The national synchronised swimming team has completed a 14-day training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra, ahead of the World Championships in Quebec in October.
The team hope to beat New Zealand at the championships and compete at the Rio Olympics.
Each day involves an hour and a half in the gym followed by another six hours in the water.
There are also the international travel schedules and the fact that most of the girls are still at school.
Bianca Hammett attended the London Olympics and defended synchronised swimming as a genuine sport.
"Being here at the AIS there's all different sports around. Us doing our training - a lot of them have said we converted them," she said.
"They now understand it's a really hard sport and that there's a lot more to it than they thought there was."
"Underwater we're so close, we're just kicking each others knees, we're just at it," Amie Thompson said.
"You've just got to push through it, so I think we're tougher than a lot of other sports.
"I used to be a lap swimmer and that was really boring and I'd skip laps and then I saw the synchro swimmers in the pool one day and I thought 'that's what I want to do'."
Coach Leslie Sproule said she hoped to see synchronised swimming become as popular in Australia as regular swimming.
"Australia is such a swimming nation so we'd like that to transfer over, but I don't think a lot of Australians are really familiar with the sport," she said.
"It's a journey and a challenge and I think all of the girls really enjoy taking that step together. You have to do it as a team."