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Try These 3 Low-Impact Water Workouts


 Posted by Samantha Clayton, AFAA, ISSA – Vice President, Worldwide Sports Performance and Fitness  0 Comment

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Water workouts keep stress off your joints.

A low-impact water workout is ideal, regardless of your age or current fitness level.

If you head to a water-based destination on vacation, instead of skipping your workout routine, you should consider taking to the water to get your exercise. This may help to ensure that you avoid gaining too many vacation pounds as a result of lazing around. Also, 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 exercises a try. There are many types you can do. Here are three of my personal favorites:

Paddleboarding

Stand up paddleboarding (SUP) is a combination of kayaking and surfing. It’s one of the fastest growing water sports in the world. Many people are drawn to it because it provides you with a full-body workout. It 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’ll also get a shoulder and oblique challenge. The resistance created by the paddle in the water will help you to gain muscular strength. Paddleboarding is ideal for people of all ages and fitness levels, and unlike surfing, you don’t need waves to do it. Calm, flat water is perfect for beginners, and you can do it on an ocean, lake or other body of water.

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, such 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 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 high-impact activities like running or weight training, which can place stress on the joints of your hips, knees and ankles. Plus, you can choose whether you want to swim to relax or 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. Its tranquil nature can help you to feel relaxed and may help you to relieve stress. I love to add a water exercise day into my week all year round. And because of the resistance it creates, I know I’m 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 ever feels like exercise. This summer, consider staying active with some water exercise.

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Samantha Clayton, AFAA, ISSA – Vice President, Worldwide Sports Performance and Fitness
Samantha Clayton is responsible for all activities relating to exercise and fitness education for Independent Herbalife Members and employees. Through in-person training sessions, educational tools and materials, and her blog (www.discovergoodfitness.com), she ensures that the important role of exercise as part of a healthy, active life is understood by all. She also helps create, organize and promote employee fitness programs and activities as an integral part of the company’s corporate wellness program. A native of Liverpool, England, Samantha initially worked as a consultant for Herbalife for two years and led the Herbalife24-Fit program, the company’s first comprehensive fitness training program and DVD series. Before joining the corporate ranks, Samantha was a professional athlete. She represented Great Britain in the 2000 Sydney Olympics in both the 200m and the 4x100m relay events. Prior to the Olympics, she won two medals in the Olympic AAA trials – a silver medal for the 200m and a bronze for the 100m – as well as a silver medal in the 4x100m relay during the European Junior Championships in 1997. Her personal records include 11.40 seconds in the 100m and 23.02 seconds in the 200m. Samantha is a personal trainer and group exercise coach through the American Fitness and Aerobics Association (AFAA) and International Sport Science Association (ISSA).


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