Start of WaterART
WaterART Fitness International., a division of Body Check Inc., was established in 1985 by Julie Twynham, Educational Director. As an industry leader in Aquatic Fitness Education and Instructor Training, Julie developed programs for the Fitness Institute, Toronto Star, Speedo Canada, Quatic Industries (the original noodle company), Rockport Walking Shoes, just to name a few. She realized that there was a need to improve the quality of education. She launched the very first land fitness Personal Training conference through the Fitness Institute in 1986. Her goal was to coordinating top professionals to merge together to provide information on exercise science and programming for all levels of fitness and ability. Body Check Inc. became the leader in education and trained both land and water modalities.
From 1993-2000, Body Check Inc. was the educational provider for the Speedo Aquatic Fitness System (SAFS) program, owned by Speedo International and as of January 2000, Speedo International discarded the SAFS program.
WaterART Fitness Training & Certification Programs were developed to be a superior, updated and unique program and consequently replaced the former 1-tiered system. Aquatic Personal Training, Arthritis and Kids Instructor programming were our first programs. We compared land fitness to water fitness to help Instructors learn and evolve the difference in exercise modalities.
Our goal was to establish some similarities; however, we understood that there was a difference in programming.
Body Check Inc. became WaterART Fitness in February of 2003 to focus on the brand name. WaterART Fitness International has worked with Speedo Canada, Speedo USA and Hydropool Inc. to build their educational programs.
WaterART Fitness Training & Certification Programs are based on the most current and documented research to be the cutting edge of water and fitness training. Standards and education are an important and necessary evolution of the industry to help improve the standard of care.
WaterART Fitness Training & Certification Programs masterfully blends the properties of water and the techniques of land training with exercise science in a user-friendly way. It is a proven formula for success, since it helps the professional effectively coach their participants or clients to achieve optimal results. The program realizes that there are individual needs for exercise design because fitness typically attracts all ages, fitness levels from high risk to high performance, as well as, a variety of skill levels. The system utilizes training techniques based on research application with the goal of helping individuals improve their performance and abilities. Each program focuses on “why” we are doing the exercise and “how” to make the exercise more enjoyable, safe and effective. We are proud to provide many practical tools to help leaders learn about the many benefits of exercise science and wellness programming.
How Did the Program Evolve?
Initial research into aquatic fitness was done in the early 1990’s, and formed the foundation for aquatic exercise science. However, there is more research available now than in 1993, and we have chosen to examine all of the research available as well as put together more practical applications. As we move into the millennium, we have developed full training, certification and continuing education programs available onsite or through correspondence to provide you with comprehensive research-based information. More participants are becoming active and demanding specialized and more individualized programming.