If I am indeed the wet ptarmigan, then I have surely come home here in Florida. Wet ptarmigan, soggy ptarmigan, moist ptarmigan, humid ptarmigan, waterlogged ptarmigan, mildewed ptarmigan, take your pick. It has rained here every day. Not all day, but some portion of it. Add to that being in and out of swimming pools up to 5 times a day, and some of my gear never dries out. The air feels so humid sometimes, it seems like you could pour it out of a cup or squeeze a handful and get a drink. Paper feels like limp rags; the electronics on my room door lock pooped out today from the moisture. Not complaining, mind you, but it certainly is a drastic change from Alaska.
Up again with the birds (who were themselves pretty soggy, as it rained right up to starting time) to attend
Karen Westfall's
Liquid Force workshop. The Big Idea was to use the resistance of the water as effectively as possible. It was strange to see Ms Westfall in person after being the consumer of so many of her videos. It surprised me that she's so small. From
the way she moves in her videos, I had thought she was really tall. Tall or small, she's a real powerhouse, and gave us a pool session that emphasized core strength and hard work while remaining mostly anchored to the floor. Often it involved a brief hesitation at the end of a move in order to lose momentum before starting the next. Karen has some great phrases for cueing--to keep your elbows in to the waist "close your armpits." To encourage long arm and leg moves, "keep your hands away from the shoulders; keep your feet away from the hips." The hesitations were called "freeze frame" or "snapshots". Arms and legs often worked in opposition to create more turbulence and thereby more resistance. One interesting idea of Karen's is that drag equipment such as gloves and paddle bars should not be reserved entirely for raising the intensity of the fit participants. Drag equipment on the less fit can enable them to feel the force of the water and help them feel what they need to do when they move.
Next was A Different Slant on Aquafitness with
Teri Mitchell. Teri says that muscles are often in
diagonal lines on our bodies, yet when exercising we usually move at right angles as if we were in a box. This workshop was a focus on diagonal and spiral movement, using the ideas of
PNF, Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (how's that for a mouthful of syllables designed to make you sound like a hot-shot?) Diagonal movement is typical of many Activities of Daily Living (ADL's to the people who evaluate you for placement in assisted living or the nursing home). Fastening a car seat belt, for instance, washing a window, or reaching for the phone. As our bodies age, it is important to maintain our ability to move on the diagonal, and to move in ways where an extremity crosses the midline of the body. One of these PNF moves is what Teri calls the "curtsey kick", where the foot, let's say the right foot, starts out behind and to the left of center. The kick moves it from the back to the right front corner, from 8 to 1 o'clock if you think of yourself at the center of a clock face.
Hidro Argentina was a fun masterclass given by an instructor from, you guessed it, Argentina.
Cristina Barcala speaks very little English, but she managed by sheer charisma and stupendous acting skills to not only convey the instructions for her workout, but to get the class to work in pairs, then in 3's, in lines, in halves, and for the grand finale, half the class was in the center of the pool doing something stationary while the other half swirled around it traveling and making turbulence. Incredible!
Next up was
Connie Jasinkas Teaching Deep/Shallow Combo Courses. When teaching in a pool with both deep and shallow water, we can end up either intentionally or unintentionally with people in both depths. This can feel frustrating, because some moves work well or are impossible in one side or the other. Connie showed how to teach both depths at once by clear cueing and by tailoring the version of each move to water depth, for instance having shallow people do a pendulum while deep people do a single leg side lift. Connie had a move for the deep (or suspended) that I'd never seen before. She called it a "tripod jack", although its action was hip rotation rather than the ab/adduction of the traditional jack. Legs are under the body with feet together and knees apart. Knees move together and apart while the feet stay the same and the core struggles to keep the trunk stable. Also in this class I got to try
water horse flotation in the deep for the first time. Use the link to see what it is if you don't know what I'm talking about. I found it a whole lot better that straddling a noodle, because nothing could get in the way of your arm action and there was much less risk of falling off.
Is this seeming like a long day to you? It certainly was in person! And it's not nearly done yet!
Ruth Sova was next with Working on the Rehab Side. Thankfully, this was dry land only--I was feeling a bit prune-y after so many immersions. There was an overview of aquatic therapy and rehabilitation, some legal terms and considerations, client and facility considerations. There was a quick trip through some of the most common formats and techniques. They're listed here and linked to further information, should you care to know more:
The rest was Q&A from the varied perspectives of the audience. Some of us were Physical Therapists, some personal trainers, some plain old water aerobics teachers who have students prehabbing before orthopedic surgery or who are back in the water afterward to finish up and maintain their recovery.
One last class--a half hour Stretch Fusion Rejuvenation in the pool with
Laurie Denomme. This was just the right thing after such a long exhausting day.
And one more little curiosity before I'm done. At one point I was wandering past a pool and saw this:
Can you tell what it is in the water? Sharks? Robots? Aliens? None of the above. It's a pool full of
aquatic stationary bikes! Here they are fishing one out to put away:
Just the ticket, I guess, if you don't like getting all hot and sweaty in your spinning class!
My last workshop was Ai Chi for the Core with Ruth Sova. It was yet another angle on a format that can be so many things to so many people for so many needs. You can use the "heavy" concept with the Ai Chi progression, especially the trunk stabilization portion, to get extra core strength benefits. The "heavy" concept asks the participant to think of a part of the body as so heavy it is impossible to move, yet making the effort anyway. What this does is engage the deeper and lower core muscles before the movement begins and creates a very stable base. It can protect joints during weight shifting and improve control for balance training. The water portion of the workshop was not only a chance to practice and feel the concepts but another chance for a beautiful silent Ai Chi progression led by Jun Konno. Thanks, Ruth! I've learned so much from you!
