Good to the very last drop: how water can keep you fit

Connie Jasinskas leads an aquafit class at the Iqaluit Aquatic Centre, Oct. 17. The water fitness expert spent last week training pool staff on how to teach aquatic fitness classes. (PHOTO COURTESY OF AIMEE LANGER)

Water fitness trainer, educator and therapist Connie Jasinskas (centre) with Iqaluit recreation director Amy Elgersma (left) and fitness centre coordinator Aimee Langer. (PHOTO BY BETH BROWN)

You’ve braved the water slide, basked in the sauna, and done your lunch time laps at Iqaluit’s shiny new aquatic centre, but one aquatic expert who visited Iqaluit last week says there are even more ways to use the city’s less-than-a-year-old pool.

That’s especially true now that the city is certified to train water fitness instructors.

Aquatic fitness trainer and water therapist Connie Jasinskas schooled the city’s new fitness staff, and some of the lifeguards, in her self-developed program AQX Aqua Fitness Leadership Training and Certification Course at the Iqaluit Aquatic Centre from Oct. 16 to Oct. 22.

That means there’s going to be more aquafit at the pool—and more kinds of it—real soon.

“An aqua fitness class can be more versatile than any other kind of fitness class,” said Jasinskas, who is from Cambridge, Ont.

A water workout blends a warm up, muscle conditioning, cardio and respiratory strengthening into one workout and removes the impacts of gravity, Jasinskas said.

“It’s omnidirectional resistance. You don’t get that in the gym,” she said.

And, the workout can be done by everyone.

“You can have an athlete standing beside someone who just had knee surgery,” she said.

The purpose of her training program is to leave an organization or municipality in a position where it can keep an aqua fitness program running on its own.

The AQX program is used in five provinces, but this is the first time she has brought it to the North.

“When people are in remote areas, it ends up being really onerous to maintain training and certification for staff,” she said.

So what happens all too often is that facilities don’t train their staff, she said.

But now, fitness staff at the Iqaluit pool are trained to teach new instructors how to safely lead aqua fitness classes.

The fitness program at the aquatic centre was in flux after the city let go its volunteer instructors in the spring.

But new fitness instructors, now called program representatives, have since been hired and classes were in full swing again as of Oct. 1.

Upgrading water fitness programs was an obvious next step, said Amy Elgersma, the city’s director of recreation.

“The benefits of this program are that it’s sustainable,” she said.

The centre did not notice a lull in attendance in the summer, which is usually a slow time, but has seen an increase in pass sales and class attendance over the course of the fall, Elgersma said.

And, as with any fitness class, attendance is a very important part, Jasinskas said.

“You’ve got to show up… You’ve got to get your brain in gear and then you’ve got to work your rear. And then you get results.”

But there are lots of misconceptions about aqua fitness, she said. And some of those are: “That it’s easy; that it’s for little old ladies; that it’s a social float club,” Jasinskas said.

“For people who have a background in fitness, like myself, it’s definitely very challenging. It’s a lot more work in the pool that what people realize,” said the centre’s fitness centre coordinator, Aimee Langer, who took the instructor-trainer course.

And, how is aqua fitness different than plain old swimming?

Jasinskas said that while swimming includes force, efficiency and quality strokes, with aqua fitness, the workout depends on core stability.

“It’s about inefficiency, it’s about me riling up the water as much as I can, because I’m using my muscles to do that, and then my core has to stabilize all of that.”

But if aquafit is not your scene, aquatic therapy might be.

A few lucky Iqalungmiut got in the wading pool at the centre last week for some one-on-one aquatic-physiotherapy with Jasinskas, while the nationally known specialist was visiting.

She said the warm pool, or “kiddie pool,” at the aquatic centre is perfect for easing pent-up pain in soft tissue.

And the tension release done in the water goes deeper and lasts longer than a session with a massage therapist.

Often, she works with clients who have chronic pain, and who have seen many specialists before they came to her.

Jasinskas is suggesting that the aquatic centre connect with the city hospital or a physiotherapist in Iqaluit to use the facility for rehabilitation work.

“That’s gold, it is so hard to find a warm pool,” she said.

Since she’s not around all the time, pool users can take online courses at her website For the Love of Fit.

“You have to know how to get out of the water what you came to get,” she said.

A new course, coming out this month, teaches people how to do their own self-led water therapy, so you can work out those winter aches and pains all on your own. Some courses are free and some require a small fee.

Jasinskas also gave a free public workshop and pool session, Oct. 15, on the benefits of aqua fitness.

The week of instructor training culminated in a workshop, Oct. 21, where the newly trained aquafit instructors led the regular Saturday morning class.

Elgersma said pool visitors can expect more aqua fitness classes next month, with the potential for even more classes when the January pool schedule is released.