Exercise Tips to Get Fit in the Water

Exercise Tips to Get Fit in the Water

Water based exercise is perfect if you’re looking for an enjoyable, low impact workout. The therapeutic nature of water is ideal for people of all ages, regardless of their current fitness level.

It is especially beneficial for those who are recovering from injuries.

Many people head to water-based destinations on vacation and instead of skipping their workout routine altogether, they take to the water to get their activity fix. Engaging in water-based exercise while on vacation may help to ensure that you avoid gaining too many vacation pounds as a result of lazing around.

If you’re looking to challenge yourself without putting stress on your joints or, you just like being in the water, you’ll definitely enjoy giving water-based exercise a try. There are many types of water exercises you can try, but here are three of my personal favorites.

Exercise Tips to Get Fit in the Water

Paddleboarding

Stand up paddleboarding (SUP) is basically a combination of kayaking and surfing. It is one of the fastest-growing water sports in the world. I believe that many people are drawn to SUP because it provides you with an amazing full-body workout that improves your core strength, cardio fitness, balance and flexibility, with virtually no impact. It’s also a lot of fun.

Your core will be working overtime to stabilize your body position and as you add in the paddle motion, you get a perfect shoulder and oblique challenge, too.  The resistance created by the paddle in the water will help you to gain muscular strength. Paddleboarding is a perfect total-body workout for people of all ages and fitness levels and, unlike surfing, you don’t need waves to paddleboard. Calm, flat water is perfect for beginners and you can do it on an ocean, lake or even a river.

Aqua Aerobics

Water exercise classes are a fun way to use the resistance and buoyancy of water to condition your muscles and improve your cardiovascular fitness, strength and flexibility. By employing strengthening exercises and stretching techniques, a water aerobics and fitness classes can help you to increase your body’s tone and range of motion. You don’t need to attend an official class to get a great workout. Simply hop into the pool and experiment with different movements that take your joints through their full range of motion.

Swimming

Swimming is a great form of cardio exercise. It can help you to improve your aerobic fitness level because it forces your body to learn a new breathing pattern. Being face down in water means your body must learn to adapt quickly. By expanding the depth and volume of each breath, you’re forcing the lungs and heart to process oxygen more efficiently. Because swimming creates no impact on your joints, it’s great for giving your overworked muscles a break from impact activities such as running or weight training, which can place stress on the joints of your hips, knees and ankles.

You can swim to relax or choose to create a calorie-torching total-body workout with lots of laps.

You don’t have to be on vacation to reap the benefits of being in and around water. The tranquil nature of water can help you to feel relaxed and may help you to relieve stress. I love to add a water-based exercise day into my week, year round, and because of the resistance it creates as I exercise, I know I am burning a significant number of calories each time I do it.

It’s fun to get out on the water and enjoy nature and, it hardly feels like exercise so this summer consider staying active with some water-based exercise.