Looking for a fun way to exercise? Moving your workout to the water can make exercising fun. Swimming targets all major muscle groups, including your inner forearm, biceps, pectorals, latissimus dorsis, groin, quadriceps, glutes, trapezius, and calves- without impacting your joints. The water acts as a form of resistance, which makes it feel like movements are easier, but in reality, you are propelling and treading water harder. Swimming is ideal for individuals such as pregnant women, seniors, and obese as the stress impact on the body is greatly reduced. According to the American Council on Exercise, exercising in water makes you feel 90 percent lighter. Here are various forms of swimming pool exercise that is ow impact and easier on your body.
Swimming Laps
Swimming laps in a pool provide a quick way to burn calories. According to ACTIVE, while swimming freestyle for an hour, a 130-pound person can burn approximately 413-590 calories depending on their speed. A 155-pound person can burn between 493-704 calories per hour, and a 205-pound person burns 651-931 calories per hour.
There are many different strokes you can utilize while swimming laps including the breaststroke, backstroke, and the highest calorie burner, the butterfly. All of these strokes are low impact exercises. Low impact exercise is ideal for individuals with joint pain of the back or knees, arthritis, and foot or leg injuries. Swimming laps in a pool is a fun way to exert energy, burn calories, and stay cool. Although an individual’s weight plays a large role in the number of calories one can burn, the health benefits of swimming laps can help individuals reach optimal health over time.
Aquatic Exercises
For beginner swimmers, aquatic exercises provide regular exercises similar to an aerobic gym class, but in a swimming pool. Water walking is a simple repetitive exercise in waist-high that involves walking while swinging your arms. Other aquatic exercises include; leg exercises with pool noodles, arm exercises with water weights, water yoga, and deep water walking or jogging with hand webs. Pool noodles, hand webs, and water weights are the ideal exercise equipment for aquatic exercise.
Vertical water workouts can effectively strengthen your muscles as 75% of resistance in water is greater than swimming horizontally. Ideal exercise water depth should be between waist and chest height, otherwise, you risk losing your balance and put more impact on your joints.
Water Aerobics
Water aerobics are typically performed while standing vertically in the shallow water. There are a plethora of benefits to water aerobics, besides being low impact on bones, joints, and muscles. Individuals who use water aerobics as their primary form of exercise can benefit from increased muscle strength, endurance, increased flexibility, less stress and decreased anxiety, high calories burned, and reduced blood pressure.
A common type of water aerobic is the K-Tread. K-treads tone your muscles in your chest, back, abs, arms, hamstrings, and buttocks. To perform a K-Tread begin treading water in the deep end of the pool while making small circular motions with cupped hands. You then lift your left leg and extend it straight out at hip level while extending your right leg toward the bottom of the pool. Squeeze your quads and glutes and hold the pose for five seconds while continuing to make circles with your hands. Then, alternate each leg holding for another five seconds.
The Right Pool Exercises For You
There are many benefits to moving your exercise routine to the pool. Swimming laps and other aquatic exercises are a fun, low-impact way to exercise for all ages and swim levels. swim exercises are the best method to maintain your physique with physical fitness.
The experts at Shoreline Pools can get you started by helping to build your custom pool. Get your pool exercises started today! Contact Shoreline Pools for more information.