Topic - Underwater skiing
Date first posted on eCommunity - 23
October 2008
This is a difficult time of year for people trying
to get fit for
the approaching ski season. The nights have already drawn in - with
worse soon to come - and the weather is unreliable. So it is hard to
find time for proper outdoor workouts. The gym is one solution, but
even the most devoted of us find it hard to stay motivated through
the requisite three or four sessions a week. So we find ourselves
looking for alternatives. A useful one is water-based exercise in a
swimming pool.
Pool-based exercise in the form of "aqua aerobics" has been around
for years and there are classes in many leisure centres. Aqua
classes generally consist of a series of stamina exercises - like
running and walking - interspersed with muscle endurance exercises
such as leg raises and arm swings. Mainly these are general-purpose
workouts but it is possible to put together routines that mimic some
of the movements used in specific sports. Boxing and kick-boxing are
the best examples.
You can also simulate some cross-country skiing moves and indeed
there are aqua instructors who have made diagonal striding in deep
water a main feature of their class routines. You can see an example
of this at http://revver.com/video/1011144/aqua-exercise-cross-
country-ski-in-the-water/. The example features a woman supported by
a flotation belt that keeps her head above water and maintains her
body in a more or less vertical alignment. This allows her to move
her arms and legs in a fair approximation of classic-style skiing.
To increase the intensity of the workout she holds in her hands a
pair of foam dumbbells.
It looks useful and if you have access to a swimming pool that
permits the use of floats in the deep end it would be worth trying.
However in most pools you are only allowed to use floats in the
shallower water, so you may need to abandon the idea of full
diagonal striding. But you can still make up some worthwhile
exercises which do not require floats:
Leg swings. Standing in waist-deep water and using one hand to hold
on to the pool side for balance, you can simply swing one leg at a
time back and forward. Three or four sets of 10-15 repetitions with
each leg should be enough to make you feel the benefit in the front
and back of your thighs and in your calves. Then if you turn and
face the pool side, and hold on to it with both hands, you can lift
one leg at a time to the side and work the muscles of the inner and
outer thighs. In building up the leg muscles, both these exercises
will help to stabilise the knees and may help prevent knee injuries
while skiing.
Arm swings. For arm exercises you should ideally be in chest-deep
water. Be aware that the arm movements may carry you into deeper
water - so arm work is perhaps best reserved for those who can
already swim. To simulate the arm action of diagonal poling just
adopt a firm stance, soften your knees a little, and swing your arms
alternately back and forward. Try to keep your hands submerged all
the time - don't let them break the surface as they come forward.
For double-poling try to come up a little on to your toes as you
swing your arms forward, then sink your knees as you "pole"
backwards, so that the muscles of your back are doing some of the
work.
With less specific relevance to skiing you can simply go into the
deep end and tread water for a while. Or, if you prefer to stay in
the shallow end, just walk around as quickly and as strongly as you
can, feeling the resistance of the water against your legs.
All these exercises are good for muscle endurance. Water is twelve
times as resistant as air and because of that you can feel utterly
whacked after a workout. There is also the advantage that you have
to work against the resistance in both directions - when you swing
your leg forward and also when you swing it back - so you are sure
to work opposing groups of muscles. And water-based exercises are
also useful if you have an injury as there is very much less impact
on joints than with land-based exercises. This is because about 90
percent of the body's weight is supported by the water rather than
by the joints.
However, for the very reason that most of the body's weight is
supported by the water, aqua exercises tend not to be good calorie
burners. It is difficult in water to raise your heart rate to the
kind of levels that lead to weight loss or improved stamina. To
counter this, some people are now doing high-intensity "aqua
running" which is said to get your heart rate up as high as in land-
based running. To read more about it, and to see examples of the
flotation belts mentioned above, together with other specialised
merchandise like aquatic training shoes and dumbbells, go to
www.aqua-running.co.uk.
For more general information about aqua aerobics, visit
www.safewatersports.co.uk/AquaAerobics.html
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