This year, two studies looked at brain training from very different angles. One followed people for 20 years. The other tested dual tasking in the pool. Both point to the same thing, and it is something most instructors are getting wrong.

The Brain Training That Still Worked After 20 Years

In F...

Your Pool Wall Is Training Equipment

Ask most instructors how they add variety to a deep-water class and the answer usually involves equipment. Noodles, dumbbells, gloves, belts, boards. All of it useful.

The aspect of the pool that is almost never considered is the wall.

Deep Water Versus Sha...

When most people hear the word "power," they picture a sprinter exploding out of the blocks or a weightlifter driving a barbell overhead. Power training gets filed away as something elite, something separate from the work happening in community fitness classes, group exercise studios, and aqua sessi...

If you teach aqua, you probably know this scene.

You look out at the pool and see a mix of newer participants, long-time regulars, older adults, people returning from injury, and a couple of fit machines who want to work hard. They are all in the same water, in the same time slot, with the same ins...

If you don’t formally plan, you’re not alone. 

This is a fast structure you can use: two moves you already teach, one simple rule, and a combo you can repeat and tweak.

You know your moves, and you know your group. What you need is a way to turn what you already know into combinations that flow an...

As aqua fitness instructors, we've all been there, staring at our class notes, feeling the familiar ache of creative fatigue. Your participants show up expecting something engaging, and you want to deliver, but the well of fresh choreography feels dry. Research shows that aqua instructors face uniqu...

As an aqua fitness instructor, you already know the myriad benefits that water-based exercises offer. But have you considered incorporating neurobics into your routines? Neurobics combines physical activity with cognitive processes, challenging the brain to create new, stimulating patterns. This inn...

Feeling flat and bored? You know those days when you feel like you're slogging through a muddy swamp, trying to pull yourself out of a rut? When you have arrived at your class and wish you had something to teach that gives you that tingling feeling of excitement because you know that your participan...