SUMMARY THE CURRENT ROUNDTABLE ISTHE FIRST PART OF A 2-PARTSERIES THAT IS DESIGNED TOEXAMINE THE USE OF AQUATICEXERCISE TRAINING, SUCH ASDEEP-WATER RUNNING. SEVERALEXPERTS IN THE FIELD OFAQUATIC EXERCISE HAVE BEENBROUGHT TOGETHER TO DIS-CUSS ISSUES RELATED TO THEUSE OF AQUATIC EXERCISE INTHE TRAINING PROGRAMS OFATHLETES AND VARIOUS OTHERPOPULATIONS.INTRODUCTION A growing interest in the effectsof performing exercise inaquatic environments has re-sulted in an increase in the occurrenceof scientific inquiry on the topic(2,3,5,9). Several studies have focusedon the short-term (4) and long-term (8)effects of exercising in aquatic environ-ments on both youngand older womenand men. Research in this area hasfocused on the effects of training inaquatic environmentsoncardiovascular(2,3,8) and muscular adaptations(6,7,9).Several researchers and practitionershave suggested that aquatic cross-training may be a useful tool forathletes. In particular, deep-water run-ning has received a lot of attention as itoffers a unique training stimulus thathas the ability to maintain aerobicperformance as well as decreasing thestress of the training environment (1).Interestingly, the use of deep-waterrunning appears to supply an effectivecardiovascular training stimulus withboth healthy and injured individuals(1). When individuals are restrictedfrom land-based exercise, the use ofaquatic-based cross-training with mo-dalities such as deep-water runningappears to offer an alternative exercisemethod that has the ability to translateto running performance.The current roundtable is designed toexplore the concept of aquatic cross-trainingandhowitmightbeusefultothestrength and conditioning professional.QUESTION 1: DOES THELITERATURE SUPPORT AQUATICCROSS-TRAINING IN ATHLETES?Becker: While there is not a massivebody of literature that speaks directlyto this question, there is literature thatsupports the potential value of aquaticexercise as a cross-training mode (17).Aquatic cross-training has been usedextensively in a variety of sports, butparticularly with track and field ath-letes,becauseaqua-runningissimpletotrain and the potential value has beenmore extensively researched (7,12,20).While aquatic cross-training can pres-ent a very significant aerobic challengeto the athlete, there are differences inmotor activity, muscle recruitment,and cardiovascular performance (6).Lindle-Chewning: Many professionalathletes including boxers, ice skaters,tennis players, baseball players, andrunnershavecross-trainedinthewater.Although these athletes have reportedsuccess with aquatic cross-training,there is little scientific evidence tosupport these athletes’ claims for themajority of these sports. In the 1990s,there was a flurry of scientific researchinvestigating the viability of deep-waterrunning/jogging as a cross-trainingmodality (1–3,6,11,12). In general, themajority of these studies suggest thatadding deep-water running to anathlete’s training regimen has thepotential to increase fitness and ulti-mately improve performance.Huff: Several research studies suggestthat aquatic exercise may be valuable asa mode of cross-training for certainathletes (7,9). These studies suggest thattechnique is a factor in the effectivenessaquaticexerciseasacross-trainingmodal-ity (4). The actual benefits of aquaticcross-training might be limited by theathletes’ experience with water exer-cise. Athletes that are encouraged touse aquatic cross-training must first betaught the proper technique and form.Additionally it may also be necessaryto use anintensity thatis similar to thatused during land-based training inorder foraquatic modalities to be effec-tive (1). The difficulty is that there aremany factors that influence the in-tensity of water exercise. One way toaccount for this is to educate theathlete about specific aquatic techni-ques that can alter the intensity ofexercises in the water.Sherlock and Sherlock: The aquatic fieldhas little supporting research to validatetestimonials provided by clinicians, pa-tients,and/orathletespromotingaquaticrehabilitation and/or cross-training.The most abundantly discussed re-search topic in the aquatic realm is the