Water Exercise - Water Exercises - Swim Work Out - Water During Exercise

Pregnancy is the most beautiful phase of every woman's life. Enjoying the phase of motherhood could be a little difficult with the temporary problems like nausea, backache, etc. It is important for the would-be mother to be happy and stress free. Moreover, it is also necessary to keep the body active; water exercises can make the best low-impact exercise program for a pregnant lady to remain active without giving stressing on the fetus. Swimming, water jogging, and aqua aerobics are some of the best water exercises to carry out while pregnant.

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

Facing the stairs, stand in the shallow end of the pool. Step up the lowest step, and then back down. Repeat for 10 times gradually, leading with your right leg; then 10 times leading with your left leg. Turn sideways and repeat the exercise with both legs.
Using your hands, hold a kick board in front of you in a manner that it's up on one end and immersed halfway in the water. Walk from one side of the pool to the other whilst pushing the kickboard in front of you; focus on keeping the board straight. Turn around and walk back to the original position, zigzagging the board in front of you.
Hold the rim with your elbows and stand with your back to the side of the pool. Keeping your knees straight, gradually bring both legs up to a 90-degree angle in front of you and hold the position for 10 seconds, while exhaling slowly. Subsequently bend at the knee to bring your legs down, and repeat as many times as you can. However, look out to keep your back straight throughout this exercise.

Note: Make sure to drink plenty of water while exercising in the water. Don’t ever jump or dive into the pool. Before starting any kind of exercise during pregnancy, make certain to consult your doctor. Don't expect to maintain your pre-pregnancy swiftness, and stop immediately when you feel tired, experience dizziness, headache, or cramping. If you notice any vaginal bleeding, contractions, unusual absence of fetal movements, blurred vision, or difficulty in walking, call your doctor immediately.