Good aqua jogging form should imitate your running style fairly closely.
You’ll want to get into the deep end of the pool and use an aqua jogging belt to help keep you upright in the water.
The key to good aqua jogging form is to keep your upper body straight and to not lean forward too much, which is a little different than your normal running posture. Focus on having a “proud chest,” and keep your head up.
This will allow you to remain upright and also enable you to perform harder sprinting activities.
You should practice using a higher knee lift and a more compact back kick compared to running on dry land. Repeat. When you push down, you want a flat foot so you feel as though you’re pushing off the water. Then, bring your knee up to about a 90-degree angle. And repeat. And repeat!
If you don’t have a belt – you can purchase them relatively cheap online, try holding water weights in each hand to stay afloat and, with the added resistance on the upper body helping to give your biceps, triceps, chest, and upper back and workout!
Forget about equating water miles to land miles. It may take up to an hour to “run” a half-mile! Instead, focus on time and aim for 20-30 minutes for your first session. Gradually increase your pace or time as you progress.
Once you have mastered the technique you can then start adding intervals, as you would do on the track or road. Start with a 10-15-minute warm up and the replicate efforts, as you would do on land, but to time rather than distance. For example you might “run” 4×5-mins with 1mins jog recovery between reps. I find more benefit in performing shorter bursts in the pool to help raise my heart rate. (it’s important to realise that elevating your heart rate in the pool will be more difficult than on dry land, since your cells are 65-95% water, blood circulates better when submerged, which means your heart does not need to pump as hard to circulate oxygen).
If you’re going to be pool running quite a bit due to injury I’d certainly consider investing in a bungee cord. Please note depending on the lifeguard on duty sometimes this was allowed and sometimes not!! Wearing a bungee, you’ll stand a much better chance of getting your heart rate through the roof!
One last piece of advice, if you have a friend it will make aqua jogging a lot more enjoyable but I also love how mentally tough aqua jogging makes you!
Example Aqua Jogging Sets
Pyramids
Set 1
10 minutes easy warm up
1:00 hard, 30 seconds easy
1:30 hard, 30 seconds easy
2:00 hard, 30 seconds easy
2:30 hard, 30 seconds easy
3:00 hard, 30 seconds easy
3:30 hard, 30 seconds easy
4:00 hard, 30 seconds easy
4:30 hard, 30 seconds easy
5:00 hard, 30 seconds easy
Come back down the pyramid (4:30 hard, 30 easy, 4:00 hard, 30 easy etc)
10 minutes easy warm down
Set 2
10 minutes easy warm up
5 x 1min (30secs)
5 x 2mins(30secs)
5 x 3mins (1min)
2 minutes easy between between sets
10 minutes easy warm down
Fartleks
Set 1
10 minutes easy warm up
30 seconds sprint (95-100% of maximum heart rate or all out sprint)
30 seconds medium (87-92% of maximum heart rate or what feels like tempo effort)
30 seconds sprint
30 seconds medium
30 seconds rest
Repeat 12-15 times
10 minutes easy warm down
Set 2
10 minutes easy warm up
30sec hard 30sec easy for 10mins
2min rec
90sec hard 30sec easy for 20mins
2min rec
30sec hard 30sec easy for 10mins
10 minutes easy warm down
Intervals
Set 1
10 minutes easy warm up
30mins of 2mins hard, 30seconds easy!
10 minutes easy warm down
Set 2
10 minutes easy warm up
30 x 1min (30sec rec)
10 minutes easy warm down
‘The Child’
10 minutes easy warm up
10 seconds medium
10 second sprint
10 seconds easy
20 seconds medium
20 second sprint
20 seconds easy
30 seconds medium
30 second sprint
30 seconds easy
Repeat up to 70 seconds and then back down (60 seconds of each, 50 seconds of each)
10 minutes easy warm down
