Examples For Aquatic Exercises For The Upper Extremities

Aquatic exercises provide a means of exercising the upper extremities effectively yet gently, because water is easier on your joints for exercising than land. Creative fitness professionals look for ways to translate dry-land exercises to the pool. “Everything is universal, you just need to be able to apply it in the water,” says aquatics group exercise instructor Lamont Arnold of the Maryland Athletic Club Harbor East in Baltimore, Maryland, who applies karate and tai chi moves to aquatics classes. The arms can get an effective workout in the pool by borrowing from numerous exercise modalities.

Basic Exercises

You can stand in the water so that it comes to shoulder height to perform basic moves to strengthen your arms and shoulders. Lift your arms from your waist straight in front of you and lower them, or swing your arms wide at shoulder level and return your hands in front of you. You can push your hands up and down, bending at the elbow, or cross your arms across your waist and then open your arms out. Shoulder shrugs can loosen your upper body. Another option is to hold onto the pool deck or exercise bar, with legs off the pool bottom, working your way down in one direction and back the other, crossing your hands over each other.

Strength Moves

You can adapt dry-land free weight work to the water by grasping water dumbbells, a foam-and-plastic version of a dry-land dumbbell, or a Hydro-Bell, a large, bright yellow plastic cylinder that resembles a dumbbell with added resistance blades. Perform biceps curls, triceps extensions and lat raises with a resistance object in each hand. You can perform pushups by pressing down and pulling up on a kick board with your body floating horizontally, and trunk rotations while standing and holding a ball. Or sit on the kick board and propel yourself forward with a powerful breaststroke to work the upper arms and deltoids.

Boxing Moves

Aquatic classes in either deep or shallow water can borrow from boxing, martial arts, tai chi and yoga to work the upper extremities. Instructors can direct you in doing the speed bag, a miming of the motions of hitting a boxing speed bag, and reverse speed bag. Other boxing motions include the jab, uppercut, cross or low cross, with added kicks, steps or sideways squats if you are in the shallow area. You can intensify the water resistance by holding aqua paddles, which resemble a plastic bar with two disks at each end, or aquatic boxers, made of plastic fins to look like a glove with a thick handle to grasp between the fins. Other options include aquatic dumbbells or Hydro-Bells. Your instructor can add and demonstrate upper blocks from martial arts and and the warrior 2 pose from yoga.

Aerobic Moves

Particularly in deep areas of the pool, as you wear a float belt or straddle a noodle, you can incorporate upper extremity exercises with aerobic moves. You swing the arms strongly past your sides while cross-country skiing and pump them while “water jogging" or "water running,” which as the name implies involves a running movement with your body inclined at 5 degrees. The instructor may also add arm motions to jumping jacks and flutter kicks.