The Joy of Exercise

And so to the inner and outer muscle thighs, muscle groups which don’t get worked very regularly in everyday life but which most people would like to see firmed up a bit.

Stand facing the pool edge, both hands extended for support. Your feet should be about hip-width apart as usual, and parallel. Keeping them this way, gently raise your right leg a few inches straight out to the side and lower it again, repeating with alternate legs.

Posture-check, making sure your stomach muscles are well contracted to support your lower back, and the knee of your standing leg slightly bent.

• Keep your toes, feet and hips square to the front. Turn them out to the side, and you work the hip flexors and buttocks again.

• Lead with the heel, pressing the outer thigh against the water to raise, squeezing inwards with the inner thigh to close.
• Keep the movement small and controlled.

Muscle Progressions

• Do two, four or eight on the right before changing sides.
• Increase the speed.

• Curl your foot up towards your buttocks a little as you lift and lower, watching your posture all the time.

The greater the surface area you present to the water, the greater the resistance you’ll encounter and the greater the intensity of the movement.

Cardio: jogging on the muscle spot

Pick those knees up, pump those arms and watch that HR rise! And to make it more demanding, travel forwards for eight steps, back for eight steps, punching out in front of you with alternate arms — even up over your head for added intensity.

Watch your posture! Keep upright and lifted throughout, avoiding the temptation to lean forwards. Centre your head by looking forwards all the time, keeping your upper body relaxed and square and stomach muscles pulled in.

Keep your lower back flat, especially when jogging backwards. It’s all too easy to let it arch.

Muscle Progressions

Increase the length of your stride so that you bound through the water.

• Reduce the length of your stride, making the movement very quick and intense.
• Change direction frequently.

The stomach muscle

There are no two ways about it. The most important thing you need for safe and successful stomach work is stability — lying with knees bent, lower back pressed down into the ground and chin lifted as you focus on the central stomach muscle — the rectus abdominus — and the oblique muscles wrapping around your torso.

You obviously can’t do this in a pool, though, so many aquafit classes try to incorporate abdominal work into their programmes in other ways. And there are various exercises you can try in which you work with your back to the edge of the pool, arms stretched out on either side to hold on and legs floating out in front of you as you attempt to curl your knees upwards and inwards towards your waist, or sweep both legs from side to side.

However, as soon as you try them you’ll not only see how difficult it is to control the movements enough to squeeze those muscles properly, you may well feel some discomfort in your shoulders and particularly in your neck since it’s virtually impossible to keep neck and spine in line when exercising in this position.

Therefore the aquacircuits are different. The stomach cruncher and side bends

Below will begin to work the major muscle groups in the abdomen, but for extra intensity and better results, try the three simple exercises in the Coda as well — an added bonus to be worked at in the privacy of your own home.

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Category: Athletic, Bodybuilding, Exercise, Outdoor

Tags: all, back, life, lower, lower back, muscle, muscles, other, people, side, stomach, travel, work