Burn Fat Fast: Top Pool Exercises for Effective Weight Loss

Feeling uninspired by traditional workouts? Tired of the treadmill and yearning for something more engaging? Look no further than your local pool! Water workouts offer a refreshing and effective way to achieve your weight loss goals while being gentle on your body. There's something about being in a pool that makes people want to jump around and splash. Call it your inner child, if you will.

The Allure of Aquatic Exercise

Aquatic exercise is a low-impact activity that takes the pressure off the bones, joints, and muscles. The buoyancy of the water supports your body weight, putting less stress on your joints. This makes pool workouts a great option for people with arthritis or joint pain, and those recovering from an injury. Exercising in the water can be a great way to add physical activity into your life. It also may be a helpful way for older adults to stay active.

Pool workouts allow you to perform strength-training exercises without any equipment, since the water creates a natural resistance. Finally, you can expect similar benefits to regular exercise by working out in the pool: better cardiovascular health, strengthening and toning your muscles and reducing stress. Like any form of exercise, pool exercises can lead to weight loss.

Benefits Beyond Weight Loss

Beyond calorie burning, pool exercises offer a multitude of benefits for your overall well-being.

Low-Impact Workout: Water supports your body, reducing stress on joints, bones, and muscles. This makes pool exercise ideal for those with arthritis, injuries, or mobility issues.
Resistance Training: Water provides natural resistance, which builds strength and endurance. Moving through water allows you to work your muscles without the need for additional equipment!
Enhanced Cardiovascular Health: Swimming and water aerobics elevate your heart rate, improving cardiovascular fitness while being gentle on your body.
Increased Flexibility and Range of Motion: The buoyancy allows for easier stretching and movement, helping to improve flexibility without risking overstretching or injury, according to the Academy of Aquatic Physical Therapy.
Outdoor Workout Option in Warm Weather: Exercising outdoors during the hot, summer months can be uncomfortable - and it deters many of us from getting moving! Pool exercises are a nice option for staying cool while getting a workout in.
Reduced Injury Risk: The cushioning effect of water minimizes the risk of falls, sprains, or strains, making it safer for older adults, beginners, or those recovering from injury.
Mental Health Benefits: Being in water can be calming and stress-relieving. Studies suggest that aquatic exercise can have a positive affect on mood and anxiety, and that water-based exercise may improve mental health.
Accessible for Everyone: Pool workouts can be adapted for all fitness levels, ages, and abilities, making exercise accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

Getting Started: Essential Tips

Before diving in, here are a few tips to ensure a safe and effective water workout:

Consult Your Doctor: Talk with your doctor before starting a water workout, especially if you have any medical concerns or take prescription medications.
Stay Hydrated: You may not notice how much you’re sweating when you’re working out in water. It’s important to stay well hydrated, especially if the pool is heated.
Be Careful: The pool may have slippery surfaces. To help prevent slips, you may want to wear water shoes.
Wear a Flotation Device: This is especially helpful if you’re not a strong swimmer or have balance issues.
Stop if You Feel Pain: Don’t try to force any movement if it doesn’t feel comfortable.
Avoid Overheated Pools: Avoid pools that are heated above 90°F (32.2°C). Pools heated at 82 to 88°F (27.8 to 31°C) can help soothe pain, but it may not be safe to work out in water that’s heated above that range.
Know When to Stop: Stop immediately and seek help if you feel light-headed or dizzy, unable to breathe, faint or weak, pain or pressure in your chest or upper body, nauseous, confused.

Pool Exercises to Incorporate

Here are some pool exercises, categorized by intensity, to help you achieve your weight loss goals. To turn these exercises into a full workout, aim to complete 10 reps of each and repeat the circuit 3 times. I also like to just casually throw in an exercise here and there when I’m enjoying a pool day!

Beginner-Friendly Exercises

These exercises are perfect for warming up, building endurance, and getting comfortable in the water.

