Run an Aqua Fitness Class
How Do You Organise an Aquafitness Class?
There are several factors which need to be right to ensure that an aqua fitness class runs successfully. These include:
1. Participants who work with each other free of conflict
2. Appropriate facilities
3. Appropriate music to exercise to
4. Participants who know what to do, when to do it & how to do it.
5. Good organisation and/or leadership
1. Participants who work with each other free of conflict
People should not be bumping into each other. When participants are beginner, or uncomfortable (at first) in water, there can be some degree of lack of control in the water...hence more space may be needed to prevent interference.
Aqua fitness sessions should be segregated from other pool use...(e.g. people should not be allowed to swim into an area where a class is happening).
Conflict can be minimised if the abilities and needs of the class participants are all similar...if you are organising a small group of friends or if you are working as a personal trainer; this should be relatively easy to achieve; but in many other situations this is not so easy.
At a resort or hotel, the demographics can be extremely variable, and exercise programs will need to be designed to cater for this.
All participants should be clear as to the aim of the session. In a resort health club for instance, if the purpose is not made very obvious, some participants might be treating the session as a serious attempt to get fit, while others could be treating it as a big joke or a flippant game
At other facilities, you might control the demographics to some extent by controlling when a session is conducted, for example, a mid-morning weekday session at a public swimming centre will tend to attract housewives, while an early evening session will often attract young adults, or those who have full time day jobs.
2. Appropriate facilities
There should be sufficient space for the number of participants; and for the leader to control what is happening. It may be that a limit should be placed on the number in the class. Sufficient gear such as float belts should be available. Special access in and out of the water might be needed in some situations (eg. elderly, therapy for hospital patients).
3. Appropriate Music
Music will both create a mood and set a pace at which exercise is carried out. This mood and pace should be appropriate to the type of people in the group. The beat should normally be strong, so as to make sure the pace is reinforced continually, but the number of beats per minute will vary according to what is desired from the exercise, and the ability of the people in the group.
The style of music preferred by a young age group is generally quite different to what an elderly group might prefer. If the participants hate the music, this can raise their stress levels, or cause them to lose interest, and therefore decrease any benefit derived from the exercise.
4. Participants who know what to do, when to do it & how to do it.
A sign or a handout explaining the session can be advantageous, even just to write down the stages the program is going through; so that the participants can see what is coming up next, or how far to go until the end. A knowledge of what is coming, can help the participants pace themselves; or see what they should be doing if they miss an instruction from the leader.
5. Good organisation and/or leadership
Whether organising an informal session for yourself, a small group friends, or for a class which you are to lead; the quality of planning, and if appropriate, leadership, will have a major impact on the success of the session.
If participants start late (and miss warm up), or finish early (and miss cool down)...climbing out of the pool and leaving half way through...then the organisation and leadership is inadequate! If people are doing the wrong exercises at times, then the session has not been planned or led properly. If anything goes wrong during a class, no matter how seemingly insignificant, you need to question what could have been done differently during planning or organising the session.
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