WATERinMOTION® Platinum addresses the specific needs of the 65+age group and/or deconditioned individuals looking for a fun, social and safe environment to workout and get healthy. WATERinMOTION® Platinum uses slower beats and longer repititions set to recognizable music that is easy to memorize and enjoyable to sing along to.
Since most exercise programs are not designed to address the specific needs of those 65 years and older WATERinMOTION® Platinum was created.
Areas of Focus in WATERinMOTION® Platinum:
Manual Dexterity
As we age, we being to lose the manual dexterity or ability to move our hands. The Arthritis Foundation states that aging populations should do exercises with their hands to reverse or decrease these effects and WATERinMOTION® Platinum integrates these exercises into the choreography to do just that.
Application of flexibility
It’s very important for us to focus on the application of flexibility as well. As we age we lose the ability to plantar and dorsi flex our foot. This is why as we age we shuffle and are more prone to falls.
Crossing the Mid-line
We must focus on not crossing the mid line when teaching or crossing the legs over. We do this because some people have less flexibility in the hip girdle or have had hip surgeries and we want to ensure that we stick to the Arthritis Foundation guidelines. People can cross if they feel comfortable but we must show them a proper example.
We must also ensure that we strengthen the adductors of the inner thigh because those muscles strengthen the knee joint to help with balance.
Transitions
In WATERinMOTION® Platinum we want to make our transitions slower and smoother to ensure that the participants have enough time to follow us. Diminished visual and auditory skills that companion aging require us to pay great attention to our students to ensure they are successfully performing the workout.
Shoulder Girdle
We must focus in our flexibility track to impress upon our participants the importance of retracting the head back, scapular retraction and depression; which will avoid the “rounded back” that we get as we age.
Challenge the body and the mind
Be aware that because your class will have different age groups, all with different cognitive levels, that you must challenge the group as a whole. This is one of the most important reasons to change the choreography quarterly because it provides both the physical and cognitive challenges needed to keep the body improving.
Cueing
We also need to be aware of how to cue to this population. Verbally, we are going to simplify our cueing by talking slower, annunciating, and being consistent. We also have to preview early and verbally cue sooner to help our participants follow the transitions easier. Because some of our instructors will be older, when visually cueing, it is important to demonstrate each movement while standing and while seated.
Fast Twitch Focus
Since we lose more fast twitch muscle fibers as we age we want to focus on maintaining these by using more explosive movements, when applicable. And we want to focus on retaining our slow twitch fibers in our cardio sections.
Activities of Daily Living (ADLS)
It’s important for our older adults and deconditioned populations to feel a sense of independence, strength, power and control. As instructors we must focus on stimulating our participants minds, giving them the ability to socialize and give them a sense of well-being and belonging.
