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Aquatic Exercise: Gentle On Bones, Joints, And Muscles

Aquatic Exercise: Gentle On Bones, Joints, And Muscles

From Mayo Clinic News Network, Mayo Clinic News Network (TNS)

Done correctly, water workouts can give you gains similar to those on land, including aerobic fitness, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and better balance. Darcy Reber, family medicine provider at Mayo Clinic Health System in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, recommends aquatic exercise because:

  • Water’s buoyancy supports your weight. When you’re submersed up to your neck, the water cancels out about 90 percent of your body weight, significantly reducing stress on your weight-bearing joints, bones and muscles. Instead of landing on a hard surface with the impact of your full weight, you land with only 10 percent of your bodyweight. This reduces risk of injury.
  • When you’re submerged in water, your circulation may increase, improving your cardiovascular health.
  • The pressure of the water on your body can reduce swelling if you have painful injuries.
  • Water offers resistance, which strengthens your muscles as you push against it.
  • Since the effects of gravity diminish in water, you can do stretching exercises that you may not be able to do on land.

You may want to start with water walking. In water that’s about waist-high, walk across the pool swinging your arms like you do when walking on land. Avoid walking on your tiptoes, and keep your back straight. Tighten your abdominal muscles to avoid leaning too far forward or to the side.

To increase resistance as your hands and arms move through the water, wear hand webs or other resistance devices. Water shoes can help you maintain traction on the bottom of the pool.

Once you’re comfortable walking in waist-high water, try walking in deeper water. As you walk, swing your arms. For a more intense workout, consider jogging in deep water.

Water workouts can help you reach your fitness goals without pain or injury. They can add cross-training variety to your existing exercise routine or offer a safe and fun way to start an exercise program. So, jump on in _ the water’s fine.

If you live with a chronic health condition such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease, talk to your health care provider about aquatic exercise.

(c)2015 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Whether individually or in a class, working out in water can give you similar benefits to those on land, but be more gentle on bones and joints. (Sergei Butorin/Fotolia)

Beginner Swimming Tips To Make A Pool Workout More Enjoyable

Beginner Swimming Tips To Make A Pool Workout More Enjoyable

By Emily Abbate, FITBIE.com (TNS)

Swimming may very well be one of the best workouts there is. Not only does the fluidity of movement provide a total-body workout, but hitting the pool also helps boost mobility. A 2011 study found that adults with hip and knee arthritis received similar boosts in mobility, function and other health outcomes as they did from land-based rehabilitation. Added bonus? It rarely makes you sore.

The only thing? Swimming, being the total-body workout that it is, can get pretty tiring pretty quickly. While newbies may think that slipping into a bathing suit and jumping in the pool will be a total breeze, they’re often surprised with just how tired they are after that first 5 minutes.

“Swimming is a skill that you can develop and refine,” said Dr. Jordan Metzl, author of “The Exercise Cure and Dr. Jordan Metzl’s Running Strong.” “Beginners who take a few lessons from a qualified coach often improve their endurance, speed and efficiency very quickly.”

Not quite ready to pull the trigger on a coach, but itching to jump into the pool? With summer officially starting, we don’t blame you. We caught up with Jason Sanchez, former swim instructor and master trainer at Midtown Manhattan’s 24-Hour Fitness Ultra Sport, to get his better swimming tips for beginners.

1. Focus on swimming technique and not speed. “If you focus on speed, you forget the mechanics of the swim,” Sanchez said. “You’re going to be using a lot more energy than what’s needed to do the exercise or complete the distance.” Similar to running and biking, technique is a major component to a successful swim. The better the technique, the more efficient you’ll be for a longer period of time.

2. Make sure you learn freestyle and breast stroke. It’s tempting to dive on in and do lap after lap of freestyle. After a while, though, especially as a beginner, this can get tiring. “Breast stroke is one of those go-to strokes that a lot of people go back to when you can’t constantly do that front crawl,” Sanchez said. “If you get tired from doing front crawl, you can revert to breast stroke to get your energy back until you feel good to go again.”

3. Don’t forget strength training. Whether you’re training for a specific event or just interested in getting your feet wet, it’s easy to forget other important aspects of a workout routine when your mind is elsewhere. Swimming, just like other endurance activities, requires a great deal of strength, especially in the back, shoulders, core and arms. “One of the key goals in swimming is keeping a nice flat position and be horizontal to the water, not letting your legs or arms drag,” Sanchez said. “You need strength for that, and you definitely need strength to get through the duration of your workout. Skipping strength training is just doing your body a disservice.”

4. Tackle intervals. “Break up your experience into intervals,” Sanchez said. “Not that you have to swim straight for an hour, but if your goal is to be swimming for that amount of time, do yourself a favor and really learn what that kind of distance feels like. Go to a more energy-saving stroke where you’re starting to get tired, give yourself a recovery and get back into a crawl.”

Looking for some interval workouts to give this whole swimming thing a go? We caught up with professional triathlete, IronMan extraordinaire, and Clif Bar athlete Linsey Corbin, for her go-to interval workout for beginners.

Note: This workout takes place in a 50-meter, Olympic size pool.

Warm-up
10 laps easy, 400 meters

Main set
1 lap easy, 50 meters
2 laps moderate intensity, 100 meters
1 lap easy, 50 meters
2 laps hard, 100 meters

Rest for 30 seconds
Cool-down
5 laps easy, 250 meters

(c)2015 Fitbie.com, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: emilyfreemanphotography via Flickr

Swim Star Phelps’ Form Suggests Olympics Story Not Over

Swim Star Phelps’ Form Suggests Olympics Story Not Over

By Robert Smith

Gold Coast (Australia) (AFP) — Michael Phelps showed he could be on track for even more Olympic glory after making a winning return to international competition just a few months after coming out of retirement.

