(Above video is a preview for Aqua Cardio Blast, posted on 5/4/15)
Try to think back to high school or college and see if you can recall which teachers held your attention and inspired you to learn; or in my case, at least made you not hate being in the classroom. (I was NOT a good student) Teachers understand the importance of creating a learning experience to keep students engaged and progressing.
Fitness instructors are no different. We must create a fitness experience in order to ensure exercise adherence, which will ultimately produce positive results. If we can at least keep the students showing up every week, then we have an opportunity to help them improve their health and wellness. How do we keep them coming every week? Well, we all have our different opinions on this; here are mine.
1) Keep them safe
2) Offer results-oriented programming
3) Keep them excited and engaged
Obviously our first obligation is keeping our students safe with multi-level programming and the use of form, feedback and safety cues. Additionally, providing programming that delivers results is important because believe it or not some people really do come to the pool to workout. Aquatic fitness classes are evolving away from the “floating social circle” class format.
As you can imagine, I get the most passionate about keeping the students engaged and excited. The video, Aqua Cardio Blast, was just posted on the Fitmotivation website. Created several years ago, my mantra for this workshop and DVD was all about creating the fitness experience by keeping the participants excited and engaged. And my focus was squarely on the choreography. Big surprise! I know…right?
My philosophy has always been that if they are having fun and they look forward to each and every class – then they will keep coming - and if they keep coming then they will see results.
Aqua Cardio Blast was all about matching the moves to the music and creating choreography that was themed inspired. My students love swing music – but if I am going to play Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin then I want the choreography to somewhat reflect the musical choice. Likewise, I am NOT playing Swing music if I have a kickboxing routine planned. I need music with some testosterone for a kickboxing routine. When I do HIIT workouts – turn up the Tribal music. If I am playing a 60’s music playlist, chances are I have some ‘cotton candy’ choreography planned out.
Yes, this is how I keep my students engaged and excited and coming to class every week. Aqua Cardio Blast was my homage to these efforts. For budget reasons, the DVD was filmed with standard DVD music – but at the time - I did make recommendations for Swing, Tribal and Pop music for the different choreography blocks in the video.
Here were the recommendations I made:
Swing: Big Band & Swing (Dynamix Music)
Tribal: Ethnic Rhythm Party (Yes! Fitness music)
Pop: Aqua Classics (Dynamix Music)
The full video, Aqua Cardio Blast, is now playing on the Fitmotivation website (Premium category) and the DVD is available in the Fitmotivation store.
Need help creating engaging and exciting choreography? You know what to do!
Log on and get busy!