The above video preview is for Mature Moves, posted on 6/21/16
U.K. Aqua Expert, Steph Toogood, delivers a video packed with aquatic fitness solutions for the aging body. Mature Moves features adaptations in aquatic choreography designed to improve students’ activities of daily living and their quality of life. The choreography and ideas presented in this video can be used as a complete aqua class geared towards older adults, or portions of the routine can be implemented in any aquatic fitness class to incorporate more functional and purposeful movement.
Mature Moves features five segments that target the physiological factors of aging that most directly contribute to loss of function.
Segment #1: Warm-Up This segment gears the body up with multi-directional movement and focuses on moves that enhance Activities of Daily Living (ADLs).
Segment #2: Balance & Fall Prevention The exercises in this segment enhance balance through progressions in tempo, symmetry, asymmetry and destabilization techniques.
Segment #3: Gait This segment includes exercise strategies that target movement techniques and the musculature most directly involved with normal or functional gait patterns.
Segment #4: Sit to Stand To remain independent an older adult must be able to transition from sitting to standing. While this seems simple enough, this act of daily living is where many falls occur. This segment focuses on exercises that improve the musculature and functional movements required to transition from seated to standing positions.
Segment #5: Cool Down This segment puts extra attention on movements that open and extend the body, rather than close and flex the body. Too much flexion over time leads too a closed or stooped body position. It is important to teach your students how to open, lengthen and elongate their bodies.
As fitness instructors, it is incumbent upon us to deliver results-oriented programming. Even if you teach a younger, more advanced group of students, it is important to incorporate a wide variety o functional movement in your classes. The body simply ages better and keeps joint mobility longer when it is moved in all directions. Spending inordinate amounts of time sprinting at high intensity in a closed, flexed position may feel intense to your students, but the lasting effects of unimaginative and unvaried movement patterns will haunt them in later years.
Watch this video and learn how to reinvent your traditional movements with anti-aging strategies and functional flair.
MUSIC: The music in the video is generic music approved for use in a video. However, a music CD was specifically created for this routine. Produced in 2012 by Muscle Mixes Music, Aqua Swing Sensation features a playlist made up of swing and show tune hits that is guaranteed to put a smile on your mature students’ faces. Read more about this CD in the featured blog for Aqua Swing Sensation. The featured blog includes an offer for 30% off on ALL Muscle Mixes Music - CDs and downloads.
GLOVES: Gloves are optional but can enhance fitness outcomes for the mature body and provide focus for the mature mind. Steph’s recommendation for the senior market is gloves made of soft fabric as opposed to neoprene. She prefers the HYDRO-FIT Wave Web Pro gloves. These gloves can be purchased through either HYDRO-FIT or Steph’s U.K. company, Hydro-Actif.
Big thanks once again to Steph Toogood for her scientific approach towards making aquatic fitness more functional and for her knack at adding cherry flavor to the exercise medicine..