A personal trainer is a certified and qualified professional who designs individualized exercise programs specific to a client's needs and/or requirements. Personal trainers offer education, support, motivational skills and positive feedback, as well as a multitude of techniques and programs to reach a client's desired goals.
"Personal trainers need to maximize the properties of water to help clients get results. Research has confirmed that simply dropping land movements into the water will not transfer to the same intensity or results."
A competent trainer has knowledge of, and can demonstrate, skills in anatomy, physiology, injury prevention, nutrition, program design, exercise, and communication. Establishing and reaching health and wellness goals will be made much easier with the aid of a competent personal trainer.
A personal trainer may be instrumental in reaching out and developing a suitable program for participants who are:
(a) not motivated to exercise on their own
(b) do not know how to exercise on their own
(c) do not want to exercise in a group; and
(d) want to make their exercise experience time effective and result oriented.
In order to design effective programs, an aquatic trainer must be a master of the water environment and possess many tools to specifically target the components of fitness in the water. These programs are designed based on each individual's health needs, interests and desired goals. These are not generic programs or canned routines, but programs designed to reach specific goals developed from physical assessments, lifestyle questionnaires, program preferences and personalities.
A program may be suitable for any of the following themes:
- weight management
- strength & endurance training
- flexibility
- relaxation
- mind & body
- cardiorespiratory improvement
- athletic conditioning
- martial arts training
and programs for special populations or medical conditions, or simply general health and maintenance.
How Can a Water Fitness Personal Trainer Benefit the Participant?
A personal trainer will work to help the client achieve his goals, whether the client is a beginner or an athlete. Personal trainers make an innovative and powerful learning package that offers more gain for less pain. Most successful people are busy and don't have time to spend on things that don't work. Personal trainers empower the client with exercise science researched programs that are safe and effective. They use specialized knowledge, top of the line equipment, and are part of the health care continuum.
Water personal training is different than land training because of the unique properties of water. Personal trainers need to maximize the properties of water to help clients get results. Research has confirmed that simply dropping land movements into the water will not transfer to the same intensity or results. Using the water and water specific equipment will be key for keeping the programs progressive, interesting and professional looking.
Personal trainers in the water educate the client on how their body works, as well as empowering the client with unique body awareness and balance. The use of progressive techniques to help the client learn and execute movements correctly is paramount for achieving results. This is a cost-effective way to help individuals improve their body and quality of life.
Group Class Challenges Differ from Personal Training
One of the most challenging tasks in group-teaching is trying to train every participant to perform correct technique and achieve their goals simultaneously.
In a group class, an instructor finds that the group is comprised of athletes and beginners of all ages and levels of fitness skills. Although everyone is cued to go at their own pace and perform the exercises that feel good how can a client change and modify the exercise if they do not know joint action or progression?
Sometimes the participant is suitable for the level of the class, but more often they are not. An instructor cannot watch all of the participants all the time. Even with the best quality teaching, imperfections develop leading to poor technique and body alignment. It is easy for a participant to get lost in a large group and never realize they are being offered corrections. When this happens, poor technique persists, resulting in bad habits and loss of posture and muscle balance. More...
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