Water Aerobics For Seniors
Complete Guide To No-Impact Water Exercises For Seniors & Everyone Else To Help You Lose Weight And Tone Your Body
Introduction
As we start to reach our golden years, the challenges of old age begin to catch up. The bodys metabolism starts to slow down, which makes losing excess body fat a real struggle, and health problems also creep in slowly.
What most people dont know is that exercises can guarantee and offset many of the ravages of time and age. The benefits you stand to gain from doing exercises are so many that they outweigh any excuses you may have for not making exercise an integral part of your daily life.
If youve been struggling with weight loss, especially in your golden years, or you are looking for ways to keep fit while having fun, then water aerobics is the answer youve been seeking.
Physical activityof any kindis good for your mind, soul, and body. However, with conventional exercises such as strength training, the possibility of injury or struggling to perform some exercises using the correct form is always high, especially for seniors who have brittle bones and well-worn joints. Thats why most people give up a few weeks into the workout routine. Water aerobics do not have such limitations.
Besides putting less stress on your joints, water exercises and aerobics also largely eliminate the possibility of accidents and problems associated with other forms of exercise. Moreover, you dont need to be a good swimmer to engage in water aerobics: you can perform the exercises in shallow water, in an uprightstandingposition.
If you would like to learn more about water aerobics, this comprehensive, easy-to-follow guide will give you everything you need to know, including the benefits and exercises you can use to get started on water aerobics.
Lets dive right into the deep end:
Table of Content
Section 1: Understanding Water Aerobics
The first thing we need to do is cultivate a deep understanding of water aerobics:
What Is Water Aerobics?
The term water aerobics refers to aerobics exercises done in water that is waist-deep or deeper water, like in a swimming pool. We can consider it a type of resistance training that focuses on aerobic endurance and comfortability.
There are different forms of water aerobics; they include water yoga, aqua Zumba, aqua jog, and aqua aerobics.
If youre wondering:
What makes water aerobics better than other forms of exercise?
To help answer that question, lets look at some of the most standout reasons why water aerobics are one of the best forms of exercise for seniorsand other peoplewho want to lose weight:
The Benefits Of Water Aerobics
The benefits of engaging in water aerobics are many because besides comfort, mainly staying cool while in a pool, the workout itself has many perks. For instance, water aerobics can help you achieve your fitness goals without breaking a sweat.
Here are other reasons why you should engage in water aerobics:
1: You can lose weight easily and quickly
One of the main advantages of engaging in water aerobics is that if you are consistent, you will lose a significant amount of body weight in a short time.
On average, just 1 hour of aerobic exercises can help you burn approximately 400 to 600 calories, a fact evident in research conducted by the Texas Research Laboratory . The research showed that every minute of water aerobics burns about ten calories. That means if you work out a minimum of 3 to 4 times a week, it will result in measurable weight loss in a short time. Worth mentioning here is that how fast and how much weight you lose will depend on how often and how much you exercise.
It takes about 3500 calories to burn one pound of fat from your body. Therefore, the more you exercise, the more calories you will burn, and, in extension, the more weight you shall lose.
When you engage in water aerobics and other exercises, your body burns more calories because it has to keep you warm. Moreover, the water massages your muscles in a way that tones them.
2: It can enhance your flexibility
As you engage in water aerobics, the water pushes and pulls your joints and muscles in unique ways. With time, your body gets used to those movements, which can lead to enhanced flexibility, allowing your joints to move in ways they previously couldnt.
Moreover, when you expose your body to the push and pull effect, it also pushes back to counter the pushing and pulling motion of the water. This constant pushing, pulling, and the overall movement is the reason why your joints become flexible in ways they werent before. Water aerobics is like light yoga in the sense that when you stretch your muscles, they stretch and contract to adjust to the new movements.
When you subject your body to water exercises, the resistance of the water will cause your joints to increase their range of motion, thus improving your flexibility.
3: Its a low impact exercise
Another great advantage of water aerobics as a form of exercise is that, unlike other forms of exercise, it is easy on the joints.
Because of gravity, when you exercise on dry land, it exerts too much pressure on your joints, which may result in all kinds of injuries. As gravity pulls you down every time you land, it results in a significant impact shock that can have adverse effects on your physiological structure.
Typically, when you exercise in water, it causes you to become buoyant, which counteracts the forces of gravity and remove it from the equation. That means when you perform any exercise activity in a pool of water, say running, you dont exert too much pressure on your joints, which means you wont experience the same impact you would on dry land.
In essence, that means water aerobics make it possible to engage in strenuous exercises without taxing your joints, which makes water aerobics incredibly convenient if you are in your golden years and suffering from any joint problems. In such a case, water aerobics allows you to exercise without damaging your joints further.
Additionally, water aerobics can help alleviate joint stress and relieve pain for arthritis or osteoporosis patients.
4: It can help strengthen your muscles
One of the many advantages you stand to gain from water aerobics is that the exercises will help you build muscle strength.
Sure, other exercises like strength training can help you build muscle strength too. However, unlike water aerobics, these exercises will require you to go to a gym or have special equipment. With water aerobics, all you need is a way to submerge in water: thats all.
Technically, Water aerobics is a form of resistance training. Water can add 4-42 times the amount of resistance that air produces typically. That alone makes the exercises you do in water more effective than other workouts you do outside the water.
Worth noting here is that the resistance will vary depending on the directional flow of water and how much of your body you have submerged in water. When it comes to building muscles, resistance can make a difference because your muscles have to counter the resistance, which in turn causes them to be stronger.
The best part is that the muscles you build will be what we call lean muscle mass, which are muscles formed after burning all excess body fat.
5: Helps build endurance
As discussed previously, water aerobics is a form of resistance training that challenges your muscles. The more you challenge your muscles, the stronger they get, and the bigger they become.
As your muscles become stronger and bigger, the higher your endurance becomes. Muscles are funny that way: the more you exercise them, the stronger you get, and the more you can endure the exercises.
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