If you want to have a great pool in your home and have planned the installation, then you should look forward to having somewhere where you can kick back and relax, rejuvenate after a long day at work or enjoy guests with your pool parties. However these aren’t the only reasons people get pools for their garden and there’s a good chance that you have another use in mind – getting fit. Potentially less enjoyable yes, but potentially also much more practical in that it will enable you to improve your lifestyle, your appearance and your health.
So once you’ve got your pool, how do you go about making the most of it to improve your health? Here we’ll look at how to get in shape using a garden pool.
Swimming
The first and most obvious way to get into shape using a swimming pool is to swim in it. By doing laps or lengths you can perform a kind of no-impact cardiovascular training that will help to increase your heart rate and burn off the calories. This is great for people who have bad knees or bad backs, because unlike running there is no jolt when your feet hit the ground.
Note as well that swimming can also be useful for toning up the muscle, and if you want to get firmer looking buttocks or a stronger chest, then the water can often provide just the resistance you need to do so. To use this effectively though you will need to know which of the strokes will best train which muscles. As a quick guide then bear in mind that the breast stroke is the best for targeting the pecs, hips and quads, while the front crawl is better at training the lats and calves, and the backstroke is great for the shoulders, the hamstrings and the lower back – though they’re all good for all these muscles.
Treading Water
If you struggle to swim lengths and circuits due to the size of your pool or the amount of splashing you encounter then a solution is to treat water. This is stationary and that means you won’t get water in your face or splash everywhere, and as your head is out of the water you can also watch TV while you do if you can see the living room from where you are.
Games
The problem with swimming laps or treading water however is that it’s all a bit boring, and that can make it hard to stick to. Instead then, try involving other people and turning it into a game and that way it can be a lot more fun and feel like less of a chore. Just playing water polo is great for burning calories, as is simply racing a friend. This way a bit of healthy competition will also help you to push yourself further.
Aqua Aerobics
It doesn’t take a fitness instructor to work out a good aqua aerobics routine – just check some videos on YouTube/read around, and then try boxing or doing star jumps in the pool to tone up and burn calories at the same time.
Bobby Preston works for a well-nown real estate agency. He is of the opinion that one can consult any of the reputable interior designers for a customized Swimming Pool Design
About Healthy Family Articles
I can definitely relate to swimming being the best source for burning calories, even though I don’t have a pool a home. But I swim in the local public swimming pool(not quite sure that’s the right word for it) 2 times every week, to lose a few pounds but also because it’s the only exercise I can do due to an accident in 2007.
In fact you burn about 400 calories in a 30 min. if you are a man, and about 325 if you are a woman.!!
Jimmy recently posted..Er Paleo / stenalderkost den hellige gral
Pool fitness! Something I hadn’t thought about living in such a cold part of the world! I guess that for families, with all of that treading water and moving around, just some fun time in the pool each day or at least a few times per week would make a great difference in burning off lots of extra calories. Pools are also great for those with joint problems because you get great flexibility and just enough resistance from the water without it being too hard on the joints! Nice post!
Jason recently posted..A Complete Introduction to the Paleo Diet