Cara Kempf is a certified personal trainer with the Fitness Zone in Carmel and a group fitness instructor with NIFS in downtown Indianapolis. She can be contacted at fitnessblog@theindychannel.com.

"I am a female hockey player and get a good workout from that a few times a week, but also really enjoy the aqua fit classes at my gym. The instructor is great and I feel like I'm getting a good workout, but I'm not sure if I'm getting the best training I could be getting in the water since I really love a good athletic class. How does aqua fit compare in the fat-burning and toning department to some of the other exercises like circuit-training or cardio kickboxing (other classes I enjoy!). I wonder if I am wasting my time in the water. (Although I really enjoy it!)"

-- Rachel

You are absolutely not wasting your time in the water! Water aerobic classes are great for many reasons: The resistance from the water can help in toning your muscles; jumping around in the water will definitely work your cardio system; it's low impact, so it isn't hard on your body (which you may need after those hockey games!); and it's different from lots of other classes, so it mixes things up a bit.

As far as calorie burning, it depends on the level of the class and how hard you work. You can burn some major calories in the water if you're working intensely through the movements. Using your rate of perceived exertion (RPE), you can judge how hard or easy the class is for you -- on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the absolute hardest you could work, how hard is the class? You probably want to stay at around 6-8 RPE (which is equal to about 60 percent to 80 percent of perceived max heart rate) to burn lots of calories. If you feel like it is somewhat easy, it probably is!

I think that mixing up your workouts with an aqua fit class is a great idea -- just make sure you continue to do other things as well (i.e. weight-bearing activity, flexibility exercises, etc.). Continue to do any kind of cardio classes that you enjoy -- circuit training, cardio kickboxing, step, aqua fit, spin ... any of these will get your heart rate up, especially if you put extra effort in!