By Antigone Cook

SPLASH! Ahhhh… Feeling less like a bulky washing machine and more like a gazelle the moment you enter the warm water.

Let’s face it, pregnancy can wear you out! The weight of your newly expanding belly pulls on your back muscles and the extra pounds make your feet ache. Even the thought of exercising makes you tired.

The good news is there are simple water exercises that can reap big rewards, both mentally and physically. Plus being in the water when you are pregnant just feels good!

Mentally: A water workout de-stresses you, encouraging moment-to-moment focus as you feel your arms and legs press through the liquid resistance. The water, especially if it’s warm, seems to have a soothing effect on your entire system. A big mental sigh, if you will!

Physically: Since water gives you up to 12 times the amount of resistance as land-based moves, you get more toning power for each movement. Specific benefits include:
Develop cardiovascular conditioning if you sustain the movements for 20-30 minutes (see the sample workout plan below)

• Improve your breathing technique, which you will use in labor
• Reduce ankle swelling
• Take the pressure off your bladder
• Reduce strain in your back muscles

The following is a great, quick workout that I found helpful during both my pregnancies. This routine can also be used for your “get back in shape after the baby” workout!

1. Find a pool where your feet don’t touch the bottom.
2. Strap the Aquajogger around your waistline (scoot the belt buckle below your belly button as your belly grows).
3. Rotate through the following moves 3-5 minutes at a time. Repeat at least 2 times through.

• Cross-Country Ski. In an upright position, keeping your arms and legs straight, pretend you are cross-country skiing. Keep your spine long and your bottom tucked slightly under. The faster you go, the more resistance you get.
• Jumping Jacks. Start in a big “T” position with your legs together and arms out. As the legs “jump” out, the arms press to your sides. You will know if you have the arm and leg rhythm incorrect because you will “bounce” up and down in the water. Ideally you should stay at shoulder level at all times.
• Jogging. This one gives you a great, natural-feeling workout. Just jog forward at a brisk pace, then, try jogging backwards. You can use your hands to help propel you.

This workout was my own personal bliss. It was a quiet yet productive time I would use to get my body and mind in shape for that most special athletic event – labor!

Good luck and enjoy!

Contributed by Antigone Cook of Life Integrated Fitness. She is a 25-year veteran instructor of water exercise, Pilates, and walking workouts. Antigone utilized water exercise in the pre and post natal programs of two pregnancies. Check out her website for guided Walking, Pilates and Healthy Back workouts you can do in your home or take with you while you travel. http://www.lifeintegratedfitness.com

Do you ever feel like your fitness goals are out of your reach? At AquaJogger®, we often hear inspiring stories from people who had once given up on their quest and then found hope in the forgiving environment of water.

Example: A women called our office to say that she finally was able to lose those extra pounds by combining deep water exercise with her diet. In her case, it was one hundred extra pounds!

A retired gentleman injured his back and was confined to bed where, due to his inactivity, he gained seventy pounds. His wife feared that his life was over until his physician recommended deep water exercises with an AquaJogger®. The wife phoned to report that her husband was now back on his feet, had lost the seventy pounds, and they had just returned from walking the Great Wall of China.

A runner contacted us to say that, after years of feeling beat up and sustaining injuries from over-training, she decided to substitute water running for some of the land sessions. She commented that running was fun again and that after years of being stuck at a plateau she had improved her personal record in the marathon by ten minutes. “I ran probably 50% less distance this time and improved that much. Sweet.”

Click here for a free download of the Water Running Handbook.

One unforgettable call came from a lady who claimed that an AquaJogger® had “saved her life”. She explained that she was a psychologist and was recently devastated by the news that her only daughter had been killed in an accident. The depression that followed included thoughts of suicide and she knew that it was critical that she find a way to combat the growing intensity of despair. By chance, she wandered by a pool where a deep water exercise session was going on and decided to join it. She recalled that from the moment she entered the water and was suspended by the AquaJogger®, she knew that this was the environment she needed to work though her pain. The feeling of weightlessness, the embrace of the water, and freedom from stress helped relieve the tensions of her mind and body and opened the path to her recovery.

Has AquaJogger® improved you life? Send us your story. It will give others hope.

Although water is the oldest rehabilitation modality, few understand the magnitude, variety, and rapidity of its healing effects. Yet much research over the centuries validates these effects, and recent research adds further understanding:The aquatic environment produces physiologic changes that help remove metabolic waste, improve cardiac function, lower blood pressure, and assist the body in tissue healing.

