Water Aerobics For Seniors
Water aerobics water aerobics is a form of exercise in which aerobic exercises are performed in a relatively shallow body of water such as a swimming pool.
Water aerobics for seniors. Keeping a healthy exercise routine can literally be as simple as heading to the pool. Walking in water can target your arms core and lower body. This exercise can also be simplified to walking back and forth in the pool or jogging or marching in place. An instructor will lead you through a series of moves often set to music to keep you motivated.
Aqua jogging is the perfect aerobic low impact exercise to get the heart pumping and blood flowing throughout the body. The water buoyancy makes exercising easier on the joints bones and muscles. It s clear that aqua aerobics or water based activities provide significant benefits for older adults including increasing metabolism says wojtek chodzko zajko phd head of the department of. Each water aerobics class includes a warm up cardio.
Walk in water. Water aerobics routines provide a great low impact workout especially for seniors and people with back or joint pain. Water also provides resistance as you move through it which helps you gain muscle strength. Walking in water is a good exercise to start off with as it helps you get a feeling for how you can create resistance.
Here are 12 water exercises for seniors to get you started. Aqua jogging can be as simple as jogging through the water from one side of the pool to the other. Two benefits of water aerobics are that they re low impact and put less stress on your joints because of water s buoyancy. Both of these aquatic activities are low impact but they offer the best benefits of high impact workouts.
A water aerobics class typically lasts an hour. Results of a study conducted at the center for physical activity and aging at wichita state university found that women who regularly participated in water aerobics walking and dancing while in water in addition to practicing strength training in water increased their hamstring strength by 40 percent and their quadriceps strength by 27 percent.