4 Water Exercise Tips for Weight Loss and Arthritis Relief
Summer is almost here and we can begin to think about how we look in a bathing suit and how to treat your nagging arthritis symptoms at the same time!
The buoyancy of water supports a portion of your body weight putting less stress on your joints though still allowing for improvement of flexibility.
Here are some great water exercise tips to get you started:
- Water shoes provide safe traction on the pool floor.
- Keep the water level at about waist to chest deep.
- Move your Styrofoam weights, balls or noodles slowly through the water as this will provide less resistance than faster movements which can become too hard to do.
- Webbed water gloves and flippers make great resistance tools for water exercise.
You’ll likely never work up a sweat when in the pool but still have plenty of drinking water handy to minimize dehydration.
Own Arthritis Water Therapy on DVD!
Water jogging, forward and side lunges and push ups on the pool steps are all great ways to treat arthritis symptoms at any level.
To treat arthritis its important to do everything you can to stretch, use weighted resistance either in or out of the pool and be consistent. The body will conform to whatever forces you place upon it. That will translate into stronger muscles, flexible joints and reduced pain in all the places you’ve convinced yourself, “I’ll just have to live with.” It doesn’t have to be that way. So don’t be a big drip, get started today!
Suzanne Andrews, Occupational Therapy Practitioner
Suzanne Andrews founded Functional Fitness in 2008, the most popular fitness series for boomers and seniors broadcasting on over 159 Public Television stations throughout the US and Canada. Read Suzanne’s inspiring comeback story of how she survived a near fatal accident, From Deaths Door to Producing a National Fitness Series. Feel free to send Suzanne a message here.
