Water Workout
It's bathing suit season, again. Every spring meant a new bathing suit or two, to be worn splashing and sunbathing during the summers of my youth. Between the backyard and our (five times a week) swim team practices, my brother and I usually got "dressed" in our swimsuits every morning. Why bother with regular clothes?
Twenty or so years later, I still don a swimsuit on a regular basis, twice a week, year-round. As a kid, I knew the water was fun, as an adult, I know what a great workout it can give. And you know what? It's still fun.
Having sprouted my swim fins at the age of two, I can't remember not being in the water; save for a few dry years living in San Francisco. I still secretly kind of want to be a mermaid when I grow up. So when I was given the chance to teach a water aerobics class, I was happy to have an excuse to get wet.
Many hear water aerobics and think of little old ladies wearing flowered swim caps and moving slowly through the water. Some may have physical therapy and rehabilitation come to mind. I cannot tell a lie, that's what I once thought it was; now I know better.
Exercise in the water, or aquatic exercise, is steadily growing in popularity, for many reasons. The most often cited is the lack of impact the body receives when doing exercises on land. Exercising in waist deep water gives the impact of 50% of your body weight, down to 0% in deeper water. The water around you provides resistance for all motions, making for extremely effective training. I like the analogy of the water being a liquid weight machine that surrounds you. Besides the fun factor, my favorite benefit is that the water helps to regulate your body temperature, so you can get a great cardio workout without getting as overheated as on land. The buoyancy helps to encourage freedom of movement, making long ranges of motion possible, you can challenge your balance and recovery skills with the support of the surrounding water. Overall, there have been over 250 references documented to the benefits of water training in the last few decades.The benefits are for everyone. Adding water training to an existing program makes for excellent cross training, and has been shown to improve performance. Starting a new exercise program in the water can be a gentle way to introduce your body to working out without putting too much impact on the joints.
Different phases of life can be accommodated in the water, making it ideal as part of a life-long healthy lifestyle. Accommodations can be made for pregnancy, injury, arthritis, and more by adjusting your depth, speed, or equipment. Aquatic exercise makes it easy to personalize your workout. Swimming laps, jogging, jumping, resistance training and water aerobics are just a few examples of the wide variety of fitness options available in the pool.
Next time you catch yourself cooling off in the water, try a jumping jack or two, maybe run as fast as you can from one side to the other. Or, blast some music and do the twist, jump up and down off of a box underwater, or start a game of volleyball in the deep end. The possibilities are endless.
As for the little old ladies in the flowered swim caps. Yes, water aerobics is a fabulous option for seniors; there are quite a few in my classes, men and women alike. We've also had teenagers and everywhere in between. And these folks hardly fit the preconceived notion of "little old ladies." They're fabulous, they rock, and I've seen more than one younger person have a hard time keeping up with them in the pool. They are athletes, and they train regularly. Call them anything less, and watch out, they're pretty strong. Next time you get in the water, try a workout; your body will love you for it.
Kristin Ranuio has been a personal trainer and fitness pro- fessional for over a decade. She has been certified by ACE (American Council on Exercise), AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America), CrushKick Cardio Kickboxing, and is a Yogafit instructor. Kristin has been writing about healthy lifestyles since 2001.