Interesting facts about water based exercise:

Interesting facts about water based exercise:

Water is far denser than air, it therefore provides more resistance. The result is the harder you push, pull and move your body the more intense the workout becomes. Okay so you could say the same with all types of exercise whether on land or water, if you increase the pressure or resistance you increase the intensity, which is true.

The advantage however, that water exercise offers over land is the built in safety feature. In Water the amount of resistance depends on how hard or fast you can push, pull, jump and move. Meaning, you can’t create more resistance than your body can handle. This is great if you are recovering from any injury, operation or illness, or if you are worried about injuries occurring.

There is a constant state of higher resistance in water than your body is use to on land. Any movement forward, backwards or sideways works out multiple muscle groups at the same time.

Agonist and antagonist muscle groups can be worked out together, for example a bicep curl, flexing the bicep muscles in the upper anterior arm during the upward phrase will become a tricep extension when pushing the arm downwards due to the added water resistance. This results in you being able to workout the entire body in half the time.

There seems to be a common misconception that you don’t burn as many calories as you do during a land based aerobics session. This could be because heart rates are around 10 beats slower during water based aerobics.

This doesn’t mean the same physiological benefits cannot be achieved. The body must regulate body temperature during a water based exercise session, as long as the temperature of the pool is at the recommended 28 c – 31 c.

This is one of the reasons you can burn just as many calories whilst at the same time placing much less pressure and strain on the joints. Please remember to always seek advice from a qualified health professional first before starting any new exercise regime if you are unsure it is safe for you to do so.

Ref used Dr Karl Knopf, Make the Pool Your Gym 2012.