Advantages of water-based exercise

Water exercise benefits for joint pain are often overlooked, yet swimming and aqua aerobics can significantly improve mobility, strength, and overall well-being. Just like land-based workouts, they boost cardio fitness and help ease chronic pain, while being much gentler on the joints.

Why Water Exercise Is Ideal for Joint Pain Relief

Your body becomes buoyant in water. When in the water, your joints experience less impact, making the pool a welcoming environment for anyone with arthritis or joint injuries. Squats that may aggravate arthritic knees on land are often doable in water. The resistance of the water also slows down movements that can be quick and jerky on land, creating more smoothly flowing motions that are less likely to aggravate injuries.

Water Resistance Makes Your Workout More Effective

Because it is denser than air, water provides 12% to 14% more resistance. Even when you’re doing cardio exercises like jogging in water, you’re working against more resistance than if you were on land. Because of the resistance factor, water exercise is a double-duty workout — cardio and strength training. This may be why many studies have found increases in lean body mass in people participating in an aqua exercise program.

Burn More Calories with Aqua-Based Cardio and Strength

The resistance you encounter in water also means that you burn more calories than you would on land and helps to work more muscles.

When you do strength training on land, you’re working against gravity. So, if you’re doing a biceps curl — the classic strength exercise — you’re contracting your biceps as you bend your arm to lift a dumbbell, and you’re continuing to work the muscle as you lower the weight again in a controlled manner, without simply dropping it.

During this bicep curl, the opposing muscle in the back of your arm, the triceps muscle, goes along for the ride, lengthening and then shortening. But it’s not working against resistance. The work is all being done by the bicep. In the water, however, resistance comes into play, providing more of a challenge to the opposing muscle.