Creative Water Aerobic Weights

 In my college days, I took a water aerobics course, and fell in love with it!  Working out in a pool has a great advantage in that the water keeps you comfortable.  It's hard to work up much of a sweat, but you gain tremendous benefits because of the resistance the water provides.  As a young adult, one of my favorite classes continued to be water aerobics.  I hated running, and wasn't much for other types of workouts.  But water aerobics, I could live with and thrive on!  Great fun! 

Many years and pounds removed from those days, I have found my fitness level declined greatly.  Putting up an above ground pool allowed me to return to my love of water aerobics in the privacy of my own home, with no spectators, other than the kiddos.  My summers are especially fun times, and using pool time to exercise is a fun and sensible way to improve fitness and baby my achy joints!

One of the biggest boons of water exercise is resistance. Try jogging in a pool, and you know, you move slower due to the resistance of the water. Further, that resistance allows more bang for your buck, so to speak, and you end up toning muscles much more than in a traditional aerobics workout. Joints are not as severely impacted because of this resistance, and it generally is soothing to be in the water. Water walking or jogging are fun, and an easy way to pass the time with the kids.

Add water aerobic weights, and arms tone up nicely. Stand still exercises involving various movements of upper body or legs allow for further toning. Increased muscle mass contributes to better use of calories consumed, which is aptly amplified in the water aerobics environment. The moment I purposed to get moving in the pool, I started to improve my physical fitness many times over!

Before I thought to invest in a set of water aerobic weights, I used the tools on hand. Remembering basic movements, and having taken ballet for many years as a child, I could easily develop a set of exercises without the weights. A little creative thinking, and a kickboard, and I was able to make my own makeshift resistance exercises up, ranging from sitting on the board and doing squats, to using the water's resistance while moving the board up and down or back and forth, to using it as intended while kicking and working my legs.

My son's water "skateboard" made an additional resistance tool. So did the floaties. Frisbees. Volleyballs. If you can hold it, you can move it, and if you can move it, you can do so in the pool! Ice cream lids, bowls, plates, many ideas were tried, and essentially, I had a vast variety of workout gear at hand just by examining my cupboards and the kids' toy box!

Swimming noodles, a popular summer pool toy, make great water aerobic weights.  Get creative, or find a resource with specific exercises designed for use with a noodle as your source of resistance!

 Intex Above Ground Pools provide an affordable means of erecting a family sized pool, perfect for water aerobics, and for all sorts of water fun for the family.