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8 Pool Exercises to Lose Weight And Sculpt Your Desired Figure
Make a splash and shed the extra pounds with the best pool exercises to lose weight. You can try aqua jogging, flutter kicks, and water lunges to tone down.
Some people think traditional gym workouts are the best way to get fit. They couldn’t be more wrong. There are many pool exercises to lose weight that offer a refreshing and effective alternative to the gym, pilates, running, and cycling. These water workouts combine the benefits of water resistance with low-impact movements. Whether you're looking to lose weight, build strength, or improve your overall fitness level, pool exercises provide a unique and enjoyable way to achieve your goals. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a pool at home. You can sign up at a local community center or a fitness facility and these pool exercises can be easily incorporated into your routine. So, grab your swimsuit, dive in, and discover the benefits of pool exercises to burn that stubborn fat.
Why Are Pool Exercises Good for You?
Pool exercises offer numerous benefits for overall health and fitness. Here are some reasons why pool exercises are good for you:
- Low impact on joints: If you have joint pain, arthritis, or you’re recovering from any kind of bone injury, then water-based workouts will be extremely beneficial for you. This is because the buoyancy of water reduces the impact on your joints (1). In addition to that, water will support your body weight which will reduce the stress on your joints while still providing resistance for muscle strengthening.
- Increased resistance: Water provides natural resistance in all directions, creating a challenging workout for your muscles. This resistance will help in improving muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility without the need for heavy weights or equipment.
- Cardiovascular fitness: Pool exercises can elevate your heart rate, providing an effective cardiovascular workout. Therefore, exercising in the water and doing activities like water walking, aqua jogging, and water aerobics will increase your heart rate and improve cardiovascular endurance.
- Improved balance and stability: The instability of water requires your muscles to work harder to maintain balance and stability. Regular pool exercises can help improve your balance and coordination, which is beneficial for individuals of all ages, particularly older adults who may be at a higher risk of falls (2).
- Reduced overheating and sweating: If you hate sweating it out in the gym or despise doing exercises during hot weather, then water exercises will come to your rescue as water helps in regulating body temperature while preventing overheating and excessive sweating (3).
- Full-body workout: Pool exercises engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously, providing a full-body workout (4). From your arms and legs to your core muscles, swimming and water-based exercises help strengthen and tone your entire body.
- Rehabilitation and injury prevention: Due to the low-impact nature of pool exercises, they are commonly used in rehabilitation programs for individuals recovering from injuries or surgeries. This is also known as aquatic therapy.
- Stress relief: Being in the water can have a calming and relaxing effect on the mind and body (5). Pool exercises provide an opportunity to disconnect from daily stressors and enjoy a soothing environment, promoting mental well-being.
8 Pool Exercises to Lose Weight
Pool exercises are a great way to stay fit and active while enjoying the benefits of water resistance. Here are some weight-loss water aerobics you can try:
1. Water Walking
Let’s start with a simple one. Simply walking through the pool from one end to the other is an excellent low-impact exercise that engages your leg muscles and provides cardiovascular benefits (6). Water walking is simple yet one of the best pool exercises for weight loss. Here are the steps:
- Choose the right depth by finding a section of the pool where you are in waist-high water.
- Before starting any exercise, it's important to warm up your muscles. Spend a few minutes walking around the pool at a comfortable pace to gradually increase your heart rate and loosen up your joints.
- Maintain good posture. Stand tall with your shoulders back, and engage your major muscles to support your spine. Keep your head up, looking straight ahead, and relax your arms by your sides.
- Begin walking through the water, mimicking the motion of walking on land. Take natural strides. Roll your feet from heel to toe.
- Your pace must be moderate. It should be controlled, comfortable, and shouldn’t make you feel like you are going to fall.
- While you are walking, try to swing your arms naturally in rhythm with your steps. This helps engage your upper body muscles and increases the overall intensity of the exercise.
- Once you are comfortable and sure you won’t tumble or slip, try to bring variations in your movements. You can try walking sideways, walking with high knees, or even walking on your tiptoes. These variations will engage different muscles and keep the workout interesting.
- If you want to increase the intensity of your water-walking workout, you can do so by picking up the pace or increasing the duration of your session. Alternatively, you can try walking against the current of a resistance pool or wearing ankle weights for added resistance.
2. Flutter Kicks
If you want to target your leg muscles, particularly the quadriceps and hamstrings, then try this. It is one of the swimming pool exercises and workouts for weight loss:
- Position yourself in waist-deep water and make sure you have enough space to extend your legs freely.
- Hold onto the pool wall or use a kickboard for stability and support. This can be especially helpful if you are a beginner or if you want to focus solely on leg movements.
- Start with one leg. Extend it forward and keep it straight. Keep your toes pointed and engage your muscles.
- While keeping your leg straight, kick it forward with a controlled motion. Focus on using your leg muscles to propel the movement, rather than relying solely on momentum.
- Return to the starting position and repeat the leg kick motion with the opposite leg. Alternate between your left and right legs, maintaining a steady pace.
- And if you want to increase the intensity of your leg kicks, you can try variations such as side kicks or backward kicks as well.
3. Bicep Curls
Bicep curls in water are a great way to strengthen your arm muscles while enjoying the resistance provided by the water. Here’s how you can ace it like a pro:
- Stand in chest-deep water and it will allow you to perform this aquatic exercise comfortably without your feet touching the bottom of the pool.
- Maintain an upright posture with your shoulders back, chest lifted, and core muscles engaged. This will help stabilize your body throughout the exercise.
- Extend your arms fully downward with your palms facing forward. Your arms should be submerged in the water up to your elbows.
