water aerobics for cardio?

Question

I've been weight lfiting for a while and need a source of cardio and i dislike biking walking joggin running etc so i was wondering could i do cardio by simply swimming laps around my pool and doing some water aerobics but still get a good calorie burning workout?

Answer 1

Swimming will burn plenty of calories! Laps are a great wat to mix cardio into your routine. The harder and longer you swim, the more you'll burn.

As for aqua aerobics, they are mostly aimed at people who are recovering from injury or have bad joints because the workouts are low impact. The classes tend to be full of women and though they DO give a cardio workout, you would be better off swimming laps and working on intervals and things of a more intense nature.

Either way you'll get a good pool workout!

Answer 2

Absolutely!

With any water workout for a beginner, a good instructor or coach is a must. Otherwise it's hard to keep yourself motivated and working at your ideal heart rate.

Beginner swimmers tend to slow down or take lots of breaks if they feel out of breath.
But you'll need to keep your heart rate up for a sustained period for maximum cardio benefits and fat burning.

It's easy to "float" through the exercises in a aquacise class unless you have a trained , qualified instructor.

Look for someone with a credential in Aerobic Exercise, such as IDEA, AFAA, ISSA FitTour, just to name a few.

A great book to take poolside for a lap swim session is "The Waterproof Coach" by Thomas Denes with hundreds of workouts; it has plastic pages and starts with super easy to super challenging workout combinations.It is for beginner and master swimmer as well.

You can also take lap swimming at your local Jr College as well, for some personal help.
Go for it!