Advanced Swim Fitness
Besides the Seated Balance™, there are many other advanced movements you can incorporate into your water exercise programs. These movements are advanced and will take careful review on your part. While you are always watching out for your clients’ posture, these movements are especially daunting on your skills as an instructor. Having said that we also wish to advise you that these movements are exceptionally rewarding to both you and your client. These are result proven exercises.
Build Your Abs Side to Side: with moving the fitness tool, the EZ Swimmer® from side to side, bringing the fitness tool to the left side of their body and to the right side of their body. This builds their ……….muscles. Unlike the crunches, this is a large movement.
Build Your Abs Up and Down: Another variation is to move the EZ Swimmer® up and down toward their head and then toward their feet. Like the sit-up crunches this should be a small movement.
Leg Stretch and Quadriceps: Stretching as you know is needed for all levels. Leg stretches with the EZ Swimmer® provide a comfortable ballet bar for your client to maximize their flexibility. This is an advanced exercise and is very clumsy initially. We combine this stretch with the one leg quadriceps. The leg stretch is a great exercise to see your client achieve, master and excel at. We have found this exercise to be very helpful and also very enjoyable to the instructor to see the progress of the stability of the client. Leg stretches demand shallow water. If just beginning with your advanced client, do start in the lowest place in the pool, preferably between 2 feet and 3’6’’ works well after the client achieves the movement.
Side note: The ballerina bar height ranges from 31” to 45” with 42” being the most common height. We recommend between 24” and 42” water depth for this exercise. As always, when new, when in doubt, get to the shallowest part of the pool.
1.) To begin, have your clients place one foot in the center of the EZ Swimmer®. Instruct your clients to slightly point their foot similar to a ballerina foot and use the natural curve of their foot to grip the interior edge of the EZ Swimmer®. Place the base to the outside edge. You can do this movement with swim slipper or barefoot. Aquatic fitness shoes are not recommended as you cannot achieve the form of the ballerina foot. 2.) Gently push the EZ Swimmer® downward into the water. The important part of this movement is to keep their knee straight. Remember this is an advanced exercise; the client must have the muscle strength to control the buoyancy of the fitness tool in order to maintain that important alignment for the protection of their knee. This exercise works the quadriceps of the thigh and by pointing your foot works the muscles of your foot. 3.) Slowly allow the EZ Swimmer® to rise. 4.) Repeat this movement for isolation of the quadriceps. 5.) Perform multiple sets 6.) Slowly allow the EZ Swimmer® to rise in front of the client, the leg fully extended 7.) Have your client slowly move their leg to the side and then back behind them. Yes! The typical height of the ballerina bar is 42” – we recommend starting at 24” and moving upward as your client’s mobility improves. We cannot stress enough to keep the knee straight.
Triceps: Women’s anatomy is especially challenged by the tricep muscle. Yet women really need the strength of the triceps for the heavy demands on their domestic chores. A beautiful sculpted arm with well defined biceps needs the back of the arm sculpted. Much like the push-ups this is a very difficult exercise on land. Yet in the water, it becomes comfortable. It is very challenging at first. But it is such a rewarding exercise. Once your client has achieved the Seated Balance™ simply have them grab hold of the EZ Swimmer® with their arms behind them. Once stable, push the fitness tool downward while breathing out. Remember your training in strength training - we breathe in when we are exerting resistance, breath out when releasing the resistance. This is an advanced exercise and is also very clumsy initially. This exercise movement is guaranteed to leave muscle soreness initially. We recommend unless your client is an elite athlete, start with only one or two repetitions, building the number of repetitions over time. Again we will not bulk up the muscle – we will not increase the amount of weight (unless your client gains weight), we will simply increase the number of the repetitions.
Seated Balance™ Instructors’ Tip: Research has proven that our spine is most comfortable at a slight recline not the 90 degrees we were told when we were young. Therefore, when utilizing the exercise movement the Seated Balance™ do not aim for a 90 degree seated position. If just beginning, start in the shallow end of the pool and keep your body at a slight diagonal, if your form is correct, you should be able to comfortably remain still while still seated on top of the EZ Swimmer®, and the balls of your feet will stabilize you in the water. Essentially your entire body will be diagonal. Remember your goal is to work your core muscles not your back muscles. If you or your client’s back hurts at any point during this exercise, stop immediately and do more repetitions with the water sit-ups. See the exercise posture for correct positioning. Many clients find the flat side comfortable also but this puts the seated balance with more of an arch in the lower back. We recommend sitting on top of the sculpted curves of the EZ Swimmer®, creating a diagonal with your body not a 90 degree angle between your legs and your waist.