The Waterpower Workout: The stress-free way for swimmers and non-swimmers alike to control weight, build strength and power, develop cardiovascular endurance, improve flexibility, agility, and coordination
198
The Waterpower Workout: The stress-free way for swimmers and non-swimmers alike to control weight, build strength and power, develop cardiovascular endurance, improve flexibility, agility, and coordination
198eBook
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781625361394 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | LyndaHuey.com |
| Publication date: | 09/23/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 198 |
| File size: | 60 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
WATER MAGIC
September 1974: Carlsbad, California
Patty Van Wolvelaere, my teammate on Wilt Chamberlain's WonderWomen Track Club, was America's best hurdler. It was a joy working out with her, learning new training methods. We lived on the beach, so it was natural to do some of our workouts there.
Top sprinter Steve Williams was a transplanted New Yorker who was discovering beach workouts with us. One day we took him for a barefoot run down our wide, flat beach. As a wave rolled in, we lifted our knees and sprinted over the foam. As the wave receded, we jogged. We played with the waves like that for several miles, doing sprint drills as each wave broke. Then we walked back up the beach in knee-deep water, enjoying the sight of the sun on our shining thighs as they forcefully contracted, pulling us through the water.
Water adds magic to any workout. The magic lies in water's resistance to bodily movements, water's support for the body, and water's wonderful freshness. Submerged in water, you can quickly sense water's magic.
Water's buoyancy supports you as you move through it in a training program. Water's buoyancy lets you run, walk, jump, bounce, stretch, pivot — make any movement — without the jolts that could cause injuries if they were to occur on land. Water acts as a cushion for your weight-bearing joints, preventing strain, injury, and reinjury common to other exercise programs.
At the same time water is supporting you, it is resisting you. Any movement at any speed in any direction is slowed by water's resistance. This resistance causes your muscles to work harder than if you were simply moving your arms and legs through air. As you demand more from your muscles they adapt to the demand by becoming stronger. In addition to strengthening your body, you are burning calories, more calories than if you did exercises without resistance. Water is, in effect, a natural Universal Gym. Or a natural Nautilus machine that is instantly variable, depending on how much resistance (weight) you want to work against: the harder you push and pull and sweep and kick in the water, the more resistance you will meet from the water.
On land, such resistance would raise your body's temperature; and raise it further as you worked harder and longer during a training session. But with water's freshness, your body remains cool and soothed as if by massage.
With Waterpower, you'll experience water's magic right away. There are no preliminary weeks of exercising — no bending, stretching, slow walks or jogs you must do to get into shape before you enter the water. You don't even have to be able to swim.
TEST WATER'S POWER
To test the power of water, try this at home.
1. Draw a bucketful of warm water the next time you're watching TV. Rotate your ankles smoothly clockwise in the water. Rotate your ankles counterclockwise. Squeeze your toes together and curl them downward. Reach up with your toes and try to separate them as much as possible. Next, plunge one of your hands into the bucket, make a fist, then stretch your fingers as wide as possible. Repeat these stretches and contractions slowly 10 times, rest for a minute, then repeat. (Or, fill the bucket with ice water and exercise a wrist or ankle that you may have strained slightly.)
2. Move to the bathroom and draw a tubful of water. Use it as a pool for stretching your arms, legs, and back. Stretch them as you have probably already learned to stretch before and after a weight workout or a run. Add more hot water, slide down to cover your body to your chin, and use your own tub as a hot tub. Stretch your shoulders and neck and allow the warm water to relax them. Give yourself a foot and hand massage. Breathe deeply.
3. Stand a minute, evaluating the effects. Surely your body feels relaxed and energized — fresher than before.
Multiply these sensations by the 10 to 45 minutes it takes to complete a water workout in a pool where you'll be able to work every muscle. After a single workout you will feel more flexible, agile, and powerful. These rewards and many others will make you look and feel better each day of your life.
WATERPOWER IS WHAT YOU NEED
As you turn the pages of The Waterpower Workout, you will see people doing 91 water exercises that are building their strength and power, controlling their weight, increasing their cardiovascular endurance, improving their flexibility, agility, balance, and coordination, or healing their injuries.
Consider the relaxed and joyful facial expressions of the people in water, their healthy, fit, beautiful bodies. These are not models, but terrific athletes who exercise often in water, who use it for general conditioning and for rehabilitating their injuries sustained on land. Notice the variety and number of exercises they do in water, the variety of their water gyms.
Soon you, too, will be using water's resistance, buoyancy, and freshness to achieve your own fitness goals.
CHOOSE YOUR PROGRAM
Now that you've decided Waterpower is for you, it's time to identify the specific program that will meet your immediate fitness or rehabilitation goals. You may have clearly specialized concerns — those of a competitive or injured athlete, a pregnant woman, or a person with arthritis. You may be looking for a completely new approach to weight control and fitness. You may be a recreational athlete who wants to add the power of water to your varied training schedule.
