Swimmingpool as Aquatic Gym

Swimming pools are a safe alternative to repetitive gym training with less risk of muscle injury.

You may have been to a gym or fitness centre and spent good money on monotonous repetitive exercises. If you simply flap your arms about you may gain some extra muscle after a long time. You could use some weights to get faster results. Increase the weights over time and your results get better, until you get injured or terminally bored.

Alternative to Gyms

Swimming pools are a better alternative to gyms as they offer several advantages over traditional gym workouts, particularly when you wear clothes in the water instead of lifting weights.

First, the added resistance from the fabric helps tone and sculpt your body more effectively than a gym workout where you may be using machines or free weights. It engages your muscles at a deeper level, helping to create long, lean muscle tissue that looks great and feels strong.

Second, wearing clothes in the water can help protect your skin from chlorine and other chemicals commonly found in pools. This added layer of protection helps prevent irritation or damage to your skin, allowing you to focus on your fitness goals without worrying about discomfort or injury.

Finally, the variety provided by swimming pool aerobics ensures that each workout is engaging and dynamic, helping prevent boredom while keeping your body engaged throughout the session. This combination of factors makes wearing clothes in a swimming pool during workouts an excellent choice for those looking to improve their fitness results.

Overall, aquatic gyms offer a unique blend of support, resistance, variety, and safety that make them an excellent alternative to traditional gyms.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Also called high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) or sprint interval training (SIT), this is a cardiovascular exercise, alternating short periods of intense anaerobic exercise with less intense recovery periods, until you are too exhausted to continue.

All workout sessions are extremely intense! No session is ever the same, and even the most seasoned athlete will find this class challenging, although we encourage people of all fitness levels to come out and have a good time.

Aquatic Bootcamp training formats are calorie-burning workouts of intense, interval-based exercises to create progressive overload and take participants to the aerobic threshold. They push you to go that little bit further every time. All this makes for an intense training sequence that challenges you to move harder, harder and with more power!

Though there is no universal HIIT session duration, these workouts typically last under 30 minutes, with times varying based on a participant's current fitness level.

Train like the Marines

Aquatic Boot Camps are modeled after old-school military training, adapted from military ROTC drills. They provide a basis of excellent workouts for the entire body, involving full body movements that activate large portions of muscle mass.

You also get great aerobic (cardio), anaerobic, and strength training all at the same time. On average, 10 kilocalories are burned per minute with boot camp style workouts. The popular workout method HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) can also easily be incorporated into aquatic boot camp workouts.

These types of workouts can be done pretty much in any pool or on a suitable beach, and require very little (if any) equipment, just some clothing layers. No need for an expensive gym membership or fancy machines. Your own body weight is all you need.

Boot Camps can vary depending on the focus. They generally include a mix of aerobic, strength training and elements of speed in each session. One camp workout could focus on body weight exercises (calisthenics) while another stresses military-style drills and activities.

Training Benefits

Enjoy a tough, fast paced sequence of strength and conditioning exercises with interval training. It doesn't get any more intense!

Our innovative training techniques increase your functional fitness level, build stamina, increase the rate at which you metabolize oxygen, improve swimming efficiency, and of course help you lose weight. You can expect to burn up to 1000 kcal depending upon how hard you push yourself and how much you weigh.

This training combines resistance swimming with endurance to build stamina and strong muscles if done regularly. It is a type of fitness training based upon sound physiological principles, to provide varied activity and continuous challenge for the participants.

Aquatic Bootcamp training formats are calorie-burning workouts of intense, interval-based exercises to create progressive overload and take participants to the aerobic threshold. All this makes for a powerful training sequence that challenges you to move harder and with more power.

Just 30 minutes of exercise per day can increase your brain power and up the ante on your IQ. You won't become an Einstein overnight, but it will increase your brain's ability to think and focus and solve problems.

Training Schedule

Now you know the basics, let’s get into some specific Aquatic Boot Camp workout ideas. These are a great place to start, but use your imagination and adjust to what works for you!

