What physical activities do your class members love to do? Walking, gardening, biking, golf, pickle ball, dancing or others? Aquatic Skills with Stephanie Thielen will help them level up their activities of daily living (ADLs) and improve skills for specific physical activities and sports. The joint-friendly aquatic environment is the perfect place to effectively train health and skill-related fitness components. Aquatic Skills includes an optional Fitmotivation Online Education course worth 2.0 AEA CECs.
Health-related Components of Fitness
All of Fitmotivation’s workouts train one or more of the health-related components of fitness, which include cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition. These components of fitness are directly related to the ability to effectively perform ADLs. Designing aquatic fitness classes that improve functional fitness is just about the best thing we can do for class participants. Physical inactivity can lead to poor health that leaves people prone to chronic disease and a diminished quality of life.
Skill-Related Components of Fitness
Skill-related fitness components relate to the skills required to perform a specific physical activity or sport and include power, agility, balance, speed, coordination and reaction time. In order to successfully participate in any kind of sport or activity, competitive or recreational, it is important to train skill related fitness components. For example, to play Pickleball the fitness component of cardiorespiratory endurance is required. But to get good at Pickleball, you need to train the skill-related components of power, agility, speed and reaction time. Another Fitmotivation video that targets skill-related components is Sha-Deep Interval Training with Mark.
Watch Stephanie talk more about health and skill-related fitness components and the Aquatic Skills video.
Aquatic Fitness Class-at-a-Glance
This aquatic fitness class format targets mobility, cardio, strength, balance, agility, core, power and flexibility with eight 5-minute segments.
Skill 1: Mobility
Joint mobility is a part of the health-related fitness component of flexibility and refers to joint range of motion (ROM). Prepping the joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons with rhythmic movement is an ideal way to start any workout.
Skill 2: Cardio
Cardiorespiratory endurance is a health-related fitness component that helps you have the stamina to participate in longer duration activities.
Skill 3: Strength
This segment includes movements that help improve the health-related fitness components of muscular endurance and muscular strength.
Skill 4: Balance
Balance is a skill-related component that is required for almost all physical activities and sports. Training balance can also be considered a health-related component because balance skills are required for ADLs and independent living.
Skill 5: Core
Core training pertains to muscular endurance and strength of the core muscles and is important for nearly all physical activities and sports. A strong core also improves posture for optimal health.
Skill 6: Agility
Agility is the capacity to change course, controlling the direction and position of your body while maintaining your momentum.Agility is one of the most common motor skills trained for sports performance.
Skill 7: Power
Power is a combination of speed and muscular force. Athletes are always looking to improve their speed and explosiveness. Plyometric exercises are often used in fitness to train power.
Skill 8: Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the range of motion in a joint or a group of joints, correlated with muscle length. The loss of flexibility is one of the leading cuases of disability and chronic injury.
As we close out 2023, I hope this video inspires you to brainstorm new ideas for designing classes in 2024 that will help your class members improve their health and skill-related fitness level. Fitmotivation extends gratitude to Stephanie for sharing her passion and knowledge with subscribers. Check out all of Stephanie’s videos and if you need AEA CECS please consider the Aquatic Skills Online Education Program.