a very basic interval could be jogging at a moderate pace for 2 minutes and sprinting 1 minute. You can add an intense interval with any exercise. For example, you can create a cross country interval by doing 25 normal cross-country's and 25 high-jumping cross-country's. Don't forget to explain the overload principle to your class so that they can continue to apply it in the rest of their exercise program, whether in the water or on land.
If you have some great intervals that you like to use in your classes, please post them below or e-mail me at: gettingwettogetfit@gmail.com .
1 Corbin, C.B. & Lindsey, R. Fitness for Life. Fifth Edition (p.61). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics,
2005.
2 Mayo Clinic Staff, 7 February 2008, "Interval training: Can it boost your calorie-burning power?"
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/interval-training/SM00110
Accessed 18 September 2009.
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