Water Fitness
The terms “water gymnastics” or “aqua fitness" are often equated with rehabilitative sports. That’s a fair assumption, to a certain extent, but working out in the water is actually a highly effective mode of exercise, enjoyed by amateurs and competitive athletes alike. Here's everything you need to know about it.
At many of Holmes Place's premium fitness clubs, you can try out a variety of water-based exercise classes, alongside everything else we offer – from our fully-equipped gym floors to our huge selection of group classes. Just sign up for a trial workout.
What is Aqua Fitness?
Aqua fitness, also known as aqua fit, is similar to water aerobics, but while the latter focuses on flexibility and rehabilitation, aqua fitness focuses on muscle building and overall fitness. The workout takes place in chest-deep to deep water. The water’s resistance increases the effectiveness of the exercises, while protecting the body’s joints. Because the water’s buoyancy supports the body’s weight, Aqua Fitness is also suitable for seniors and those for whom other forms of workout cause too much strain.
Parts of the training involve the use of equipment, ranging from swimming noodles to dumbbells, while others are done with the body alone.
Cycling, running, boxing in water
Cycling, running, boxing, dancing and other forms of exercise have also found their way into the water. Find out more below.
Aqua cycling: This involves specially-made bicycle ergometers (or aqua bikes), designed for underwater use. When seated on the bikes, the water reaches participants’ hips.
Aqua jogging: There are two types of aqua jogging: one that takes place in chest-deep water, where both feet remain on the ground, the other in deep water, without contact with the floor. Both variants see the athletes perform typical running movements. These are slightly modified in chest-deep water (your knees shouldn’t be so bent, your toes should point downward, and your arms should extend from the body). In deep water, a waist belt provides buoyancy.
Aqua boxing: This requires participants to stand in chest-deep water, while performing fitness boxing-style moves like punching and kicking. You can even don special aqua kickboxing gloves, which support underwater training.
Aqua dance: This is essentially a Zumba class in water. Not quite as fast as its onland equivalent, but fast enough to be both effective and fun. Movements from classic water gymnastics are often integrated too.
Aquastep: This is just step aerobics in water, and involves stepping up onto a 20-centimeter-high platform, and down again, alternating between your right leg and your left.
You can even try taking your HIIT workout under water with Floatfit HIIT, a pool-based circuit workout that packs a punch. This involves standing on a blow-up training mat resembling a SUP, which forces your body to work that little bit harder to prevent wobbling while you do the exercises.
What are the benefits of exercising in water?
As mentioned, water’s resistance is its biggest benefit when it comes to ensuring a great workout – the resistance is 60 times higher than that which you encounter when exercising outside of water. This means that every single movement is by necessity slowed down, and you have to work that much harder to push against the resistance. The resulting workout is therefore intense and strenuous. Exercising in water also significantly lowers the risk of strains, while burning plenty of calories (aqua jogging for 30 minutes can burn up to 400 calories).
Aqua fitness improves strength and endurance, bolsters the immune system, stimulates the metabolism, and enhances flexibility and balance, all the while acting like a gentle massage.
There’s a difference between working out in chest-deep versus deep water. Deep-water workouts are gentler and particularly easy on the joints, while chest-deep workouts are faster and more dynamic. We recommend trying both to see which suits you best!
Holmes Place gyms offer a variety of water exercise and aqua fitness classes. Floatfit HIIT workouts last about 30 minutes, while aqua fitness classes are 45-minutes long. After the workout, you can enjoy a few calming extra laps in the pool and then relax in the spa area.