Many pool owners and contractors are probably aware that swimming can be a significant asset when you’re looking to reach your health goals and build a beach-ready body. Both above ground and shotcrete pools offer a great space for you to exercise in, but what few realize is that you don’t need to have an overwhelming love of laps to take steps towards your goals.
Here are some tips for exercising in your pool:
Change Up Your Strokes
Laps are a great way to work your whole body; they require you to engage your core, you have to use your arms and legs, and because of water’s density, it adds resistance to every move you make. However, if you don’t love doing laps for their own sake, it might be worth changing things up a bit.
Switching out the strokes you use while swimming can increase the amount of work you do while swimming. Using a backstroke, for example, will engage more of the muscles in your upper back, shoulders, and arms, while a doggy paddle might mean more of a cardio workout. Switching out your swim strokes can be a great way to keep your laps fresh and your body healthy.
Lean Into the Resistance
Water is 800 times denser than air, so it provides a lot of low-impact resistance for the body’s muscles to work against. As a consequence of this resistance, you don’t even have to swim laps if you don’t want to; you can easily try sprinting from one end of your pool to the other as quickly as you can as a means of strengthening your legs and core. It can even strengthen your arms, depending on how deeply you’re submerged.
If you want to add more work to your routine, you can perform what’s called a “Dolphin kick,” where you hold onto the side of your pool, push your body horizontal to the water, and kick both feet together, like a dolphin.
Incorporate Equipment
If relying on the water’s resistance alone isn’t enough, you can make your exercises even harder by incorporating pieces of equipment specially designed to be used for exercise in the water.
Foam dumbbells are a great piece of equipment to have on hand if you’re looking to build your strength in the pool. While they may be light on dry land, the foam absorbs the water in a way that adds additional resistance to any upper body workout you’re interested in doing.
Other equipment that can help you improve your pool workout include:
- Ankle Weights
- Wrist Weights
- Paddle Boards
- Resistance Gloves
- Exercise Balls
If you’d like to use your pool to workout more, but want to schedule some swimming pool renovations for your Bucks County home first, give Carlton Pools a call today!