Whatever your needs, The Waterpower Workout has something to offer you. I've developed eight different Waterpower programs tailored to special fitness requirements. It should be easy to determine which program is right for you:
WATER STRETCH You should start with this program if you haven't exercised in many years, if you are overweight, afraid of water, or hesitant to begin a fitness program that jars the body. Water Stretch is gentle enough for post-surgical or other convalescent therapy. The gentle movements of Water Stretch will increase your strength, balance, and flexibility, and prepare you for a more rigorous and challenging workout. Once you're in condition, you can progress to the Basic Water Workout and use Water Stretch to warm up and warm down.
THE BASIC WATER WORKOUT If you're generally in shape, if you train regularly, or even if you are a highly conditioned athlete, use this multipurpose, well-rounded program. It can be modified for your individual needs simply by increasing or decreasing the number of repetitions of each exercise. Additionally, you can put more or less effort into each workout simply by deciding to work more or less powerfully against the water's resistance.
If you are a recreational athlete who has been, say, playing tennis or racquetball faithfully four times a week for many years, and you want to boost your enthusiasm and stamina, substitute the Basic Water Workout for one or more of your tennis or racquetball matches each week.
You may be a serious cyclist, triathlete, runner, cross-country skier, or other athlete training for a specific event. Perhaps you've nearly reached the upper limit of your capacity to handle your difficult workouts. If you add much more workload, you're likely to become injured. Nevertheless, you want more. Use the Basic Water Workout as a supplemental conditioning program once or twice a week to intensify training without incurring the risks.
WATER AEROBICS If you strengthen your muscles with weight training or other exercise and specifically seek aerobic conditioning from your water workout, use the Water Aerobics program. It offers you a 20-minute plan that will focus your efforts on strengthening your heart and lungs. Although the Basic Water Workout includes a substantial aerobic component, it also provides exercises for all major muscle groups of the body and takes 45 minutes or more for completion. If you're short on time, you'll get the most specific cardiovascular benefit from Water Aerobics.
If inclement weather forces you inside, find an indoor pool and substitute Water Aerobics for your usual sports until the weather warms up again.
SPORT-SPECIFIC WATER TRAINING Water Exercises can aid in strengthening your body and improving your technique in any specific sport. Used in conjunction with the Basic Water Workout and Water Aerobics, these exercises will improve your performance in many sports, from basketball to golf.
WATER REHABILITATION Follow the guidelines to this program if you're an athlete with an injury that prevents you from training in your sport and you want to maintain your muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness while you let your injury heal. Begin by doing an exercise that will help your injured body part become stronger, then add the Basic Water Workout and Water Aerobics as a powerful substitute for your landsport training.
Water Rehabilitation can also be used by nonathletes who are recovering from illness, accident, or surgery.
ARTHRITIS WATER THERAPY If the pain of arthritis prevents you from doing most exercise programs, try Arthritis Water Therapy. The gentle exercises offered here can reduce the swelling, pain, and inflammation of arthritic joints.
PRENATAL WATERPOWER This program is tailored to meet your needs during pregnancy. Use the bathtub exercises in the Prenatal Waterpower chapter as a gentle introduction to water exercise. Use the pool exercises for a more vigorous workout that doesn't cause you to bounce or overheat. Remember, always get your doctor's approval before beginning any prenatal exercise routine.
Even if you are not pregnant, there are other uses for Prenatal Waterpower: If you can't leave home, or if you're afraid of water but you've always wanted to have the fun you see others having in water, fill your bathtub and enjoy the pleasurable movements of this program.
THE HOT TUB WORKOUT The hot tub is another soothing place to introduce yourself to water exercise if you are afraid of water. It's also a good way to start if you've been inactive for a long time and want to ease into a program, or if you don't have access to a swimming pool. If you travel, your hotel may have a hot tub where you can work out.
SET YOUR GOALS
Before you start your program, make a copy of the workout chart at the end of that chapter. Seal the chart in see-through plastic to take to the pool when you're ready to go.
Also, consider the progress you hope to make over the coming weeks and months of Waterpower. Your goals should include increasing the number of repetitions. The reps suggested in these programs provide a moderate workout. Start with fewer reps if you feel the need; increase the number of reps as you gain strength and fitness. Always, however, do the exercises in the order presented. The sequence of exercises is as important as the movements.
After your workout, relax and ask yourself these questions:
1. At what point or points did I begin to tire?
2. Which exercises were particularly difficult? What might account for the difficulty?
3. Was there pain with any exercise?
4. Could I have put more effort — speed, power, precision — into the exercises?
The answers to these questions will help you plan your next water workout. Modify difficult exercises and those that cause pain by moving slowly through a narrower range of motion than is seen in the photos or by doing fewer reps. Decide what level of effort you want to commit to the workout. Change your mind only if you encounter pain or unaccountable fatigue.
