Mind Your Body TV Episode 48 with Lynda Huey.
Forget images of seniors in bathing caps, dog-paddling their hands in the pool—if you’re thinking about water exercises, you must watch this video.
Water exercises, also known as aquatic exercise or water aerobics, are a high-powered workout that you can do in an injury-free environment. Versatile water exercise is the great “equalizer,” says Lynda Huey, M.S., founder of CompletePT and Huey’s Athletic Network in Los Angeles, and a former athlete and coach herself. She still trains coaches and injured athletes, dancers, pregnant women, yoga devotees, triathletes, mountain bikers, multiple sclerosis patients, gymnasts, wrestlers, celebrities, people recovering from surgery, people trying to avoid surgery, and people trying to get in shape before surgery—just to name a few!
Water adds magic to any workout, says Huey, for it provides:
- support for the body, or buoyancy
- resistance to body movement
- freshness! It’s water, after all!
Lose fat and gain strength
Because water is denser than air, you work harder than you would on land.
Water is a natural weight-training machine that’s instantly adjustable, says Huey. The harder you push and pull and kick in the water, the more resistance you meet from it. Water exercises are incredibly effective.
When you join a water training program, you can work alongside people of all fitness levels—and only be concerned with yours—working at your respective optimum speeds and depths of water.
“It can assist you with rehabilitation or gold medals,” says Huey, who’s trained her share of Olympic athletes whose sport wasn’t water-related. “You can do a water workout everyday without worrying about straining your muscles or joints.
Did you know that while standing in water that’s chest deep, you only weigh 10 percent of your normal body weight? You’re actually defying gravity, too, as you work out in water.
Take it easy on joints
“Even the most powerful jumps conclude with a low-impact landing,” says Huey.
Pick up her book, “The Complete Waterpower Workout, Programs for Fitness, Injury Prevention or Healing.” In this Mind Your Body video, Huey emphasizes principles of balanced strength, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and flexibility and how to achieve them in deep and shallow water for both swimmers and non-swimmers.
Sound good? Then get set to get wet! No matter what season—summer, winter, spring, or fall—you can find a pool and a program near you where water exercise might change your life.