Aqua aerobics get a modern makeover
Looking for a way to jumpstart your fitness routine now that warmer weather is on the way?
Look no further than a nearby swimming pool. We’re not talking lap swimming or training like you’re trying to make the Olympic team, but the old notion of water aerobics not being hard enough of a workout for some people just got washed away by the new fitness trend of HIIT aquatics. It’s just like it sounds: the benefits of high intensity interval training (HIIT) coupled with low impact on your joints thanks to surrounding water.
Benefits of HIIT workouts include high calorie burning, increased metabolism and getting a full-body workout in less time.
“The old water aerobics was really all about kind of just more the social scene. I feel like that stigma has stuck with it from what we started with the 1980s and the water aerobics style,” says Kate Stache, Fitness, Aquatics, Sports and Recreation Director at the Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center.
Those styles have changed over the past 10 years, and now you’ll see the addition of weights in the water like kettlebells and medicine balls.
“We also had an aqua boot camp, which was more in deep water,” says Stache. “It was basically suspending yourself in the water the entire time and never touching down. So now you’re actually doing the jumping and the moving and the power movement without having the bottom of the pool to push up on. It’s all suspension. A lot of that is very different from what the classic water aerobics is and really being able to utilize science. It has come a long way.”
Working out in water can be a double benefit to your muscle groups since it means getting contraction the entire time.
“If you do a pushing motion or pulling motion, you are resisted in both directions. The faster that you go, you’re actually able to get more resistance and more power out of it,” Stache says. “And so a lot more people are working the science behind water. They’re also adding weight in the water. They’re adding different types of mechanisms in the water, and it’s making it higher intensity. It’s making it more fun, more interesting, more engaging as well.”
How do you incorporate that into a HIIT routine? It’s all in the timing.
“You can really add different types of movements of rest intervals, pushing yourself to a high intensity and then a rest interval, kind of creating circuits,” Stache says. “You could really do that with any type of exercise in the water or on land.”
The new offerings in the water are bringing interest from all age ranges.
“We definitely have tried to open it up to everybody. It used to be only the older population, but we do have some younger people coming for the aqua HIIT class because they can really get that heart rate up and boost their workout without hurting their joints,” says Carla Hartley, Aquatics Manager at the Wellness Center. “Some runners have started doing the class because it’s easier on their joints, and that’s what we’re trying to do: promote some classes to a younger population.” The biggest change recently has been the growing number of male participants in aqua classes.
“We do have quite a few men that take them regularly that push really hard,” says Stache. “They use larger water weights. It’s definitely becoming more of an interest for men who might have health conditions and they need the lower impact but they want a good workout, and they’re able to challenge themselves.”
How to do aqua HIIT
High intensity interval training in water works just the same as on land – short bursts of intense activity followed by a brief rest.
“We would do a bicep curl with two movements together and maybe a heavier weight where they’re really working for that 45 seconds and then there’s a 15 second recovery break,” says Hartley in describing the class structure. “Then we start into the next exercise, which may be like cross country skiing with flies making sure that we’re moving our whole body and doing that high intensity for that 45 seconds.”
The goal is to do it as rapidly as you can to raise your heart rate for that short period. Some movements are rapid while others are powerful.
“The great thing about water is it has 12% resistance already. So when we add things like the dumbbells and noodles, we’re increasing that, and the more that you push and pull, the more weight or water you’re moving. So that’s how it becomes more intense.”
Water classes can be beneficial for anyone with joint problems because of our buoyancy in the water. “You don’t have all of your body weight on your joints, so that helps,” says Hartley. “And the water has gentle massaging effects, so you don’t really feel the workout. When you’re done, instead of maybe being sore, you feel good.”
Some classes even bring pumping iron right into the pool. “We also offer a class called aqua kettle bell that uses regular weights in the water – actual barbells from the fitness floor and actual kettle bells from our fitness floor – and taking them and doing resistance training in the pool,” Hartley says.
Combine that with hopping out of the pool for a quick burst of burpees and pushups, then it’s back into the pool for explosive kettlebell swings.
“It’s a lot of breath control because you’re underwater, lifting the weight, and then you have to explode up and you have to breathe within that second that you’re out of water.”
The Wellness Center has even experimented with moving the popular trend of bar classes into its therapy pool, which has a built-in bar all the way around the pool. Movements mimic those of ballet with a lot of core work in the water. The aquatics class schedule at the Wellness Center changes throughout the year, but offerings include a variety of aqua aerobics, aqua HIIT and aqua running in the large pool to flexibility, strength and mobility classes in the warmer therapy pool and even aqua Zumba.
For more information on the classes and schedule, visit https://wrcameronwellness.org.