- Then, bend your elbows and slowly lift your hands towards your shoulders, mimicking the motion of a bicep curl. Keep your upper arms at rest and focus on using your bicep muscles to lift the water resistance.
- Maintain control throughout the exercise. Most importantly, avoid any sudden or jerky movements, and always remember to keep the motion smooth and controlled.
- After lifting the water resistance, slowly lower your hands back down to the starting position with a controlled motion. Extend your arms fully again, ready for the next repetition.
- Perform at least 8-12 sets and gradually increase the intensity of the exercise by using dumbbells or pool noodles for added resistance. Hold the weights in your hands while performing the bicep curls to challenge your muscles further.
4. Pool Lunges
This is one of the pool exercises that burn fat fast by targeting your quadriceps and glutes. Learn how to do this:
- Stand where the water level is around waist-deep. This will provide adequate resistance and buoyancy for an effective workout.
- Maintain an upright posture with your shoulders back, chest lifted, and core muscles engaged. This will help stabilize your body throughout the exercise.
- Begin by taking a large step forward with one leg, positioning your foot firmly on the pool floor. Keep your knee aligned with your ankle, ensuring that it doesn't extend past your toes.
- Then, bend your front knee and lower your body down into a lunge position. Both your front and back knees should be at approximately 90-degree angles. Ensure your front knee is aligned with your ankle and doesn't cave inward.
- Engage your front leg muscles and push back up to the starting position, straightening your front leg. Return to a standing position with your feet together.
- Repeat the lunge motion with the opposite leg. Take a large step forward, lower your body into a lunge, and then push back up to the starting position. Continue alternating legs for the desired number of repetitions.
5. Squat Jumps
Water squat jumps are a dynamic exercise that combines the benefits of squats with the resistance and buoyancy of water. To note, this shouldn’t be done by beginners.
- Maintain an upright posture with your shoulders back, chest lifted, and core engaged. Position your feet shoulder-width apart, toes pointing slightly outward.
- Lower your body into a squat position by bending your knees and pushing your hips back. Keep your chest lifted and your weight on your heels while aiming to lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the water's surface.
- From the squat position, push through your legs and explode upward into a jump. Extend your legs fully, reaching upward as high as you can.
- Land softly in a squat. As you come back down, land softly in the water, transitioning directly into another squat position. Make sure to land with your knees slightly bent, absorbing the impact.
- Repeat the movement – immediately after landing, repeat the squat jump motion. Perform a series of continuous squat jumps, aiming for a smooth and controlled rhythm.
6. Prone Scissor Kicks (Reverse Flutter Kicks)
If you have already mastered flutter kicks, then prone scissor kicks will be easy for you to learn. Here are the steps:
- Stand where the water is chest-deep as this will allow you to comfortably perform the exercise without your feet touching the bottom of the pool
- Lie face down in the water, keeping your body straight and your arms extended in front of you. Position your arms shoulder-width apart for stability.
- Activate your core muscles by drawing your belly button in towards your spine. This helps stabilize your body throughout the exercise.
- Lift both of your legs off the ground simultaneously, keeping them straight and close together. Your legs should be slightly above the water's surface.
- Begin the scissor kick motion by moving your legs apart, similar to opening a pair of scissors. Spread your legs as wide as comfortable while maintaining control.
- Once your legs are spread wide, cross them over each other in a scissoring motion, bringing one leg in front of the other. Continue alternating this scissor motion.
7. Jumping Jacks
We have all done this at one point in our lives, but it is in fact the best exercise to lose weight in water.
- Stand tall with your feet together and engage your core muscles by drawing your belly button in towards your spine. This helps stabilize your body throughout the exercise.
- Open your arms and legs. Simultaneously jump your legs out to the sides while raising your arms out to the sides and above your head. Open your arms and legs wide, spreading them apart.
- Land softly and return to starting position as you land, bring your legs back together, and lower your arms back down alongside your body.
- Immediately after landing, repeat the jumping jack motion. Jump your legs out to the sides again while raising your arms overhead. Continue this fluid motion for the desired number of repetitions.
8. Use Weights in the Pool
Apart from all the exercises to do in the pool to lose weight, you can also use weights in the pool to give your arms and legs a trimmer and leaner look. And always remember to start with lighter weight and then gradually increase it. Here are some options for using weights in the pool:
- Water Dumbbells: Water dumbbells are specially designed weights that provide resistance when submerged in water. They come in various shapes and sizes, typically made of foam or plastic, and provide resistance as you push and pull them through the water. You can use water dumbbells for exercises such as bicep curls, lateral raises, or tricep extensions.
- Pool Noodles: These are not your traditional weights but they can still be used to add resistance to your exercises. You can wrap a pool noodle around your body, under your arms, or between your legs to increase resistance and make your movements more challenging. For example, holding a pool noodle under your arms while doing water walking or aqua jogging can increase the intensity of the workout.
- Ankle Weights: Ankle weights can be worn around your ankles to add resistance to your lower body exercises in the pool. They can be beneficial for exercises like leg kicks, flutter kicks, or water lunges, as they provide added resistance for your leg muscles.
- Resistance Bands: Although not traditional weights, resistance bands can be used in the pool to add resistance to your movements. Attach one end of the resistance band to a stationary object in the pool, such as the pool ladder or a railing, and hold the other end to perform exercises like rows, chest presses, or shoulder presses.
Conclusion
Whether you are diving into the water, making waves with aerobics, or using weights to strengthen your muscles, these pool exercises to lose weight are an effective way to stay fit, strengthen muscles, and improve your overall health. The cooling and soothing properties of water also make workouts for weight loss more enjoyable, and they can provide stress relief and relaxation. So, take advantage of the pool's unique properties and let it be a source of strength, vitality, and well-being on your fitness journey.
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