Create a schedule and stick with it. This improves the effectiveness of your workout and it will establish swimming as a regular habit for life.

Begin with a schedule of 2 to 3 days a week, then increase it as you improve and feel more comfortable with a bigger workout schedule. Aim to do 3 days a week endurance training and 3 days a week resistance training Every week take one or two days off from your training programme. Do something else that challenges you in different ways, like cycling or running in the rain.

Start with with a few minutes of warm-up, followed by some stretching. If you have the time, schedule an hour for your workout, but at least half an hour. Devote the last 10 to 15 minutes of your swimming schedule to kickboarding exercises. Using the kickboard is an excellent way to perform muscle-toning exercises.

Aquatic Agility and Warm-up make up a good part of the training. Poolside sit-ups, push-ups, squats, 5-star jump are mixed with water exercises. You want to be able to move in and out of the water with confidence, no matter what the situation.

Endurance swim training should make up about half of your training effort. You go the distance and build stamina. It is not as hard as resistance training, but takes longer. Swim a given distance for 30 minutes or more. Change swimming strokes at regular intervals. Take short breaks between sets.

Resistance swim training should make up the other half. You work your muscles against a resistance, like in weight training. Lifeguards and lifesavers do this by swimming fully clothed which builds more muscles faster through increased weight. It's hard, but good fun.

Cross Training is the key to never letting your body adapt to a certain exercise. Expect a variety of cross training exercises in and out of the pool that will help increase your endurance level, stamina, functional fitness level, and overall strength. Each session gets progressively more challenging.

Enjoy the intensity and high octane speed of the aquatic boot camp. With consistency, determination, and perseverance you will reach your goals. Think of it as amphibic cross training.

Focus On Your Goals

If you are sleeping late every morning, start getting up earlier and earlier. Get a post card, write your goals on it and tape it to your mirror. Seriously, go and do it now. Write on it things like "Do 5 push-ups every morning" or "Fast Walk for 30 minutes every night."

You need to look at your goal card every morning as a reminder of your commitment to yourself. If you can discipline yourself to do this, you can achieve anything you want. You may think this is a silly idea, that you don't need a goal-list staring you in the face every morning. Well then, don't say that you haven't been warned!

Our training will push you to achieve maximum results, because it gives you a high-intensity low-impact aquatic fitness work-out in the pool, as well as the benefits of weight and resistance training in a traditional gym. Not only will you be creating new muscles but you’ll also be expanding your lung capacity, improve your swimming ability and tone your entire body instead of a few areas.

Compete with Yourself

This is a competition with yourself and you are encouraged to achieve your personal best in each event. You should be in a progressive physical conditioning programme to best prepare yourself for the demands of this training. It is not too difficult or demanding for the well trained lifeguard.

If you're training in a team, measure the results and see how everybody improved. You don't win by being faster or better than someone else, but by beating your previous results. If you must have a winner, pick the one who made the most progress against themselves.

Measure your weight, waistline, and muscle size. Get one of those scales that measure many of your vital signs and write them down as you progress through your training.

Swim with Friends

This is a fun and challenging group based training experience. Setting a schedule becomes much more effective when you have friends or workout partners to keep you company and help you stay motivated.

Not only will they help you stick to your routine, but they can also provide a friendly incentive to help improve your swim time and strokes. If they are swimming faster than you, it will encourage you to pick up your pace as they make you to work harder than you ever thought possible on your own.

Summary

There are so many different ways to incorporate Aquatic Boot Camp workouts into your pool routine. You can do these exactly or adjust them to fit your needs and physical fitness level.

These will keep you in incredible shape, and being in the water will benefit both your mind and body. Pay close attention to your thoughts and emotions when you are in the pool versus exercising outdoors. You will realize a huge difference. Overall, you will feel more alive and vibrant during and after your workout.

Reader feedback we get revealed that aquatic environments left swimmers with a greater feeling of revitalization and positive engagement. They also reported greater enjoyment and satisfaction with aquatic activity and declared a greater intent to repeat the exercises again at a later date.