Never attempted a workout in the ocean before? This information will help you get begun.
Your muscles will work harder due to the natural barrier that water provides, but your joints will also experience less stress.
Water might be the greatest workout equipment you aren’t already using when it comes to gaining lean muscle, burning fat, and achieving your fitness objectives. And no, we’re not just talking about swimming. You can also create your own water-based resistance exercises or enroll in water-based fitness programs like aqua riding and aqua yoga. Dan Daly, CSCS, a competitive swimmer located in New York City and performance instructor of top and professional level athletes, claims that they are not just for elderly people and injury recovery.
All athletes and fitness enthusiasts, in my view, could profit from cross-training in the pool, says Daly.
Why Exercising in the Water Is Good for You
Exercises performed in a pool can have the same positive effects on one’s health as other forms of exercise: calorie burning, muscle building, better cardiovascular health, and improved mental equilibrium. However, they also have some special advantages, most of which result from two facts:
1. Water Reduces Body Weight
According to study, movements you make in the water are less demanding on your joints and bones because the water lessens the weight of your body. According to Todd Sinett, a chiropractor in New York City and the author of Sit-Ups Are Stupid & Crunches Are Crap, pool routines are the best for building muscles because they avoid the strain that jogging and other weight-bearing exercises can put on the knees, feet, and other joints.
Pool exercises are a wonderful choice for individuals with aches and pains brought on by injuries or chronic conditions that affect the joints, such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, according to Dr. Sinett. This is because pool exercises put less strain on the joints and bones. As we age, we tend to lose our suppleness and become stiffer and more sore, so aquatic exercise is also quite advantageous for the aged, he adds. Everyone benefits from exercising in a less strenuous setting, but seniors benefit the most because their body aches and pains may not be as lenient.
2. Water Provides Constant Resistance
Daly claims that because water is 800 times heavier than air horizontally, it offers special multidirectional resistance. This means that when you move forward through water, your body is battling the opposition of the water all around you in all directions. (This explains why taking a few steps in a pool versus on solid ground requires so much more work and time.) According to Daly, this poses special difficulties for your muscles because it makes them work harder to surmount the added resistance of the water.
Nevertheless, Sinett stresses that it’s crucial to carry out pool workouts in a manner that is suitable for your swimming abilities, regardless of how advantageous they are. For instance, it’s important to conduct your aquatic workouts in a shallow pool or with the aid of a float if you are unable to swim for long amounts of time. Additionally, it’s a good idea to consult your doctor before attempting this type of exercise if you have any health issues or chronic conditions that could make it difficult for you to securely exercise (or exercise safety in water).
7 Fat-Burning Pool Exercises
To help you reach your fitness goals, Daly advises attempting these pool activities that don’t involve swimming but can burn a ton of calories. According to Daly, performing these multijoint, multimuscle resistance movements can help you reduce fat by increasing your muscle density.
Large, compound movement patterns are prioritized during these workouts in order to increase heart rate and simultaneously train a variety of different muscles. Daly suggests starting by performing each of the seven movements in a sequence fashion for 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. Between sessions, give yourself a two-minute break. Work your way up to eight cycles steadily, starting with two.
As you get fitter, up the regularity, length, and volume of your workouts. As a great low-impact conditioning exercise for days between other lifting and aerobic routines, Daly suggests completing the activity twice a week (which should be performed two to three times a week, per guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine). There is no minimal frequency required to reap the benefits of these exercises, and as long as you account for rest days (which will encourage appropriate recovery by allowing your muscles time to heal), you won’t go overboard.
Although they are optional, water sandals are not usually necessary when exercising in a pool, according to Daly. Additionally, water shoes will add drag and make the workouts harder for the ones that involve moving your feet (such as sprinting and side shuffling).
1. Running
Running from one side to the other while remaining in the shallow part of the pool is advised because the deeper the water, the more drag or resistance you’ll experience working against your movement. To progress forward, you’ll need to lean forward from your knees while pumping your arms and bringing your legs up to a high-knee position. Holding a weighted item at breast level will increase the downward resistance, and holding a kickboard in front of you with your arms completely outstretched will increase the forward resistance. ankle weights designed for swimming pools and swim parachutes, a piece of cloth you fasten around your waist to generate drag as you move through the water can also up the ante.
2. Pool-Edge Push-Ups
Brace your core, transfer your weight into your upper body so that your toes rise off the pool floor, and place your palms just over shoulder-width apart on the side of the pool. Then, raise your torso out of the water until your arms are completely extended. Take a moment, then gently bring your body back to the starting position. Use your legs to leap off the bottom if you feel that this is too difficult for your chest, shoulders, or arms, or if you are unable to complete many repetitions with correct technique. This will support your lower body. This, according to Daly, can also serve to make it a full-body workout.
3. Squat Jumps
With your ankles shoulder-width apart and slightly turned out toes, take a position in the shallow end of the water. The best way to leap into the air is to squat down by sitting back into your hips and heels with flat feet, then straighten your hips, knees, and ankles to push through the soles of your feet. The water should be shallow enough so that when you kneel, your head won’t go under. Immediately after landing on the soles of your feet, squat once more and continue. You can crouch down so low that you can submerge your head in the water if that is comfortable for you. Move more quickly to make the practice tougher. You’ll have to perform more repetitions in the same period of time because there will be more pressure.
4. Side Shuffling
Side-shuffle from one pool edge to the other while standing in the shallow end. Keep your legs pointed in front of you and your center engaged. Hold your wrists out to the sides or don a mini resistance band that has been authorized for use in swimming pools to intensify the burn.
5. Prone Scissor Kick
Stand in a pool of water that is deep enough so that your feet are off the ground. Lift your legs so your body is horizontal while holding onto the side of the water or a flotation device. Maintain neutral spinal alignment from the back of your head to your tailbone. Kick from your hip (as if you were striking a soccer ball), keeping your knee flexible, and whipping or flicking out through your heels. Continue with the opposite limb. To increase the resistance (and the exercise! ), kick harder and move your legs quicker; you should be making white splashes on the water’s surface. As you kick, pay attention to maintaining a straight path from the back of your skull to your tailbone. Your body’s largest muscles, the buttocks, will perform harder as a result. To increase the difficulty, you can also wrap a tension band around your thighs.
6. Press to Row
Starting from a standing posture, squat down until your midsection is in the water while gripping a kickboard against your body. Extend your arms and the kickboard forward into the water while bracing your core, then quickly draw your arms and the kickboard back toward your torso. You should be able to sense your back muscles contracting.
7. Jumping Jacks
Stand in the pool with your ankles together, wrists down at your sides, and your head above water (in as deep of water as you feel safe). Leap your feet back together and spread your legs out to the sides while raising your arms straight aloft. Then, jump your feet back together and lower your arms back to your sides. Only raise your wrists to the level of the water if you become diverted by the splashing. The easiest method to boost the exercise’s intensity in this case is to run faster.
