Trainers & Physical Therapists

Dr. Rick McAvoy from Aquastrength & McAvoy Aquatic & Sports Therapy is offering the first ever evidenced-based Aquatic Personal Training Instructor Programs. These programs are based upon the latest research and focus on functional fitness.

One of the biggest mistakes that therapists and trainers make when they begin to develop aquatic therapy, fitness and conditioning programs is to simply apply their land-based training principles into the pool. They quickly find that the training mediums are very different. The water is a buoyant, three-dimensional, holistic, non-momentum environment that is the opposite of the weighted, one dimensional, momentum-prone environment found on land.

Why Incorporate Water into Your Therapy/Training Programs?

Water is 500-800x’s more supportive than air but up to 15x’s more resistant. Therefore, your client gets the best of both worlds, the support to reduce the impact on the body but also the resistance to provide a proper training effect. Water is the great equalizer, the harder the client pushes through the water the harder the water pushes the client back. No matter how weak or strong the person is, exercising in the water can provide the right amount of resistance to optimize the proper training effect. 

Three-Dimensional Resistance: Water is a three-dimensional medium, which means that water resists the movement of any object equally in any direction. Water allows a much more functional approach to exercise. Even though we mostly move in one plane at a time, we need to be stable in the other two in order to have proper function. Water allows this three-dimensional resistance automatically.

DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness): Because of the waters, unique properties there are much less eccentric muscle contractions occurring in the water as opposed to land-based training. This creates many advantages but most importantly, it eliminates the DOMS that is associated with eccentric loading from typical land-based training.

Recent Research: More and more research is validating the benefits of aquatic therapy and training. Studies have demonstrated improved strength, flexibility, power, agility, speed and endurance as compared to land based training without the added muscle soreness.

Contact us today to learn more about our Aquatic Personal Training Programs.