The greatest Olympian, with 18 golds among his 22 medals at the Games, is laying the foundations to add to his unrivaled tally at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Phelps, who will be 31 by the time of the Rio Games, won three gold medals at the Pan Pacific Championships on Australia’s Gold Coast, which ended Sunday.

He swept to victory in the 100m butterfly and was also part of the successful men’s medley and 4x200m freestyle relay teams.

And Phelps was denied by just two-hundredths of a second by Japan’s Kosuke Hagino in the final of the 200m individual medley, an event he has won three times at the Olympics.

But significantly, it was the manner of Phelps’s improvement throughout the four days of the Pan Pacs meet that made a lasting impression.

The 6ft 4in swimming wonder was finishing his races with his trademark surge, wiping away the memories of his winless campaign at the U.S. Championships earlier this month.

“It shows that I can finish races well. I finished pretty strong in all my swims here, now I just have to step on the first half,” he said.

A more streamlined Phelps — he has shed 30 pounds — said he was already laying out training plans with his long-time coach Bob Bowman looking ahead to next year’s world championships in Russia, and beyond to Rio.

“I have already started talking with Bob about some of the things that I need to do, like times that I need to go even before the world champs next summer,” he said.

“I think for my first real international meet back we accomplished everything we wanted to.

“We were able to find out some of the things that I need to improve on over the next year and things I want to improve on.”

Bowman, who has mentored Phelps since he was an 11-year-old at Baltimore, is adamant there is further improvement in his swimmer as he begins his second “life” in the pool.

“He can definitely improve his 100m free,” Bowman said.

“I never thought he got there where it could have been. You’ll probably see him swim the 200. He’ll be trying to find a relay spot somewhere.

“I think he can get faster in his IM (individual medley) and I think he can get faster in butterfly.

“That’s the only reason he really came back. If he didn’t have a chance to get faster, I don’t think we would have done it.”

But what was particularly noticeable at the Pan Pacs was Phelps’s sheer enjoyment to be back in competitive swimming again.

He often spoke about his happiness at being in the team environment, with special emphasis on the bonding in the relay teams.

“It’s nice. It’s relaxing but one of the biggest things is that I want to be a part of the team and I want to be in the swimming,” he said.

“I’ve started talking to other people. I used to never talk to anybody.

“I think one of the biggest things is I want to be part of the team. I want to be in there swimming.”

Phelps didn’t have all things go his way at his fourth Pan Pacs, where he has won a total of 16 golds since Yokohama in 2002.

He looked to be reeling in Hagino in the final lap of the 200m medley after trailing by 0.66 secs at the final turn, but the Japanese managed to hang on for a prestige win.

And he simply couldn’t go with the sprinters in the men’s 100m freestyle, finishing fourth behind Australia’s Cameron McEvoy, Olympic champion Nathan Adrian, and world champion James Magnussen.

“It is frustrating at times, but it’s usually how I respond well, so this is going to be a fun year and it’s going to be an exciting year,” he said.

But this is a long-term plan and it’s still just under two years to Rio, where Phelps is aiming to deliver.

“I know there is a lot can happen in a year with training, I’m looking forward to it, it’s a building year for me,” he said.

AFP Photo/Patrick Hamilton

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Phelps Strong In 100m Fly Qualifying

Phelps Strong In 100m Fly Qualifying

Irvine (United States) (AFP) — Olympic great Michael Phelps posted the fastest time in the world this year to lead the way into the 100m butterfly final at the U.S. Swimming Championships on Friday.

Phelps won his heat in 51.17sec — faster than the previous season-best of 51.29 set by South African Chad Le Clos at the Commonwealth Games.

It wasn’t near Phelps’s world record of 49.82 — set in 2009 and one of three world records he still owns.

But it was faster than the 51.21 Phelps clocked to win his third straight Olympic gold in the event in London.

The 29-year-old is swimming just his fourth meet since ending a near two-year retirement in April.

He has a chance to take his comeback to another level by booking a spot in his first major international competition since the London Games with the nationals serving as the qualifying meeting for the Pan Pacific Championships in Gold Coast, Australia, from August 21-25.

Results from this week and the PanPacs will determine the U.S. team for the 2015 World Championships in Russia, a key stepping stone on the road to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Phelps’ first event of the week had gone badly, as he mis-judged the turn in the 100m free on Wednesday and finished seventh.

But he was the class of a blistering 100m fly field in a performance coach Bob Bowman said was his best race “by far” since his return.

“Now we’ve got to put together two good ones in a day,” Bowman added. “That’s a big challenge, apparently, at this point.”

Tim Phillips won his heat in the morning’s second-quickest time of 51.49, with Tom Shields third-fastest in 51.55.

Matt Ellis won his heat in 51.77 and Ryan Lochte, swimming next to Phelps, had the fifth-fastest qualifying time of 51.91.

“As soon as Ryan and I saw those guys going 51 we were like ‘What is this? Can we just have an easy morning?'” Phelps said.

In fact, the 18-time Olympic gold medalist was delighted to grab the top time of the season — something he’d hoped to do at a meet in Atlanta in July.

In other events on Friday, Elizabeth Beisel was the top qualifier in the women’s 400m individual medley in 4:36.46 and Tyler Clary led the way into the men’s 400m IM final with a time of 4:12.51.

AFP Photo/Harry How

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