Resistance Exercise in a Pool Vs. Resistance Equipment

[RickinTN]

I have been exercising in the water doing different resistance exercises. However, I am having problems trying to figure out how to exercise my ab muscles to tone them as I loose weight. I found something that suggest you place your elbows on the side of the pool and then draw your legs up into your stomach and hold for 10 seconds. Well, the problem with that is either I am too big to be doing that or it is impossible to do it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, would you recommend doing resistance exercises in the pool or on the resistance equipment. I know the pool is lower impact with the water dumbells. However, would it be better to use the resistance machines?

I just want to tone as I go to help me feel and look the best I can.

[Bookery]

Hi RickinTN,

I looked around and found that Prevention magazine has posted a water workout:

http://www.prevention.com/article/0,5778,s1-2-141-1-4173-1,00.html

The first couple of moves, the Frog Jump and the Scoop, look like they'd be excellent for your abs and obliques. With the Frog Jump, you stand with your feet wide apart and then jump, bringing your knees up and to the side, like a, well, frog ;). With the Scoop, you cup your hands together and reach down into the water, then scoop up and to the side, but without breaking the surface. Then reach back down and scoop to the other side. This will target your obliques pretty nicely!

With regards to your question as to whether you should be doing water resistance or working out on the machines, I think that water workouts are great for aerobic activity, because they're so low-impact (and fun!), but that you might want to consider adding in, not machines, but free weights to your workout routine. For one thing, free weights would be much more flexible in terms of modifications for your size, which might otherwise be a problem; for another thing, they're really just plain better, because a.) your body can move naturally in the way that it wants to perform a particular move, without being constrained by the set path the machine makes you use, and b.) using free weights means that you'll be using a lot of muscles that aren't necessarily involved in a particular move to stabilize your body, which is a bonus.

If you're intimidated by free weights or aren't sure what to do, I recommend www.stumptuous.com/cms -- it's aimed at women, but it's got great articles, some excellent demonstrations of how to do the exercises properly, and a bunch of sample workout routines. Work to your level, and modify, modify, modify. For example, instead of a traditional squat (truly one of the best exercises out there), you could try sitting down on a low chair and getting back up until you get strong enough to do it without help. For deadlifting (another great one), try putting the weight on a bench and picking it up from there. Baby steps! Susan Powter (the awful Stop the Insanity! woman) actually has some really good strength-training videos and workouts which take into account modifications for people who are large. Just ignore her nutritional advice (caused me to gain thirty pounds :o ).

Whatever you decide to do is great -- moving is great! Getting strong is pretty simple at its root: you just find a heavy thing and pick it up and then put it back down. Just make sure you enjoy it and that it doesn't hurt. Good luck!

[bride911]

OOH! water stuff is great...i swam competitively for 10 years and to this day i would live in the pool if i could...

i have taken and taught quite a few water aerobics classes...i can see how that move that you are trying would be questionable...it is doable, but it is definitely an upper level move (and personally, i hate it...i always smack my head on the pool deck when i try to do it).

the best water ab workout i've ever gotten is by doing the dophin kick...if your not familiar with swimming jargon, basically you keep your feet together and wiggle your butt up and down...your supposed to look like a dolphin when you do it, but i always feel more like a worm...you can do it holding onto the wall or do laps with a kick board...when you really want a challenge flip over and do laps of it on your back...works your abs and quads like you wouldn't believe!