Fitness & Healthy Lifestyle Classes
Water isn't just for drinking anymore. It's also a great place for working out. If you have arthritis, exercising in a well-heated pool has particular advantages over a health club floor. For one thing, the buoyancy of the water supports your body and reduces the stress on your weight-bearing joints.
"In fact, when you're standing in shoulder-high water, only about 10% of your body weight is acting on your joints, so exercise doesn't hurt as much,"
Since water supports your joints, it makes it easier to move freely, improving your range of motion. At the same time, water offers at least 12 times more resistance than air, strengthening your muscles. The pressure water exerts on your legs also can aid circulation, something like wearing support hose. In addition, the soothing sensation of warm water is a great stress reliever. You may be able to do things in the water you can't on land.
Water Workouts
Aerobic exercise refers to any activity that raises your heart rate and breathing and keeps them elevated for an extended period of time. To get this effect, you need to use the large muscles of your arms and legs in rhythmic, continuous motions. One way to do this is with water aerobics. Unlike dry-land aerobics, exercises in water are easier on your joints. And unlike lap swimming, you don't have to be able to swim a stroke to do water aerobics.
In shallow-water aerobics, you stand in waist to chest-deep water. Typical moves include many that are familiar to dry-land exercisers, such as marching, stretching, circling your arms, bending your knees, and swinging your legs. A deep-water workout, on the other hand, is done in water over your head. A flotation device is worn to keep your head above water and your body upright. Jumping jacks and moving your legs as if you were jogging, cycling, or cross-country skiing are common with deep water exercises. These can be more difficult than shallow-water ones, since they put more demands on both your cardiovascular system and your balance.
These exercises break the notion that pools are only for swimming as of swimming pools. With the therapists and trainers' creativity, water exercises have been developed to offer exciting options for people to exert their muscles.
Since there are outdoor as well as indoor pools, this form of therapy or exercise routine is more flexible to the calls of weather or climate. Hence, this form of exercise provides individualized personal training environment, making it more effective in developing strength and muscle endurance.
Benefits
Water/pool exercises were proven effective in improving cardiovascular health, weight management, sleep enhancement and even prenatal health. They offer relief to arthritis, diabetes, depression and common back pains.
This form of exercise is extremely beneficial for people who suffer from back problems, arthritis and physical conditions such as injuries. The water's buoyancy reduces the impact of physical exertions to the joints, making it effective in supporting the body at increased range of motion.
The options for water activities are limitless. Anything that you can do on land can also be done in the water. Just like in weight training routines, water/pool exercises are equally effective in promoting strength and good health. The good thing about this form of exercise is that it is done without breaking a sweat.
Basics
The multiple functions and designs of water/pool exercises are usually based on three periods; the warm-up, toning and stretching and the cool down periods. So if you decide to add water/pool exercises to your workout routine, you must follow certain guidelines. It is important to prepare your body for the exercises or workout that lies ahead
Before doing some serious exercise, it is always important to do proper warm up exercises. Since this form of exercise routine is done under water, you may also do your warm-up under water. If you are a decent swimmer, you can do a recommended number of laps in swimming the length of the pool. Running or walking alongside the pool, while dipped in the pool, also makes a good form of warm-up. Just remember to avoid tiptoeing or your calves will be killing you after the exercise.
The toning and stretching part of this form of exercise is comprised with modified rhythmic movements of those exercises that are done off-water. These exercises include the leg lift, water chair, lateral raises, water squats, wave jumps, water jogging and more of weight training exercises.
Since the body is suspended under water, water exercises apply pressure only to the group of muscles that are flexed or worked out. This makes water exercises a great option for physical therapy, ideal for healing and developing the muscles that are affected by certain injuries.
Equipment
In general, a combination of music and equipment makes water/pool exercises interesting and appealing to endure. In exercise classes, music may be used to synchronize movements.
For various exercises, tools such as kick boards, dumbbells or weights are used in doing the routines of resistance training. Just like off-pool exercises, off-pool exercise equipment is usually modified to complement various pool exercises. Even special shoes may be worn to help plant the feet on the floor.
With the proper equipment, proper posture or body positions will be maintained, enabling the exercise to target and flex the intended group of muscles.