Aqua jogging is like adding insult to injury... Tips?

Make fun of it, but if done correct you can have some of the hardest most productive workout ever. You will collapse on the pool deck if you make it that far. As for the boring side, do your best there. That's the sucky part.

10x3min hard (10k effort) / 1min easy - nice threshold workout replacement

3-4x8min moderate / 2min easy - do this on an "easy run" day to keep your HR higher and to break up the monotony

20x30sec very hard / 30 sec easy - Good for keeping up anaerobic fitness if you plan on racing soon after returning to dry land.

I used to do some of my hardest workouts in the water. As I recall, they were basically unscripted -- mainly lots of hard intervals, like up the pool and back, with fairly short recovery jogs. It was all about the effort. I loved that I could push myself to exhaustion without any big concerns about injury. I did these sessions when I was healthy, not just when I was injured and unable to run on land. I felt that they were very productive, and I usually felt very good after doing them.

In the early years, I used a water-ski jacket; there were no "aqua jogging" belts on the market back then. In later years, I used no flotation device. I could do hard workouts either way; the difference was primarily in my "running" form, and perhaps also my stride frequency, which might go down to about 150 (or slightly less) per minute when I didn't use any flotation device.

In addition to intense workouts, I did some long sessions, up to something like four hours of continuous running without a flotation device, but you better have a very good reason for doing something like that. (In my case, I was trying to train through a stress fracture during the months leading up to the Olympic trials, and I just wanted to make sure that I did whatever I could.)

Anchor a resistance band or stretch tubing to the side of the pool and attach it to your aqua belt (or waist). Run against the resistance of the band to create a harder workout.

If you pay close attention to body position you will get more out of aqua running then if you stick your butt out and bend at the waist. Also know that if you are prone to adding muscle mass to your arms you will do so in the pool due to the force required to move them through the water.

Aqua running is not glorious but can get you aerobically fit. If you do reps keep the rest ridiculously short. Recovery happens very fast in the water.

When doing intervals keep the rest really short. The pressure of the water makes it tough to keep your heart rate up.

No tips, just props to you for sticking with it.

Half the challenge of aqua jogging is finding a suitable pool, which around most cities in the western US is like finding a four leaf clover.

Hate it. It sucks. The pool schedules suck. The activity sucks. I guess you have to think of all the training your competitors are doing.

I was stuck in the pool for about 11wks because of turf toe. I am up to running 5 miles a day but am still supplementing with shorter aqua jogging sessions. I would encourage you to keep it up and keep pushing yourself. My first two weeks back running were a bit rough, but now in weeks 3 and 4 I have killed some workouts that I thought I had no business touching. I really think it was the aqua jogging over any other cross training that I did (spin + elliptical).

I didn't use a belt. I always start with 10-15 min warm up and then jump into a workout. One that killed me every time was 6x 2:30 hard, 30s rest then 5 min relaxed and the 6x 2:30 hard, 30s rest again. If I did that one hard enough I felt like puking by the end. I also do a lot of ladders to keep things interesting. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 with 30s-1m recovery. It may sound monotonous, but 5-6x 5min at tempo pace is also a good one. Add in a warm up, cool down and maybe some 30s sprint intervals at the end and you will have a solid workout.

I had a hard time staying in the pool longer than an hour, so some days I would do a double with one hour in the am and then another 30-40min in the pm.

Good luck!

OP here. Thanks for the above, I'll definitely try and incorporate some of the suggestions!

Avocado's Number you survived a four hours session?! I hope the mental fortitude that would require also translated into and benefited your running on return... Mad respect and kudos to you!

So far I've only worked out with a belt, but it sounds like belt-less could be a good way to keep it varied. Is there anything specific I should focus on when I try and go it 'solo' technique wise so I don't just end up a). sinking or b). looking like the equivalent of an uncoordinated aquasice class participant?

I used aquajogging as my main form of cross training or 3 months during the winter of my first year of college. I came out of the pool in equal or better shape than I went in. A program I'm a fan of is one from Pfitzinger found here:

http://kemibe.com/distancecoach/labreports/9wkH2O.htm

Of course you can use a different training plan just doing equal time intervals at equal effort. Instead of 8 x 1k you can do 8 x 3:00, instead of quarters you can do reps of 60-90s etc. I think one thing to remember is you shouldn't be focusing on moving forward through the water, rather focus on moving your legs up and down like pistons. The goal isn't to try and move through the water as fast as possible, instead just focus on good form while maintaining a decent cadence. I think it's important to wear a belt in the early stages to ensure your form is held together well.

