Get splashy and fierce with Australian instructor extraordinaire, Claire Barker-Hemings in Aqua Fight Club, a 50-minute pool workout that targets cardio and muscle conditioning with boxing and martial arts inspired exercise rounds.
Like her 2024 water exercise video filming, Claire returned with me after attending AEA’s International Aquatic Fitness & Therapy Conference (IAFTC), which was held in Palm Harbor, Florida. Claire and New Zealand fitness expert, Maria Teresa Stone, filmed 8 videos after the conference. The combination of conference and then filming is a hard push, but well worth the effort. Aqua Fight Club is the first of Claire’s four videos to post this summer.
Boxing and Martial Arts Inspired
Inspired by her love of combat-style fitness training, Claire, a former Les Mills Body Combat instructor, wanted to take her studio experience and create a similar workout in the pool. This workout was designed with traditional boxing rounds in mind, as well as her martial arts background, and the principles of circuit and interval training. Below, Claire talks more about her inspiration for creating the content and then read on for a summary of the exercise action in Aqua Fight Club.
AQUA FIGHT CLUB – VIDEO SUMMARY
This 50-minute water workout includes a warm-up, cool down and five 7-minute exercise segments. Each exercise segment includes both a boxing round and a combat/martial arts round.
Boxing Rounds
The boxing rounds in each exercise segment are 3 minutes long, which is the same as professional boxing rounds. Each boxing round includes six 30-second movement patterns. Separating the movements into 30-second exercises ensures that the boxing style movement does not become overwhelming. The goal of the boxing rounds is to target upper body and encourage speed and power in the water’s resistance.
Combat Rounds
The combat rounds are around 4 minutes in duration. They are designed to train coordination and agility with slower and more controlled movement. The focus shifts more to lower body with kick patterns, but overall conditioning is still the overriding goal.
Alternating circuits of boxing and combat fulfills varying training goals and intensity levels for a results-driven cardio and conditioning workout.
Equipment
Equipment is not required in this workout. However, webbed swim gloves or other aqua boxing gloves would be ideal for maximizing the water’s resistance. The Aqualogix uppers & lowers could also be utilized for a progressive challenge.
Poolfit extends a big thank you to Claire for once again returning to Florida for filming. Check out her full library of Poolfit videos and stay tuned for three more of her videos posting this summer and fall.
