Tips for Home Pool Fitness and Rehab Sessions

Here are some basic tips to help you be better prepared each time you drive to a home pool session.

• Find out if they are looking for exercise and fitness or if they are trying to recover from an injury or surgery.
• If injured, get a brief history and see if they know their diagnosis.
• Don’t knock on their door early. That’s just as rude as being late.
• When you see their pool, quickly assess it for access, depths of water, and look for any unique features such as ledges, ladders or bars.
• Ask them their goals. You may need to guide them toward these.
• Take it easy the first session. You can always add more next time, but you don’t want them to get unduly sore the first time.

These are six of two dozen tips that appear in Lesson 12 of Lynda Huey’s Aquatic Rehab Online Course (AROC)

When you meet a client for the first time, greet him or her warmly and confidently. Discuss their goals. You want to stay focused on their goals, not yours. As you work together over time, they may adjust their goals and you can help influence the formation of those new goals.

Your client and you will be eager and enthusiastic on the first visit, but “underdo” should be your watchword.  You have to be the voice of wisdom showing restraint if you recognize the client is encountering pain during the session. Be aware of how much exercise they have been doing prior to seeing you and plan appropriately.

Learn to control the time allotted for your session. My sessions are about an hour; you can make yours as long or short as you wish. I wear a waterproof sports watch in case there isn’t an outdoor clock visible from the pool.

End the session with slow, soothing exercises such as swinging the arms gently in the water or a last-minute Quad Stretch or Gastroc Stretch.

When you return for the second visit, if the client is excited to do more, add exercises or repetitions. But of course, if the client was sore or super tired after the first session, that  may be an indicator you did too much and you’ll have to cut back.