The summertime is beloved for many reasons.  Extreme heat during a workout however, is not one of them.  Diving into a pool or the ocean is an easy quick fix to cooling off, but have you tested the water for a daily workout?

Swimming is praised by fitness experts for its lack of pressure on joints, cardiovascular and muscle endurance benefits.  If you have issues with your knees, shins or hips, swimming may be an ideal alternative to the regular pounding on the pavement you get with running.  Swimming is also a perfect way to stay cool while you work out outside in the summer.

Here are a few suggestions to get some physical activity while cooling off in the water:

Do laps for a total body workout. Most people are probably familiar with the freestyle and breast strokes.  Both are amazing total body exercises that give you a cardio workout while toning up your entire body.  Shoulders, back, butt, abs … everything everywhere on your body is working when you are doing one of these strokes.  Since it is so intense given the recruitment of every muscle, for beginners I suggest alternating every 4 laps between the freestyle and breast stroke.  Start with 10 minutes and work your way up to 30 total minutes in the pool.  For a 150 lb person, swimming laps burns anywhere from 450 to 950 calories an hour.

Kick board for butt-lifting challenge. Not great at swimming or have a shoulder condition?  Not a problem. The kick board is one of my personal favorite pool accessories.  Inexpensive and fun, swimmers should hold on to the top and flutter kick their legs back and forth.  Keeping legs as straight as possible and squeezing the glutes will target your tush like no other exercise.  For more of an inner thigh exercise, try frog kicks.  Frog kicks are the lower body component to the breast stroke and look similar to how a frog actually swims.  If you don’t have a kick board you can always just hold onto the edge of a pool.  Do this for 5-10 minutes.

Strength-train using water resistance. While on vacation I shot this swimming workout video in Florida.  It features a few of my favorite strength moves that you can do in water like tricep dips using the edge.  For most exercises in water, start in a waist-height level of water.  Here are a few more suggestions:

●     High Knees: Same as on land – pump knees up toward chest as high as you can, running through the water.  Do this in 30-second intervals.

●     Pike Crunch: With your back to the edge of the pool, and your arms lying along the edge, point toes with legs pressed together.  Pull belly button in toward lower back while lower back presses into the side of the pool and pull legs up to the water’s surface.  Lower back down and repeat 10 times.

●     Side Leg Lifts: Same as on land – stand with feet hip width apart, knees slightly bent.  Flex foot and lift one leg out to the side as high as you can and bring back to starting position.  You should feel this on the side of your butt.  Perform 20 leg lifts, switch sides and repeat.

●     Single Leg Jump Squat: Balance on one leg, knee slightly bent.  Other leg can be lifted slightly in front of body with knee bent as well.  Squat down as far as you can on standing leg and jump up.  Land back on the same foot and go directly into another squat.  If the jump is too difficult, just squat down and stand up.  Do 12 reps on one leg, switch and repeat.

Tread water for a discreet workout. If getting into a pool means being surrounded by large crowds, getting in a workout may be difficult but not impossible. Treading water moderately burns an estimated 300 calories per hour, similar to walking!  If you are an inexperienced swimmer, this may be unsafe but if you know what you are doing, hang out in the deep end for awhile.  Try holding one arm out of water for 30 seconds, maybe both arms if you’re really good.

ShareThis