The warm weather could induce sluggish performance in the gym. The heat naturally drains the body, and your stamina shoots before you know it. That’s why the pool is created. As the sun beams, you have a chance to cool down and tone up at the same time.
Swimming laps in the pool will workout your entire body. But here’s a short list of workouts from some of the country’s top health advisors that will help keep your body in shape while you enjoy the water.
Squat Step
This underwater exercise helps tone your inner tone your inner thighs. It’s quite simple. You just have to step to one side and then squat. Then step back and squat on the other side. Just one thing to remember is to keep your chest and head above the water or you are doing it wrong.
Aqua Teaser
One of the best health magazines, Fitness Magazine, suggests this unique exercise for your pool session. It helps with your abs greatly. First you are going to sit in a “V” position as you keep your head above water. As you tread with your arms, you bring your knees to your chest and repeat the move till you feel the burn in your core.
Butt Kicks
You are going to get your glutes and legs working with this exercise. You are basically going use your legs to literally kick your butt. You take the exercise up a notch by adding a breaststroke with your arms as you start kicking.
K-Tred
Livestrong suggests this one. You are in the deep end and then you tread water. As you tread, you bring your right leg up, flex your toes and hold your leg there for a few seconds. You are going to repeat with the left leg. In the process, you will be working out your legs and abs simultaneously.
Butterfly Beats
The upper body and arms will get burning with this workout. It could take a little bit of time to make it consistent. The exercise to uses the water’s resistance to build arm muscle. You are going to stand with your arms by your side and then bring them forward (which remain underwater) and clap your hands. Then do it backward and clap again.
Push Ups
This is pretty much as described. But you will be putting your hands on the side of the pool then press down to lift your body out of the water. You will hold for a couple seconds and then repeat.
Water Run
You will get a major cardio session with this exercise. You are going to stand in shallow water and then run around the area. But you can increase the difficulty of the workout by doing the same in the deeper end. Yes, your feet will not touch the bottom but it’s resistance you are looking for.
Spiderman
The key to this water exercise is to strengthen your core. Every workout underwater will turn your abs rock solid, and this one will test your back as well. You need to walk on the side of the pool. You will need to place your foot on the bottom of the side of the pool and walk up slowly. Make sure you are keeping your abs tight.
Arm Rotations
This exercise will strengthen your arms and shoulders. The Fit Day website suggests that you keep your arms submerged in water and then rotate 20 times forward and then 20 times backwards. If you want to get into a better flow then you should practice the gyrations outside of the water first. Underneath the water, the resistance will be a challenge at first but the repetitions will help tone your arms.
Scissor Kicks
The writers at Good Housekeeping came up with this suggestion that has you on the side of the pool with your arms at the edge. Then you stick your legs straight out and crisscross them like scissors. This is similar to the core exercises you would do on the mats in the gym or home. So will be engaging your core as well as your glutes.
For years you may just employed laps around the pool. Now you have a deeper understanding of how you could elevate your time in the pool and use the water’s resistance to maximize your body’s workout session. Heck, you may not even need to spend time off the gym this summer.
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