If you are seeking a challenging workout and wondering if swim spas are good for exercise, they most certainly are! Regardless of your age or fitness level, swim spas offer a low impact workout environment with a number of benefits. Exercising in water helps your body burn fat, speeds up recovery from injuries, fantastic for your cardiovascular health, plus it is a great way to increase your strength, endurance, and flexibility. If you’re looking for some great swim spa exercise ideas, keep reading below.
Swimming Laps
Being able to swim laps is why swim spas were designed in the first place! Swimming is a fantastic form of cardio exercise and made even easier with a swim spa as you do not need to constantly turn around. A powerful swim current keeps the swimmer in place, similar to how a treadmill works with runners. A great advantage of a swim spa is that the difficulty of the current can be adjusted to suit your ability and keep your workouts challenging.
Jogging on the Spot
For a perfect warm-up, try jogging on the spot. Jogging in your swim spa is a good cardio workout in itself and helps to strengthen your quads. Start by slowly running in place and as you warm up, bring your knees up as high as possible each stride. For an intense jogging workout, turn on the water jets and run against the current while trying to maintain the same position.
Kickbacks
Many swim spas are equipped with an exercise bar, which is great for working your glutes. The bar can be used to do kickbacks – while standing straight facing the bar, you grab on to it. Raise one leg as close as you can to the surface as possible and hold it for 10 seconds. Lower your leg and repeat with the other leg, which counts as one rep. Do 10 reps, take a one-minute break, and repeat another 2-3 times.
Bicep Curls
Many waterproof fitness accessories can be used in your swim spa. You can do bicep curls in your swim spa by holding a water barbell in your hands with your arms at your sides, palms facing up. Raise your forearms to water level but keep your upper arms in place, remembering to keep your elbows firmly against your body. Then, turn your palms facing down towards the water and push the barbell back until your arms are back at your sides. Do 5-10 reps and aim for completing 3 sets.
Core Rotations
Using the water dumbbells again, stand with your legs shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent in the center of your swim spa while holding the dumbbells. Keep your back straight and slowly rotate your torso all the way to the left and then all the way to the right.
Bicycle Kicks
With your back placed firmly against the swim spa’s wall, place your arms along the edge to balance. Bring your legs to just below the surface of the water and begin to pedal, like on a bicycle in a circular motion.
To learn more about the exercise benefits of swim spas, download our free swim spa buyer’s guide today.