In regard to the circulatory system, Dr. Becker stated that: “Immediately after a person is immersed, water begins to exert pressure on the body…Central venous pressure rises with immersion to the chest and increases until the body is completely immersed… Cardiac volume increases by nearly one-third with immersion to the neck…Since the ultimate purpose of the heart is to pump blood, its measure of performance is the amount of blood pumped per unit of time.” This is called cardiac output and “submersion in water to the neck depth increases cardiac output, 32% at rest.” “Therefore the claim that water exercise is not aerobically efficient is faulty. In fact, it may be the ideal cardiovascular conditioning medium.”

“Like the circulatory system, the pulmonary system is profoundly affected by immersing the body to the thorax. Part of the effect is due to blood shifting into the chest cavity, and part is due to compression of the chest wall. The combined effect alters pulmonary function, increases the work of breathing, and changes respiratory dynamics. In fact, expiratory reserve volumes decrease by 75 percent at neck immersion, with vital capacity decreasing only slightly …The combined effects of these changes increase the total work of breathing by 60 percent. Thus for an athlete used to land-based exercise, water-based exercise is a significant workload challenge to the respiratory apparatus. If water training time is sufficient, this challenge can improve the respiratory system’s efficiency.”

“Water immersion positively affects the musculo-skeletal system as well, particularly with vasoconstriction. On land, for instance, sympathetic vasoconstriction tightens the resistance vessels of the skeletal muscle to resist blood pooling. But in water, immersion pressure removes the biologic need for vasoconstriction, thus increasing muscle blood flow. In fact, resting muscle blood flow increases by 225 percent during neck immersion”

“Aquatic immersion creates many effects upon renal blood flow and the renal regulatory systems. For instance, the flow of blood to the kidneys increases immediately upon immersion, which produces an increase in urine production, as well as sodium and potassium excretion. Sodium excretion also increases as a function of depth due to the shifting of circulating central blood volume.”

Immersion up to the neck during deep water running is often utilized for its conditioning effect.” Although some controversy exists about the optimal training program for athletes who need joint off-loading during a recovery period, it is known that aquatic exercise can indeed increase conditioning in that population. In fact, water running equals land running in its effect upon maintaining VO2 max. When training intensities and frequencies are matched.”

“Similarly, when aquatic exercise is compared with land-based equivalent exercise in its effect upon maximum gains in VO2 in unfit individuals, aquatic exercise achieves equivalent results.”

“Water-based exercise programs may be used to sustain or increase aerobic conditioning in athletes who need joint offloading… Studies, have shown excellent cross-over benefits.”

Through understanding the principles and benefits of aquatic physics, coaches, trainers, athletes and rehabilitation clinicians can design aquatic programs that complement and enhance land-based programs to provide increased levels of fitness and function.

Dr. Bruce E. Becker, MD. became Medical Director of St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in May 1999. A graduate of Tulane University School of Medicine, Dr.Becker completed his residency training in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Washington. He was an associate professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine as well as Residency Program director for the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation there. He also served as vice president of Medical Affairs for the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, 1992-1998. Dr. Becker was in private practice with Rehabilitation Medicine Associates in Eugene, Oregon, where he founded the Oregon Rehabilitation Center, and served as its Medical Director for many years.

Most of us have read or heard about recent research that tells us to keep active both physically and mentally if we want to keep our brain healthy and reduce the onset of disease such as Alzheimer’s. Water exercise, and specifically buoyancy-assisted exercise, presents an ideal environment to gain these benefits.

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System tested the effects of aerobic training in a clinical trial with Thirty-Three women and men diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, often a prelude to Alzheimer’s disease.

Twenty-three randomly selected volunteers, began an intense program of aerobic exercise, spending 45 to 60 minutes on a treadmill or stationary bike four days a week. The remaining 10, the study’s control group, spent the same amount of time performing non-aerobic stretching and balance exercises.

After six months, the aerobic exercisers showed significant gains in mental agility, while the non-aerobic group showed continuing decline in tests of thinking speed, fluency with words, and ability to multi-task.

Most anyone can gain the benefits of getting their heart rate up to aerobic and anaerobic levels with buoyancy-assisted exercise. Jogging and running without pounding or impact upon hips, knees and ankles to support the body opens the door and raises activity levels to where they do the most good.

