Aquatics for Weight Loss

If you are embarking on a weight-loss program, consider aquatic exercise for the calorie-burning fitness component. Fitness and wellness centers offer water exercise programs, utilizing their swimming or therapy pools. Aquatics offers benefits, including its low impact, which is important for older people, people with arthritis and people rehabbing injuries. Using the natural resistance of water helps build muscular strength.

  1. Strength training

    • Begin a strength training program. According to Dr. Edward Laskowski, M.D., a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at the Mayo Clinic, strength training increases muscle mass; "if you don't do anything to replace the lean muscle that you lose, you'll increase the percentage of fat in your body," he says. You can do variations of exercises like dumbbell curls, rows, triceps lifts, dips and many more using aquatic and waterproof equipment such as resistance bands and dumbbells designed for pool use, as well as your own body weight.

    Water aerobics

    • Take an "aquafit," or water aerobics, class. This is very similar to a standard aerobics class, involving steps, dance steps and coordinated arm and leg movements. Water aerobics is especially helpful for people who couldn't normally do a land-based aerobics program, such as arthritis sufferers. Using the resistance of water helps provide a tougher workout, increasing your metabolic rate and the amount of calories you burn. According to AerobicsExercises.com, during an hour of water aerobics, you can burn from 450 to 700 calories.

    Swimming

    • Try swimming for a full-body cardio workout, without the pounding on your body that you'd get from running or other high-impact aerobic exercise. It also gives you functional strength, especially in your core. How many calories you burn from swimming depends on how fast you swim, how long you swim and what strokes you use (you'll burn more doing a butterfly or breaststroke than you would doing the backstroke or a slower-paced freestyle). To increase your fat-burning capabilities, consider doing an interval workout. Instead of swimming at a slower pace for an extended period of time, do a series of shorter sprints. Swim to the other end of the pool and back as fast as you can, then take a 30 to 60 second break, followed by another lap.