KNOW YOUR BODY
Muscles make up much of the body's weight: approximately 40 percent in men, 30 percent in women. When they contract, they cause movement. Muscles that bend a limb at a joint when they contract are called flexors. Muscles straightening a limb at a joint are called extensors. If the limb is moved away from the midline of the body, an abductor is at work; if the limb is brought toward the midline, adductors are responsible.
All muscles can only pull or relax; they cannot push. Thus back and forth movements of the arms, legs, jaws, or eyes are only possible because muscles work in synchronized pairs — when one contracts, the one opposing it relaxes. The muscles executing the actual movement are known as prime movers or agonists. As the prime movers contract, the opposing muscle group, the antagonists, must relax to allow movement to occur. Then the prime movers must relax as the antagonist contracts in its turn.
These antagonistic muscle pairs maintain a specific ratio of strength and flexibility to each other. If that ratio is thrown out of balance by training or stretching just one of the muscles in a pair, you produce inefficiency and the potential for injury. Therefore it is extremely important to exercise both muscles of each antagonistic pair: quadriceps/hamstrings, thigh adductors/abductors, biceps/triceps, and so forth.
When you exercise on land, you contend with gravity's one-way pull, but when you exercise in water, you must overcome resistance in all directions of movement, allowing you simultaneously to strengthen agonist and antagonist in each muscle pair. For example, when you perform a bicep curl in the weight room, the bicep muscle powerfully contracts to lift up the weight against gravity's force. As you lower the weight, the bicep is again working even as it lengthens to the starting position. To keep the balance in the bicep/tricep muscle pair, you must next perform a separate exercise specifically for the tricep. But in water, you can strengthen both the bicep and the tricep with the same arm curl, for you meet resistance to your movement in both directions of the exercise.
The basic muscle groups are shown in the muscle chart on pages 16–17. If you successfully strengthen these large groups, other minor muscle groups will grow stronger in the process. In each exercise in The Waterpower Workout, the prime muscle movers are listed in order of importance, followed by the secondary muscle movers, also in order of importance.
CHOOSING A POOL
Check your potential pool's schedule. Make sure there is an adult swim time, during which you can use the pool without interference from lap- swimmers, children, or divers.
Ideally, the pool you choose for your water training should be no more than 10 to 15 minutes from home or from your work place. The locker room should be inviting, clean, and comfortable. If your "home" pool is easily accessible, and if you look forward to its surroundings, you'll go more often than if it's unattractive or a long drive away.
After you've found your "home" pool, you may be tempted to stop your search for good locations for water training. But that "home" pool may unexpectedly close for cleaning or the schedule may change, interrupting your ideal training time. You should have options, so locate at least two other possible sites for water exercise. The schools near your home may have indoor or outdoor pools that are available to the public for certain hours. If you live near a lake, find a safe point of entry where you can train in chest- deep water. If you live near the ocean, notice which beaches have the calmest surf. You will be able to do most of your exercises there when the waves aren't rough.
When you travel, try to stay at a hotel or motel that has a pool and use it.
SELECTING A SUIT
When you choose your Waterpower suit, think function not fashion. Your suit must support you as you jump, sprint, and bounce. Therefore choose a training suit that fits you snugly but stretches comfortably without restricting your movements.
MEN: Select a suit with a drawstring so you can tie it securely around your waist during the jumping portions of your program.
WOMEN: Select a one-piece suit that will adequately support your breasts.
EXTRA EQUIPMENT
If you want to swim laps before or after your water workout, you should use goggles. Goggles not only protect your eyes from the chemicals in the pool water, but also dramatically improve your underwater vision. When you can see clearly, you feel more at ease in what could otherwise seem like an alien environment.
If you want to add workload to your legs during kicking exercises, you can try wearing fins. Kick easily at first or you may strain your hip flexors (groin muscles).
If your program includes sport-specific exercises, take the appropriate equipment to the pool with you: an old baseball bat, tennis racket, football, basketball, or golf club.
If you aren't a strong swimmer, but want to try assisted-swimming devices, begin by using a kickboard to kick around from the shallow end of the pool to the deep end and back.
Back patients can decompress their lower backs while swimming in a controlled posture, using a Perry Flotation Belt coupled with the Perry-Band, a tether that lets you swim in place. Similarly, the Greenberg Float Coat can be used to swim backstroke in place. Explanations of these devices appear later in the book.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Waterpower Workout"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Lynda Huey.
Excerpted by permission of LyndaHuey.com.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
FOREWORD,
1. WATER MAGIC,
2. SHOWER EXERCISES,
3. WATER STRETCH,
4. THE BASIC WATERPOWER WORKOUT,
5. WATER AEROBICS,
6. EIGHT TIPS FOR IMPROVED WATERPOWER,
7. SPORT-SPECIFIC WATER TRAINING,
8. WATER REHABILITATION,
9. ARTHRITIS WATER THERAPY,
10. PRENATAL WATERPOWER,
11. THE HOT TUB WORKOUT,
POSTSCRIPT: THE JOY OF WATERPOWER,
INDEX,