Best Water Exercise Equipment

September 29th, 2017

Best Water Exercise Equipment

There are hundreds of ways of getting fit. From classics like running or cycling, through weight training, Pilates, Zumba, kickboxing, and even altitude training, you can easily find a way of building yourself up and improving your health. Aquatic exercise – exercise you do in a pool, lake or even the sea – has become hugely popular over the past few years, and it’s a great option for low-impact, high-effectiveness cardio exercise. If you’re considering trying it, here’s a list of some of the kinds of equipment to help you exercise in the water.

Buoyant equipment

If you’re a beginner at training in water, buoyant equipment might be a good choice of kit to start with. Buoyant equipment includes gear like jog belts and foam dumbbells, which add resistance to your movements while supporting your body and allowing you to stay afloat. For example, foam dumbbells are easy to lift in the water, because they’re designed to stay afloat – but when you try to push them down, you’ll have to work your muscles and get your heart rate up. Aqua jogging belts work in a similar way, and help you stay afloat as you exercise your arms and legs. The resistance from the belt forces you to flex your arm and leg muscles to move forward.

Drag equipment

Once you’ve gotten comfortable using buoyant gear, it may be time to take your aquatic workout to the next level. Here’s where drag equipment, like aquatic gloves, water fan paddles, and water walkers can help. When you’re just walking or floating around in the water, they don’t offer much of a challenge. However, when you switch over to swimming or treading water, drag equipment increases your cardio activity and helps you gain muscle mass by adding to the resistance offered by the water – the water basically becomes a soft, low-impact weights bench. Fan paddles work on your chest, upper back, and abdomen, while aquatic webbed gloves work on your forearms. Water walkers, meanwhile, are great for getting a good leg workout in the water.

Fully-weighted equipment

When you have gotten used to working out with less challenging aquatic equipment, you could move on to wrist weights and ankle weights, which work like gym weights, but with the added challenge of working in the weight of the water. Typically, you strap them onto your wrists and ankles – if you’ve used ankle weights in the gym, you probably know how they add some extra resistance each time you move or lift your ankles. They have a similar effect in water too, except that here, the resistance is higher because water is heavier than air. So if you’re trying ankle and wrist weights for the first time, start off small by walking along the width of the pool or bringing your knees up to your chest while standing on the spot.

There are also several other kinds of equipment (such as resistance bands and bar floats) that can help you get a satisfying aquatic workout. Give them a try and find what suits you best and gives you the workout you need!

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