Are you feeling the heat while you exercise in summer? Why not incorporate water into your workouts.
Not only does water provide a unique medium for exercise and additional exercise options, but you’ll finish your activity feeling cool and refreshed. It's a great way to add variety to your exercise routine and target different muscle groups.
Here are my four tips on how to make a splash during your summer workouts.
- Do your own private summer biathlon - Combine one of your favourite land based activities such as walking, running or cycling with a swim. This is especially ideal for hot days when you don't want to skip your usual land based workout, where you can substitute part of the time with swimming.
- Do your own private aqua aerobics class - You don't have to be in a group to enjoy the strength increasing and fitness boosting benefits of water aerobics. If you have access to a pool, try performing exercises such as punching, bicep curls, chest flyes and side raises against the resistance of the water. Combine that with cardiovascular movements such as jogging on the spot, running in deep water, walking side to side, and swimming to keep your heart rate up. Equipment such as flotation belts, water weights, and webbed gloves can also increase the difficulty and variety of your workouts.
- Paddle up - Whether it's a kayak, canoe, row boat, dragon boat, or stand up paddling, there are many ways to get yourself moving on the water. Paddling is a great workout for your upper body, and you can always cool off in the water afterwards. It also reduces the workload on your knees, ankles and hips which bear the brunt of most land based exercise.
- Something a little different - Other ideas for water based exercise include body surfing, body boarding, surfing, sailing and wind surfing.
You can read more about the benefits of working out in water here.
Do you enjoy working out in water? How do you incorporate water into your exercise routine?