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Being active is vital for your health
Lack of physical exercise is a risk factor for heart disease. Inactive people have twice the risk of suffering a heart attack. Exercise is crucial in the fight against heart disease. The heart is a muscle and needs exercise to stay fit and healthy.
You can increase the amount of activity you do, simply by taking the stairs instead of the lift, walking to the shops rather than going in the car or playing games at break time rather then just sitting down.
A total body workout
Swimming offers a different dimension to regular exercise. "Water is a fantastic medium in which to exercise, as there are not only gravitational forces working against the body in one direction, but also hydrostatic forces working in all directions," says Brent Walsh, advanced aqua instructor and biokineticist at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA).
Exercise in your swimming pool
Regardless of the depth of the water, the tools you use or your specific fitness goals (from building endurance to losing weight), the key to noticeable results in the water is interval training (alternating bursts of intense activity with recovery periods).
Know your resting heart rate and work from there (to calculate yours, minus your age from 180). It is at this point that benefits begin to accrue. "During the course of your exercise routine," says swimming instructor Brian Button, "increase the intensity for short periods of about 5 minutes, so that you move into an anaerobic phase (about 20-30 beats per minute above the aerobic threshold) and then return to a more moderate pace. You'll feel a greater sense of wellbeing, and will improve your level of fitness."
Here are five workouts that include intervals, and will do as much for your body as any exercise on terra firma...
Deep-water endurance running
Wearing a buoyancy belt, run barefoot for 20-45 mins in deep water (your feet shouldn't touch the bottom). Pick up the pace for 2-3 mins, then slow down to a moderate pace for 2-3 mins to recover; repeat 5-10 times in total. Remember that you're running, rather than "bicycling" in the water. Keep your torso centred and posture tall, and mimic the heel-toe foot strike of running on land, even though you're not actually touching the ground.
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Cardio resistance
Get a cardio blast while toning your upper-body muscles: wearing webbed gloves or using hand buoys/fitness barbells, as well as wearing water shoes for good grip, do resistance exercises such as biceps curls and lateral raises while jogging backwards in water that's waist- to mid-chest-deep, while your feet touch the bottom.
Do 2 sets of 12-15 reps, jogging for 10-15 secs between reps. Practise the strength moves and backward running separately, before combining them.
Shallow-water running
Run in water that's waist- to mid-chest-deep, slicing your hands through the water as if you're running on land (but avoid making a swimming motion with your arms, which is not as effective).
For a serious challenge, try this: run for 2 mins at a moderate intensity, rest for 30 secs (or do an easy jog to stay warm), then repeat to do 5 times in total. Next, run for 1 min at a high intensity, rest for 30 secs, and repeat for 8 times in total. Finally, repeat the 2-min moderate-intensity intervals and 30-sec rest periods 5 more times. Wear cross trainers (dark-soled running shoes will scuff up the pool) or water shoes.
Core training with a ball.
Let some air out of a small (30cm) stability ball and do a variety of balance exercises in water that's mid-chest-deep. For instance, while jogging backward, submerge the ball deeply in front of you, then release it. Watch the ball pop up, then quickly catch it in the air.
Power-agility-cardio combo
Alternate "wall bounders" with shallow-water running, while wearing water shoes in water that's waist- to mid-chest-deep, so your feet feel grounded on the bottom and you have good traction for developing speed while running.
Stand 0,5m from the pool wall and run towards it. Then, in quick succession, kick up both feet and push off the wall so you move backward, fighting the currents you created as you ran. Do 5 reps, then turn around and run in a zigzag pattern toward the opposite wall of the pool. When you reach it, do another 5 wall bounders. Repeat the entire sequence as many times as you can in 30 mins.
For more intensity, add 2 lengths of straight-ahead running at the end of each sequence of 10 wall bounders/zigzag runs.
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