Why Water Exercises?
Exercising in water is just apt for pregnant women since the
water's buoyancy requires a person to support only 50 percent of
his body weight. Besides, it reduces the risk of stress-related
injuries and the density of the water is comforting on joints
and muscles, which get stressed by the added weight of your
pregnancy. The water's temperature also keeps the pregnant lady
from overheating during the workout.
Even if you're unable to swim, you can do water exercises as
most of the moves are performed in waist or chest-high water.
Simple swimming laps, walking, jogging, or running in water,
will strengthen your core trunk muscles, legs and hips,
increasing your cardio-respiratory fitness. For these exercises,
there is no need to have any special equipment; however you can
use flippers, foam tubes, webbed gloves, and water weights to
enhance the moves.
Water Workouts
Water workouts typically are divided into two categories: aqua
aerobics and aqua exercise. Aqua aerobics comprise of many
fat-burning and endurance-building qualities of land-based
aerobics, with no high-impact pounding that can be dangerous
while pregnant. Aqua exercise concentrates on improving muscle
tone, strength and mobility. For a perfect 30-minute workout, do
aerobic activity with strengthening moves.
After a warm up of 5 minutes which usually include swimming a
few laps or walking back and forth across the pool; alternate
high-intensity walking or jogging with low-intensity recovery
periods. The duration of each interval depends on your fitness
level; you can begin with 15 seconds. Then you are ready to
perform strengthening moves. Alternate another aerobic set and
then another strengthening move, continuing the same for 30
minutes. Now cool down for 5 minutes by swimming some laps or
walking around the pool. Make sure to do some gentle stretching.
Strengthening Moves