Swimming is one of the best exercises for burning calories and firming your muscles without stressing your joints. According to a study at Indiana University, swimmers have more lean muscle and thinner waists and hips than non-swimmers. An easy swim burns 500 calories an hour while a strenuous swim will burn almost 700. Water also provides a resistance workout for your whole body. This means you will build lean tissue and muscle, which also helps you burn fat because each pound of muscle burns between 40 and 50 calories a day.
Basic Laps
Swim back and forth across the pool. Pools are usually 25 yards long and each time you cross the pool, it is called a length. You can alternate strokes or choose your favorite. Common strokes are freestyle, or front crawl, back stroke, butterfly and breast stroke. Vary the length of your swim depending on your calorie goals. A vigorous swim will burn around 11 calories a minute. Create intervals by varying your intensity. Try alternating between swimming one lap slowly and then one lap quickly. If your arms get tired, use a kick board and work your lower body by just kicking your feet.
Aqua Aerobics
Group exercise has been proven to increase motivation and enthusiasm according to Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and fitness instructor at Standford University (see source three). The desire to keep up with the group will make your work harder. Aqua aerobics is simply an exercise class done in the water. Being in water makes you almost weightless and this allows you to jump and move around without stressing your joints.
Tread Water
Treading water refers to simply staying in one place in the water and keeping afloat by moving your hands and legs. This can be done while in an indoor pool, in a lake or at a friend's outdoor pool party. Having a workout partner will make this more enjoyable because you can talk while treading. This works all body parts, particularly your core muscles.
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