Exercise In Pool To Lose Weight

Pool exercises are a great way to switch up your routine, and working out in the water is also the perfect way to build up your strength and balance, since the water provides natural, gentle resistance that’s easy on your joints.

Water workouts are a great way to lose weight, increase movement in your lifestyle, and stay in shape.  Pool exercises are known for their low impact benefits, so even people with physical limitations or people who are recovering from an injury or surgery are able to perform them.  In fact, pool workouts can be one of the best ways to increase mobility after a major surgery.

Depending on how often you exercise in the pool, you may want to invest in special gear- here are the basics so you will be fully prepared to get the most out of your pool exercise plan:

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It is helpful to use goggles and a swim cap in order to stop water and your hair from getting in your eyes. While it’s not required, you might want to purchase a pair of specialized water running shoes that are designed to provide you with extra grip and cushioning against the hard floor of the pool. Other optional equipment include a floatation belt, water dumbbells, a kickboard, and paddles to add resistance during arm exercises. These items- especially the kickboard, swim cap, and goggles– can really diversify the range of exercises that you can add to your workout and make you feel more comfortable in the water.  

Remember that when you workout in the water, you still sweat (you just don’t notice it), so be sure to hydrate before, during, and after your workout.  It can also be fun to head to the pool with a fitness buddy so you can stay motivated to complete your workout.  Here are some easy and effective pool exercises that you can use for weight loss:

Simply grasp the edge of the pool deck while floating face-down in the pool, extending your legs straight out behind you. Stretch your arms out, and kick both legs vigorously. For increased challenge, focus on keeping your legs below the surface of the water, as that will increase resistance.

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If you have a kickboard, you can take this exercise to the next level by holding the kickboard in front of you, and flutter kicking as you do laps down the length of the pool. Try to build on the number of laps you do each time you get in the water- you will be surprised by how quickly your endurance increases!

Hold a pool ‘noodle’ vertically between both of your hands while standing in the shallow end. Press the noodle straight down into the water, and lean forward until your body is fully extended behind you, with your feet off the pool floor. Keep your head up, and try to hold this ‘plank’ position for 1-2 minutes at a time to build up your core muscles and tone your tummy.

Start in water that comes to about your chest, and tuck your heels together, with your knees slightly bent and pointing outwards. Lower your bottom down, then jump up as high as you can. Return back to your starting position after each jump.

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This pool exercise is great for weight loss as it works both your cardiovascular system and the large muscles in your legs and bottom. The deeper you go when you ‘load’ your muscles before the jump, the more calories you’ll burn!

Use the pool edge to do burpee jumps against the wall underwater.  In the deeper end of the pool, hold the edge of the pool so your body is perpendicular to the edge.  Tuck your knees into your chest, stack your feet, and put both of your feet against the wall. Continue to hold your grip on the wall while you jump off and extend your legs away from the wall as you activate your abdominal muscles. Bring your body to a parallel position to the surface. Continue for one minute. 

Stand in the shallow end. Sit back into the water, and tread water with your hands out to your sides.  Lift both legs at the same time so that you hinge at the hips and your entire body makes a large V-shape. Continue treading with your hands as you keep your legs as straight as possible.   Crunch your abs by alternating between lifting your legs closer to your upper body, and then bringing them further away.

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If you need an easier modification for this exercise, you can always just tread water in a V-shape and skip the abdominal crunch.

Pool exercises for weight loss are a great addition to any fitness routine, but they’re especially helpful if you are recovering from bariatric surgery like gastric sleeve or LAP-BAND since water exercises help to both tone muscles and build cardiovascular strength.

To learn more about exercising before and after bariatric surgery, click the button below to contact our weight loss surgical team today!When it comes to building lean muscle, burning fat, and reaching your fitness goals, water may very well be the best exercise tool you’re not already using.

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And no, we’re not just talking about swimming: You can check out water-based fitness classes, like aqua cycling and aqua yoga, or build your own water-based resistance workouts. They aren’t just for injury rehabilitation and older adults, says Dan Daly, CSCS, a New York City–based competitive swimmer and performance coach of elite and professional level athletes.

Pool-based exercises can offer the health-boosting benefits of other workouts: burned calories, strengthened muscles, improved cardiovascular health, and more balanced mental health. But they also carry some unique benefits, most of which are down to two facts:

Movements you do in the water are less taxing on your joints and bones because water reduces the load of your body weight, research shows. This makes pool workouts ideal for strengthening muscles without the stress that running and other weight-bearing exercises can inflict on knees, ankles, and other joints, says New York City–based Todd Sinett, a doctor of chiropractic who is also author of

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This reduced stress on joints and bones makes pool exercises a great option for people with aches or pains due to injury or chronic conditions that affect the joints, like osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, Dr. Sinett says. “Aquatic exercise is also quite beneficial for the elderly because as we age we tend to lose our flexibility and tend to be achier and stiffer, ” he notes. “A less taxing exercise environment [such as a pool] is great for everyone, but even better for the elderly, whose body aches and pain may not be so forgiving.”

“Horizontally, water is 800 times denser than air, providing unique multidirectional resistance, ” Daly says. That means when you walk forward through water, your body is fighting the resistance of all of the water around you — vertically, horizontally, and rotationally. (That’s why it takes so much more effort and time to take a few steps in a pool versus on dry land.) This challenges your muscles in unique ways, says Daly: “It requires your muscles to fire and contract harder to overcome the extra resistance of the water.”

That said, no matter how beneficial pool workouts are, Sinett emphasizes that it’s important to perform them in a way that’s appropriate given your swimming abilities. For example, if you aren’t able to swim for extended periods of time, performing your water exercises in a shallow pool or with the assistance of a float is key.

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Also, if you have any chronic condition or health issue that could interfere with your ability to safely exercise (or safely exercise in water), it’s a good idea to check with your doctor before trying this type of workout.

Daly recommends trying these pool exercises that require zero swimming and can torch major calories to help you meet your fitness goals. These multijoint, multimuscle resistance exercises help you build muscle mass, which in turn helps you burn fat, Daly explains.

These exercises prioritize large, compound movement patterns to get your heart rate up and work a wide range of muscles at the same time. To begin, Daly advises completing all seven exercises in order as a circuit, completing 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. Give yourself a two-minute rest between rounds. Start with two rounds, and work your way up to eight rounds gradually.

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Daly advises performing the workout twice a week as an ideal low-impact conditioning routine for days between other lifting and aerobic workouts (which should be performed two to three times a week, per guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine). There’s no minimum to how often you need to perform these exercises to benefit from them, and as long as you factor in rest days (which will promote proper recovery by giving your muscles time to heal), you won’t overdo it.

While you can wear water shoes if you prefer to, Daly says if you're doing the exercises in a pool, you likely won't need footwear. And for the exercises that require you to move your feet (the running and the side