The Joy of Exercise

To cap it all

While healthy, intact skin will not be affected by lengthy exposure to chlorine, everyone knows that it doesn’t do your hair a whole lot of good. One way of counteracting this is to use the ASA-endorsed Ultraswim products designed to release the chlorine bonds which attach to the strands. Alternatively, there are always swimming caps — providing, that is, you can find one that fits properly — and should you ever reach competition standard, they are a much less drastic way of streamlining your body than shaving your head, not to mention providing triathletes who swim in open water with a valuable source of insulation.

Ear, nose and throat

For people who find it difficult to balance the pressure of air and water in the ears, individually moulded ear plugs are available. Always make sure your ears are dry and warm before inserting them, though, and should you get any sort of ear infection, avoid their use — and stay out of the pool until it’s cleared up.

Never wear ear plugs when diving. Nose clips, on the other hand, are used to balance the pressure in the nasal passages and protect the sensitive membranes at the back of the throat. They may look ridiculous, but they’re essential for all synchronized swimmers and some competitive divers too.

Aquatic Intensity

And if you want to improve your swimming technique and increase the demand of your workout? Look no further than the traditional floats and hand paddles available on request at your local pool. Take kickboards, for instance. Indispensable if you wish to improve your leg and arm action in all strokes, they can also be incorporated into your aquafit routine as well — for instance, sweeping them sideways under the surface to increase your upper body strength. And pool buoys? These are floats you grip between your thighs to improve your body position when swimming, but they can also be used to tone up the chest and the backs of the arms by pressing them slowly downwards beneath the water surface.

And if you’re allowed to use it — and know how to use it properly — the range of new aquafit equipment designed to increase resistance, buoyancy and weight in your workout is vast. For instance, Hydro-Tone’s natty Hydro-Boots are a

Must in aquatic footwear — water’s answer to ski-boots for the ultimate in low-impact workouts. And if you’re recovering from injury or simply want an extremely demanding workout, foam-filled exercise belts like the Aquajogger by Vulkan UK provide the slightly strange option of deep- water running — where your feet never even touch the bottom!

Needless to say, the selection is just as wide for swimmers being coached to competition standard. Harrington Products’ Kick Stick, for instance, is a brace-like training device which ensures that you not only kick from the hip in front and back crawl, but point your toes on the downward action to promote ankle flexibility and a feel for the water. And if underwater microphones and receivers are a little excessive, and waterproof heart-rate monitors not your thing, you can be coached on the latest in swim benches instead, allowing you to practise your pulls and correct body alignment without even having to get wet.

Water needs no additives, and there’s already enough variety in the different forms of aquatic exercise without getting hung up on technology. You don’t need go-faster fabric to slice effortlessly up the pool, and you can make enough of a splash in an aquafit class without any new gadgets. But if you do get hooked and wish to supplement your efforts, it’s all there for the taking. But then again: you won’t know what you’re missing if you don’t take the plunge.

But if you decide to take things a stage further, always make sure that you are confident with the given movement first, that you are properly supervised when trying it out, and that you increase the intensity gradually, making doubly sure that your technique and body alignment are perfect at all times and that you ‘place’ the equipment carefully rather than flinging it about wildly. And never use any added extras without warming up thoroughly beforehand, or cooling down and stretching out properly afterwards.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
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• Swimming for Fitness, Open Water Safety
• Upwardly Mobile Water
• Aquatic Exercise and Drag
• The First Workout
• Fitness & Aerobic Exercise: Bicycling, Running, Swimming, Swing, Surfing
• 'The Compleat Goggler'
• Painful Progress
• Calories Burned for 30 minutes of Aerobic Exercises and everyday Physical Activities
• Aerobic Exercises, how much Burn-Off, how fast?

Category: Equipment, Exercise, Fitness, Workout

Tags: always make sure, balance the pressure, body, design, ear, increase, instance, people, pool, properly, running, technology, water, without