Response from Connie:

Good Morning Connie,

This past Monday, a long-time aqua fit participant asked me if we could change it up a bit.  She is bored and would like to use noodles, the step and other various items for variety. 

On the rare occasion, I do pull out noodles to do aqua planks and a few other choice exercises. But overall I’m not a huge fan of “toys” – mostly because I don’t feel comfortable using items in the water that could potential cause harm if not used properly (personal experience of hurting myself using the dumbbells).  I recognize that using paraphernalia isn’t “evil” but with my lack of experience I hesitate.

What happened with “aqua step”? It was all the rage when I left aquatics back in the mid 90s. The participant was very happy to tell me how another instructor uses the step as an upper body strengthen exercise (holding the step vertically to push the water) or how it would be nice to just do some step.  I barely remember ANY aqua step moves.  Did aqua step just get old and boring and therefore dropped out of favour? Or was there long term problems that surfaced with aqua step? A couple of the facilities actually still have the steps in the equipment rooms collecting dust.

How do you keep is fresh for those who are bored? This particular participant  does spend most of her time talking and scowling at me.  She isn’t your typical participant.  She is about my age (late 30s, early 40s), slender and seemingly fit.  However, she doesn’t work all that hard in class and loves to socialize during class.

A little frustrated,

TC

Hey TC,
As you have identified, the problem is the participant (and her lack of effort), not the equipment.
It sounds like you might talk till you are blue in the face and not get through to her!
Some ideas:

• If possible, offer to personal train her - since her needs are so 'unique', and she is 'clearly beyond the level of the rest of the class'
• If she bites on that, arrange a personalized session where you show her how to add gloves to her work out, and of course, how to use all the resistance factors she is not using now.  She can bring her gloves to a regular class, and if she uses flat hand throughout, she will not be able to keep up to you.

RE: the Aqua Step - I never bought into it - it moves, you can't see the edge - I would use it for rehab, when I needed a step to practice stairs, or use it for elevation when performing AquaStretch™ procedures.  To hear that someone is using it hand-held for resistance is frankly, frightening!

Noodle pieces can offer added resistance with a smaller amount of buoyancy than the dumbbells - we have a bag of them at WGJC - I use them occasionally. People in my classes have to 'earn' the right to use equipment:  

• they must be able to maintain Power Posture with strong scapular set & excellent core control throughout
• they must be using surface area factors effectively, and require more challenge than what they can give themselves with flat hand, long lever, full ROM

I don't know if any of the above will help you, since the weakest muscle in this equation is the one between your lady's ears...
Let me know how it goes!
Connie

I have read a number of resources, and heard a number of respected presenters explain that "water has 12 times the resistance of air".  This statement is false.  It will be true only under a very specific set of circumstances that would have to be carefully defined.

Resistance in water = coefficient of drag (an experimentally determined number based on how streamlined the object passing through the water is - i.e.: a cupped hand has a different C of D than a flat hand;  a ball has a different C of D than a stick...lab testing will tell you what coefficient of drag is for any given object, hence all the flow studies for new car shapes).

• Multiply C of D x density of water (density of water is 1000; density of air is 1)
  
• Multiply that by speed of motion (SOM) squared.  Resistance therefore changes exponentially with speed of motion (2X SOM = 4X resistance; 4X SOM = 16X Resistance!)
  
• Multiply these variables by frontal area meeting the water in the direction of movement, and you have calculated aquatic resistance!
  

     R = Coefficient of Drag x Density of Water x (SOM squared) x frontal area
 No wonder it is so hard to quantify work in the water!  

Work = Resistance (force) x ROM (distance)

This is not from a research paper.  This is from university physics texts re: fluid dynamics.  It's kind of like the laws of gravity.

Visit the downloads page of this website to see a picture by Line Marr of an aquatic dumbbell being weighted with a land weight of 5 lb to barely submerge it.  Estimating work done when moving this buoyant object through the water does not account for the resistance factors mentioned above, including the speed of motion, which will dramatically increase resistance.  Range of motion will determine work done.

Aquatic resistance is not easily quantified, and the figure "12X the resistance of air" is frankly, useless.