Aerobic exercise probably protects the brain in several ways. It builds heart and artery resilience, which boosts blood flow to the brain. Exercise keeps energy metabolism stable, preventing and even reversing diabetes. Exercise also relieves stress, preventing damaging chain-reactions unleashed by the build-up of stress hormones. Being suspended in the water provides an ideal stress-free and relaxing environment to achieve aerobic exercise these benefits.

While it remains unknown whether fitness training can prevent Alzheimer’s, many scientists firmly believe it is more likely to help than existing pharmaceuticals or supplements, which have failed to show preventive effects in clinical trials.

Because lifestyle factors seem to lower the risk, some researchers suspect that physical fitness, overall health and mental stimulation provide a buffer, or reserve, that allows the brain to withstand more damage and still function normally.

Dr. Michael Mega, a neurologist and neuroscientist with the Providence Brain Institute in Portland, said the Seattle study fits with the emerging view that heart health and brain health go hand in hand.
Products that aid buoyancy-assisted exercise:

Buoyancy belts | Hand gear | Footgear | Sqoodles

This series on peak performance in sports and life will highlight ways you can utilize the water environment in bringing your best effort to the task at hand. Preparation begins long before the competition. If you want to arrive at your event with mind and body ready for optimal performance, you must take charge of the preparation process.

Dr. Scott Pengelly, PhD, a pioneer in sports psychology whose work dates back to the 1976 Olympics, has played a key role in athletes achieving success as well as failure. He advocates that you “know your body and listen to what it tells you”. Dr. Pengelly warns that a primary adversary will be what he refers to as “laws of human behavior”. 1) The Body always wins. 2) The Body never lies (although we suspect it does, especially when we don’t want to hear about it, and 3) an exception will be made in my case. (In fact, I am so confident this will happen, I have already made other plans). Do you see any of yourself in this observation?

Motivated athletes face the challenge of surviving their training schedule. Paying close attention to feedback from the body can signal an injury or system overload which will lead to overtraining and produce negative returns. Explore ways you can take the impact out of the training process by including a water running component into your training schedule. Tips on how to do this are available as a free downloadable PDF water running handbook. The DVD, Take It to the Water goes into even more detail on this process and provides information that can help you get the most out of your conditioning program and reduce injuries.

Unfortunately some of the most debilitating injuries, such as stress fractures and joint injuries, often don’t send out a very loud signal before they fail. Dr. Stan James, M.D., a world renowned specialist in sports related orthopedic surgery, recommends that you adjust your training schedule to take into consideration the fact that the skeletal system and its connectors are one of the slowest adjustments of the training process. Most athletes outrun the skeletal recovery rate and pay the price. “Training errors” keep surgeons, like Dr. James, in business. He recommends athletes “train smart” and consider “the least amount of training that maximizes conditioning results” as opposed

Jeff Galloway, an All-American collegiate athlete and a member of the 1972 US Olympic Team in the 10,000 meters, is still successfully competing as a masters runner 37 years later. His remarkably long career has included wins at distances ranging from the mile to the marathon. Philosophically, Jeff believes that we were all designed to run and walk, and he keeps finding ways to bring more people into the positive world of exercise. His innovative ideas have opened up the possibility of running to almost everyone.

Jeff has long been an advocate and a beneficiary of water running. Finding your ideal workload and combining the best of land and water running is a proven path to success. Learn more about how to integrate water running into your program with this free downloadable water running manual.

Jeff’s training schedules have inspired the second wave of runners and marathoners who follow the Galloway RUN-WALK-RUN™, low mileage, three-day a week programs resulting in an over 98% success rate.

Check out Jeff’s web site and sign up for his free newsletter. This teacher and road warrior has made it his quest to help others enjoy and excel in their running. Whatever your fitness level, you will find programs, books, and clinics to bring the success you seek.

Go for it. http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/index.html

The purpose of the study was “to examine in obese people the potential effectiveness of a six-week, two times weekly aquajogging program on body composition, fitness, health-related quality of life, and exercise beliefs. The conclusion derived from the study found Aquajogging was associated with reduced body fat and waist circumference and improved aerobic fitness and quality of life. The findings in this pilot study suggested the usefulness of conducting a randomized controlled trial with long-term outcome assessments which is to follow.”

“The study was prompted by the fact that aerobic activities in water have been found to be effective to improve aerobic fitness and the effect on body composition has been demonstrated to be similar to weight-bearing aerobic exercise on land. The study defined “Aquajogging” as a specific form of exercise which consists of simulated running in deep water.”

