Take the Plunge With Water Workouts
The benefits of drinking eight glasses of water a day are indisputable. So are the health benefits of jumping in a pool full of water for some exercise. If you want to burn calories and lose weight, increase your flexibility or improve your cardiovascular fitness level, water is a superb exercise medium.
Buoyancy: The buoyancy of water makes jarring movements impossible, so aquatic exercise is gentle on the joints and there is virtually no risk of injury. This "no-impact" exercise is safe for everyone. Even pregnant women, individuals battling conditions such as arthritis and osteoporosis and those recovering from physical injuries can enjoy water. Water’s buoyancy forgives and encourages. It catches you when you lose your balance, and it allows you to move more freely than on land. Your range of motion is greater, which means that your flexibility improves.
Resistance: Exercising in water requires effort. That’s because of water’s resistance, which has three components: drag (pushing the water), friction (the water making contact with your body) and turbulence (the movement of the water, caused by you or those around you). Exercising in this resistance is a great way of burning calories-up to 500 an hour-and increasing your muscle mass. (The greater your muscle mass, the more fat your body is capable of burning.)
"The best news of all is that muscular strength is achieved four to 12 times faster in water than in any land-based program," writes LeAnne Case in her book, Fitness Aquatics. This means aquatic exercise is an extremely efficient form of exercise in terms of the benefits you gain for the amount of time you invest.
Massaging Effect: As you move, the water massages you. It constantly exerts pressure on different parts of your body. This is an added bonus because as you focus on exercising, you are inadvertently getting a massage, which includes relaxation and improved circulation.
Getting Started
If you’re looking for a complete fitness program, taking a structured aquacize class is the way to go. Many facilities now offer "drop-in" classes, so you can go when it’s convenient for you. Aim for three times a week on alternate days so that your muscles have time to recover in between workouts. The beauty of a class is that it incorporates a warm-up, stretching, and a cool-down, along with an aerobic and/or strength-training component. If you’re not a fitness professional, it’s pretty difficult to design a complete workout for yourself. Also, in a class you learn how to get the most out of resistance equipment such as kickboards and fins.
Remember, too, that you can go shallow or deep. While both will improve your strength, a shallow-water workout gives you more of an aerobic/calorie-burning benefit, while a deep-water workout focuses more on increasing your flexibility (you use flotation devices since your feet can’t touch the bottom).
If you’re already committed to a land-based aerobic activity such as jogging or cycling but don’t do any strength-training or flexibility exercises, you could develop your own water workout routine. There are literally hundreds of aquatic exercises that you can do, so this involves a little research. The good news is that there are many excellent books (see below) that show you how to do the exercises properly, with routines that target different parts of your body. They even provide guidelines and worksheets so that you can develop your own routines.
With water workouts, you don’t have to know how to swim. You don’t even have to put your head in the water. Absolutely all of your "I don’t exercise because..." excuses fall apart right here. So go ahead and get your feet wet.
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