Take much shorter recoveries than what someone above recommended. Your heart rate returns to normal so much quicker in the water than on land.

Do things like 10 x (1:45 hard/:15 easy), then 2 minutes easy, then 8 x (3:30 hard/:30 easy). You need almost no warm-up. A few minutes easy, and then get to the intervals. When you need to fill an extra ten minutes, do 10 x (:50 hard/:10 easy).

I found it impossible to keep my heart rate high enough to simulate tempos and long runs. When I have to pool run, I do intervals every day, the whole session lasting between one and two hours.

I have aqua-jogged before and found it completely useless. You can go through the motions of running but your muscles just don't work the same way. I wouldn't do it again unless I was completely unable to do any weight-bearing exercise, and even then swimming would be a better option. With that bad an injury there's no chance of retaining specific running fitness.

shameless self promotion, but I've written a bunch of different stuff about it here:

http://wellimtryingtorun.blogspot.com/2010/01/pool-running-posts-listed-by-category.html

You can keep a LOT of fitness (though not all of it) with pool-running. My bread and butter workout (2-3 times a week) would be 10x3:00 all out, 1:00 easy. That workout did a lot to keep me fit.

Key things about pool-running -

-your perceived effort is different, and so your workouts need to hurt harder in the pool than they would on land;

-you need to do a slightly higher total volume of work in the water to replicate land

-you recover a lot quicker in the water, due to the coldness of the water and the pressure of the water, which assists circulation. For those same reasons, your HR will likely NOT approximate what it would be on land.

several hours of nordic death metal, on the mp3 player - put it under a swim cap to protect from splashes, and jog jog jog ;-)

the pain of aquajogging dwindles in comparison with the pain of listening to the death metal..

http://everynoise.com/engenremap-deathmetal.html

lots of intervals basically, do it without a belt for extra credit.

think about run form, can do it several different ways - exaggerated knee lift, etc etc.

many running injuries don't prevent biking - get a bike for outside workouts, cheap mtb will provide plenty of hard work.

otter wrote:

The pressure of the water makes it tough to keep your heart rate up.

False. You just aren't working hard enough.

Khv wrote:

otter wrote:

The pressure of the water makes it tough to keep your heart rate up.

False. You just aren't working hard enough.

Read my whole post knucklehead

Rather than start a new thread, figured I would ask here as you folks seem to know quite a bit about this.

When running in the pool is it best to get an aqua jogger setup (belt with optional attachment to anchor to edge of pool) Or simply run in the pool?

I have access to a full time 25yd lap pool that is 4 ft deep the whole length, and i'm not sure which would be the best to do while I'm recovering from injury.

Is it better to have no contact with the ground at all and just float and do the running motion or just run lengths of the pool without a flotation device?

Thanks much!

A soon to be bored pool runner.

Not quite sure on how to do it wrote:

Is it better to have no contact with the ground at all and just float and do the running motion or just run lengths of the pool without a flotation device?

Depends on your injury. If it's a foot injury, I wouldn't have contact with the pool floor. While there is LESS impact to your foot when landing in the pool, there's MORE stress (as compared to land) when pushing off, since you're pushing against water resistance.

If it's another injury, I think it depends on whether it hurts you or not.

BTW, I've found that pool running can actually aggravate some injuries (hip flexors, especially), since you're moving your legs against more resistance than you get on land. It puts less stress on your lower legs, but can put more on your hamstrings and hip flexors, due to the water resistance.

Aqua man wrote:

Anchor a resistance band or stretch tubing to the side of the pool and attach it to your aqua belt (or waist). Run against the resistance of the band to create a harder workout.

If you pay close attention to body position you will get more out of aqua running then if you stick your butt out and bend at the waist. Also know that if you are prone to adding muscle mass to your arms you will do so in the pool due to the force required to move them through the water.

Aqua running is not glorious but can get you aerobically fit. If you do reps keep the rest ridiculously short. Recovery happens very fast in the water.

This is the answer. Tether yourself to a ladder in the deep end with a bungee cord and run without touching bottom. You're motion will be very similar to running on land. While doing intervals see how high you can lift yourself out of the water. Interval ends and you sink back down. Count out x number of strides for intervals then rest for x/2 at slower pace. If x is reasonably large (100+), time passes fairly quickly. 45 minutes will give a good workout.