Have you ever wondered why some water fitness instructors never run out of ideas? Every class they teach seems new and different. Changing up a class is important to avoid exercise plateaus in which your class members adapt to the routine. It also prevents boredom for yourself and your students when a class is freshened with different variables. Unlimited Intervals with Jackie Lebeau is a 50-minute class template that showcases different ways to vary up your interval classes for improved results. This class can be taught in both deep and shallow water and includes the use of a pool noodle.
Doing the same class routine repeatedly with the same exercises can lead to boredom and diminished fitness results. Adaptation is one of the five principles of fitness. It means your body will adapt to a fitness routine by getting stronger. For continued results, the fitness principle of Progressive Overload must be applied. To overcome adaptation, changes must be introduced to resistance, reps, sets, duration, range of motion, exercise selection and more.
In aquatic fitness, we rely on base moves to construct our classes. These are the moves that have been proven to be effective in water. As an instructor they are probably familiar to you, and include jumping jacks, cross country skis, jogs, leg curls, kicks, pendulums, rocking horse, tucks, jumps and more. A skilled instructor will know how to vary a base move to provide a different outcome with each change. This is one of the most important skillsets an aquatic fitness instructor can develop. Below is an example of reinventing a cross country ski with variables.
UNLIMITED INTERVALS: AQUATIC FITNESS CLASS SUMMARY
This 50-minute interval class format includes a warm-up, cool down and four exercise segments. This entire class features just 6 base moves: jacks, skis, kicks, pendulums, twists and tucks. These six exercises are reinvented repeatedly with variables in four mini-interval workouts. The mini workouts are reinvented with changes in work and rest timing ratios, exercise order, equipment, and variations in movement. The variations demonstrate the importance of progressive overload and changing up your classes, so your students continue to see improved results. This class can be taught in both deep and shallow water and includes the use of a pool noodle.
Exercise Segment 1: Rotating Rounds Part 1
In this 6-minute mini-interval workout, changes in duration and exercise order are implemented. Reps are used instead of timing. Four exercises are performed with ascending reps of 4, 8, 12 and 16. The exercise order is then changed four more times with the same ascending reps assigned to a different order of the four exercises.
Exercise Segment 2: Three Rounds of AMRAP
AMRAP stands for “As Many Reps As Possible.” This 9-minute mini-workout features three AMRAP rounds of descending duration, 4 minutes, 3 minutes and 2 minutes. In the 4-minute AMRAP, three exercises are performed for 12 reps each, for as many rounds that you can do in 4 minutes. In the 3-minute AMRAP, three different exercises are assigned for 10 reps each, again the goal is to get through at your own pace as many rounds as possible of the three exercises. The final 2-minute AMRAP features three different exercises performed for 8 reps each.
Exercise Segment 3: Descending Trios
This 12-minute mini-workout includes the use of a pool noodle. Two rounds of three exercises are performed first for 40 seconds each and then 20 seconds. The rounds are performed twice.
Exercise Segment 4: Rotating Rounds Part 2
This 6-minute mini-workout features the same structure as Part 1, but includes variations for the exercises in which they can be performed with a pool noodle.
Below, Jackie talks more about the Unlimited Intervals class format.
Fitmotivation extends gratitude to Jackie for sharing one of her favorite class routines with subscribers. Be sure to check out all her videos in her bio. We hope that this class format gives you some ideas for reinventing your interval classes. Jackie is back next month with a couple of land fitness classes.
