Fitness Tips - 3 Ways To Get Fit In The Pool

Being physically fit is a goal that we want - or that we should want! Being fit helps us to live longer, have more energy and just live healthier. The secret to getting and staying fit is to find an exercise that you enjoy.
For many people - it's working out in a pool. Exercising in a pool especially helps those that have joint problems. The water helps with the impact on your muscles and joints. If you don't think that there is an indoor pool in your area - check around. There may be one that's open to the public at a Community College, etc.

Here are three ways that you can get fit by having fun and going to the pool.

1. One of the best exercises that you can do is simply swimming. It burns a lot of calories - and most everyone likes to go for a swim. If you do decide that you want swim as an exercise choice - make sure that you find a pool that has a special area for those swimming laps. And, many pools have specific times set up for adults only. Trying to swim for fitness while trying to dodge those playing can drive you a little crazy!

2. Water aerobics is a super way to use the pool to stay fit. Many local YMCA's or fitness centers have instructors. Many places have different levels of difficulty. Make sure that you start out in the beginner's class - especially if you are just started to work on your fitness. Don't try to do too much too soon. Water aerobics is a fun way to exercise and get in shape. Don't worry if you find it hard at first - it's a good workout!

3. Walking/Running in the pool is something that many do to stay in shape - while others do it while they are recovering from an injury. Many think that running and walking in a pool is better than doing it outside on the roads. You don't have the impact on your knees/joints in the pool that you have otherwise. Also, the water adds resistance that will make you work harder and get a great workout.

Remember the pool doesn't have to just be for summer and vacation fun. If you've been wanting to get back to exercising - head to the pool! It's a great way to get in shape, stay in shape and have fun doing it.

Getting in shape and staying in shape is a goal that everyone should have - no matter how busy they are. It's that important! Visit Health and Fitness Tips for more tips on exercise and healthy eating.

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Fitness Tips - The Basics to Body Weight Training

At some point, certain things are going to start getting easier - which is good - and there are certain methods that we can use to increase the workload of that movement. So let's have a look at some of them.

1. Remove one of the structural supports
For example, let's look at the push up. Remove an arm and now all hell breaks loose. Pistol Squats, Single Leg lunge/Romanian Split Squats etc.

2. Loading
Kettle bells, vests, chains - whichever you fancy. This should be rather self-explanatory

3. Incomplete/Partial Repetitions
I come from a hypertrophy based background and one thing that I learned over the years when size is the goal: you NEVER REST DURING A SET. By rest, I mean, you never let your muscles rest - and by following that rule, you never "lock-out" a movement. Muscle fibers should be recruited and firing for every second of every rep of every set that you performs.

Let's look at a basic squat. If I perform a full squat and am now standing with my hips locked out. What is there left for my muscles to do? Well, not much. Standing isn't such a strenuous exercise (for most). However, if I incomplete the movement to say 3/4 Squats and I don't lock out, then my muscles have to continue to work.

If you don't agree with this. Go load up a bar. Squat. Slow down the movement and incomplete it.I'm not saying you should do this for every rep of every set, but should rather join it into a set here and there. Make it the last 2 or so sets.

4. Slowing Down
By slowing the movement down, your muscles spend a greater time under tension - When it comes to muscle growth, nothing beats straight up Time under Tension training, commonly called TUT.

This works well with loaded weights or after a few rounds to just kill off whatever you have left in the tank.When it comes to core work, slowing down works extremely well. Semi-Isometric Abs Bike is a favorite of mine and I use it for training sessions.

If you're a beginner, don't even bother with weights, body weight will do it for you - Same goes for removing support, leave that to when you've actually built a nice foundation of body weight strength.So the first two that you should be looking at is Slowing Down and Incomplete reps, from there you can work your way up.

CONCLUSION
So remember, stick to the basic movements if you're a beginner - Ensuring that you are performing the fundamental movements correctly. You won't be able to do advanced movements if you can't do the basics. Focus on completing full range of motion for everything that you do, unless you're implementing the "partial rep" method to one of your last sets. But if you're a beginner, then you probably won't be there just yet.And that's it for now. If I left anything out, which I probably have or you would like to know anything, feel free to ask.

Lisa Kowen has 20 years experience in the fitness industry in South Africa She is director at The F.I.T. Principles Academy, American Council on Exercise (ACE) representative in South Africa, co-owner and developer of fitness-connect.

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