A side note of interest is that this pilot study was conducted in the Netherlands, where the AquaJogger® water exercise buoyancy belt was introduced in 1991 and AquaJogger® has been a registered trademark since 1992. The act of running and jogging in water while being suspended with the aid of a water exercise buoyancy belt soon thereafter became known as aquajogging.

Additional comments from the study: “Aquajogging has been applied as a joint sparing intervention in rheumatologic diseases such as osteoarthritis, in the pre and post-operative management of musculoskeletal diseases, and as an endurance and power training in cardio-respiratory disease.”

“Participants experienced decreased appetite, and three spontaneously made an appointment with a dietician to start dietary treatment after the end of the aquajogging program. Injuries or uncomfortable muscular pain were not experienced by any participant during or after the training.”

“After a six-week aquajogging group program without dietary restriction in obese people, improvements in body composition, aerobic fitness, and quality of life were observed.”

“Study conclusions: Physical exercise in water is a possibility to try to increase physical and mental health of obese persons without the risk of injuries. In a six-week open-trial in obese persons, aquajogging without caloric restrictions was associated with reductions in body fat and waist circumference and with improvement of aerobic fitness and quality of life.”

“The indication that aquajogging results in physical and mental health benefits for obese people suggests that it might be a valuable therapy in itself or as an adjunct to a dietary intervention.”

To view the complete study, follow this link: http://www.aquatictherapist.com/index/2009/11/free-research-download-5-2010-effects-of-aquajogging-in-obese-adults-a-pilot-study.html

How many times have you wished you had a pool of your own, just big enough and deep enough to enjoy your fitness and training programs at home? The WaterWell® by Endless Pools could be the affordable solution you have been looking for. The WaterWell® can now be customized to depths of 72″ to facilitate deep water running and exercise. Innovative modular construction simplifies the process of getting your pool up and running.

Check out the video on The WaterWell® page. The information on the deep water version starts at the 2:00 minute mark and includes visuals on the modular construction.

Many pools today are only three to four feet deep due to liability, insurance, economic and supervisory issues. But you don’t have to let shallow water limit your pool experience. Escape the world of gravity to one of weightlessness with one of our buoyancy belts. Those of you who have already experienced the feeling of freedom and relaxation of being suspended in the water can attest to its magic.

Give your joints a rest from their weight-bearing activity and increase your choice of movements. With your feet off the bottom of the pool, you can position your body at angles ranging from 45 degrees to horizontal so your legs can cycle through a full range of motion.

Get your heart rate up by using these angles to run, rock climb or cycle in a seated or recumbent bicycle position at whatever cadence you desire. You can also perform abdominal exercises such as a V-sit or do sit kicks to strengthen knees and hamstrings. Check out these and other exercises in the workout guide on our website. You are only limited by your imagination.

Get off the bottom of the pool. Get suspended…have fun…Get fit.

Injuries and medical conditions can ruin your season or your lifestyle. What can be rehabilitated can often be prevented by being pro-active. Medical, health care and sports training professionals are increasingly turning to water exercise as prevention as well as therapy. Consider how “pre-hab” can benefit you or someone you care about.

Emersion in water provides physiological benefits and a forgiving exercise environment that is unique to that medium. Those benefits are maximized when you are suspended up to your neck in deep water. This enables you to breathe normally as you utilize the variable resistance of water in all directions…without impact. AquaJogger® water exercise belts were invented for this purpose and have been “supporting” water workouts since 1987.

When suspended, movements can be performed at speeds ranging from an all-out effort to slow motion through a full range of motion. Your exercise options multiply without weight-bearing impact on your feet, ankles, knees, hips and low back. Your body is surrounded by the hydrostatic pressure of water so your movements have built-in resistance in all directions. Resistance is determined by the speed with which you move your limbs through the water and the amount of surface area you present to that path. You are in control of just how much or how little resistance you apply at any point throughout each movement. Tune into what your body tells you to get the most out of each exercise.

To get started, chose from the exercises and instructions found in the information section on our website. As you learn the basics, innovate to fit your specific needs. Try emulating some of the exercises you do on land in the water. One of the keys to success is to focus your exercise routine on your areas of weakness and those most prone to injury. Strive for strength, flexibility and endurance through a complete range of motion on each exercise. You can do this in the water.

Whether you are an athlete looking to maximize conditioning without injury or just looking to enjoy a healthy lifestyle, be pro-active and pre-hab.