Now that you’re familiar with many water aerobic or water workout moves, terminology — and finally executed your first water routine — you are now officially “aquasizing” (or exercising in the water).
I mentioned in my last post on creating your first water routine that my instruction and advice is my own brand of water exercise. Although I believe water is a healer for everyone, certainly not everything I promote works for all bodies. This is where you want to start customizing your routine or aquasizing. Whether you want the information broken down into different (or simpler) terms; or perhaps want it work harder (or longer) for you; you need to start focusing on exercises, time frames, and/or muscles that your body is asking more of.
So how does one do that? Well, let’s take Water Aerobics Routine #1 presented in the last post. Let’s say that your mind or body wants the information presented in a different, more accessible manner. To you, that means breaking it down by muscle groups or body parts. Or even calling the movements something different and doing less of one or more of another. So to meet our goal, we re-write Routine #1 to look like this:
WATER AEROBICS ROUTINE #1 — BEGINNER LEVEL (MODIFIED)
*Goal for Student/Routine: To take original routine and customize it by body parts or muscle groups.
:05-:07 minute Warm-Up.
ARM MUSCLES (biceps, pectorals, deltoids, trapezius).
- Sitting Breast Stroke. Travel back-and-forth across the pool length-wise using arms only. Give care to alignment by bringing legs up as if sitting in a chair. Full range of motion approach. REPEAT 4x or 4 laps.
- Sitting Elementary Backstroke. Same position and movement as above, only reverse direction of arms so you are now traveling backwards. REPEAT 4x or 4 laps.
LEG MUSCLES (quads, knee joint, gluteus maximus).
- Treading. Stay with above arms but add in legs, full range of motion. REPEAT 4x or 4 laps with each arm movement.
- In-place “Scissors” kick (replacing Cross Country vocab with Scissors term). Full range of motion, work on getting the legs wide apart.
:15-:20 minute Conditioning Phase.
ARMS (biceps, pectorals, deltoids, trapezius).
- In-place tripcep pull. Drop elbows to side — now side elbows back further. With palms down, push water back. Alternate right-left, then try right for 10-12 reps and left for same duration. Stand in shallow end of lightly tread for better balance.
- In-place bicep pull. Drop elbows to side. With palms up, pull water up to surface. Alternate right-left, then try right for 10-12 reps and left for same duration. Stand in shallow end of lightly tread for better balance.
LEG MUSCLES (quads, knee joint, gluteus maximus, hip flexors, hip abductors, psoas).
- Biking traveling. Stretch arms forward as if grasping handles on a bike.
- Jogging traveling and in-place. Add upper arms or some punching out for full-body workout.
- Scissors traveling. Use breast stroke pull to go forward; combine with elementary backstroke to ull backwards (or reverse direction/movement as describe in Warm-Up).
ABDOMINAL MUSCLES (upper/lower abs, intercostal, oblique).
- Crunches sitting. With tailbone pointing to bottom of pool, bring knees into shoulders (as if coming in and out like a hinge). Legs in and out. Then crunch to left and then to right.
- Crunches upright. Standing upright with bottoms of feet pointed to bottom of pool, bring knees up. Alternate left for 10-12 reps and then left.
- In-place Side Scissors at a 4 o’clock (replacing Jumping Jack vocab with Scissors term). Bring legs up to 4 o’clock and down to 6 o’clock.
:03-:05 minute Cool-Down.
ARM MUSCLES (biceps, pectorals, deltoids, trapezius).
- Sitting Breast Stroke. Travel back-and-forth across the pool length-wise using arms only. Give care to alignment by bringing legs up as if sitting in a chair. Full range of motion approach. REPEAT 4x or 4 laps.
- Sitting Elementary Backstroke. Same position and movement as above, only reverse direction of arms so you are now traveling backwards. REPEAT 4x or 4 laps.
LEG MUSCLES (quads, knee joint, gluteus maximus).
- In-place Treading. Legs full range of motion.
- In-place “Scissors” kick (replacing Cross Country vocab with Scissors term). Full range of motion, work on getting the legs wide apart.
When it comes to water exercise, generally asking if you’re “doing it wrong” is like asking if it is a wrong choice for you to get into the water and initiate a workout. Of course it isn’t wrong — it’s only wrong if you feel wrong pain because you’re doing something your body doesn’t like or understand.