Water Walking or Jogging: This is great for warming up and building endurance. Move at a steady pace and feel how the water’s resistance forces you to engage your muscles more consciously than you would on land. In water that's about waist-high, walk across the pool swinging the arms as you do when walking on land. Avoid walking on tiptoes, and keep the back straight. To increase resistance as the hands and arms move through the water, wear hand webs or other resistance devices. Once you're comfortable walking in waist-high water, try walking in deeper water. As you walk, swing the arms. To help you stay above the water, try placing a water noodle between the legs. Make sure the noodle is higher in back than in front. If you don't know how to swim, wear a flotation vest or float belt in deep water.
Sidestepping: Like water walking, but sideways. This improves balance and lower body strength. Try to move your feet in a smooth, controlled motion - it’s tougher than it sounds! Stand sideways with your right hip leading. Step your right foot to the side. Bring your left foot to meet your right. Continue like this until you get to the end of the pool. Walk back with your left hip leading. Sideways walk for 1-3 minutes, and then increase your speed and continue sideways walking for another 1-3 minutes.
Push-Ups on Pool Steps: These beginner pool exercises are fantastic for building upper body strength without putting too much pressure on your elbow joints. Stand with your feet a few feet away from the wall of the pool and your hands on the edge of the pool as wide as your shoulders. Bend your elbows out to the sides lowering into a pushup. Straighten your arms to return to start. Repeat.

Intermediate Exercises

Ready to kick things up a notch? These exercises will challenge your strength and coordination.

High Knee Lifts: Hopefully you’ve gotten past your hatred of “high knees” in middle school gym class - because they’re tougher in the pool! March in place in the water and lift your knees as high as you possibly can each time. Engaging your core and lifting your knees higher can intensify water walking. It can also help work the muscles in your legs, core, glutes, and hip flexors. To do this variation: Engage your core and lift your right knee as high as you can. At the same time, raise your left arm. Switch and do the same with your left knee and right arm. Continue your high knees for 1-3 minutes, and then increase your speed for another 1-3 minutes.
Forward Lunges: Tone your thighs and glutes while adding variation to your leg workouts. Step forward with one leg and bend both your knees into a lunge position. Walking lunges can work your quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes. For this exercise variation, walk in water that’s at waist level. To do this exercise: Step forward with your right foot. Lower your front thigh so it’s parallel to the bottom of the pool. Make sure your right knee is in line with, but not over, your ankle. Keep your back leg straight. Bring your left foot forward, and continue by stepping forward with your left leg. Do walking lunges for 1-3 minutes, and then increase your speed and continue for another 1-3 minutes. Another variation of this exercise is to do side lunges instead of forward lunges. Side lunges help to work your adductor muscles, which are located on the inside of your thighs.
Flutter kicks: Rest your arms and back against the side of the pool. Bring your legs out in front of you hip width apart. Point your toes and kick your legs up and down as quickly as you can going in opposite directions, when the right leg is up then the left leg is down and vise versa. Repeat for 30 kicks.
Scissor kicks: Rest your arms and back against the side of the pool. Bring your legs up in front of you and spread them out to the sides until they make a V shape. Next bring them back in towards each other and allow them to cross over each other (ex. right leg over the left leg) and then push them back out into the V shape before bringing them back together with the left leg on top this time. Repeat 30 times.
Knee kicks: Rest your arms and back against the side of the pool. Then pretend like you’re riding a bike as you reach one knee up toward the top of the water and then press it down and forward back into the water. Keep alternating legs, first bringing the knee up and in and then kicking the leg straight out. This is a cardio move that will get your heart rate up, but it’s also a lower body strength training exercise!
Frog kicks: Facing the wall, rest your head on your hands or hold onto the side of the wall or a noodle. Pull your legs in, bending your knees out to the sides (into a frogger position). Then, kick them straight out on a diagonal to each side and bring them back in toward center for a frog kick. Repeat.

Advanced Exercises

Looking for a real challenge? These exercises will push your limits and maximize your calorie burn.

Tuck Jumps: This explosive movement in which you try to hug your knees into your chest while jumping builds incredible strength. If your knee joints are a bit rickety, you might not want to do this sort of thing on land. But in the pool, it’s just fine!
Noodle Plank: This is one of the tougher pool noodle exercises! With your feet on the pool floor, put your hands on a noodle and try to push it downward, engaging your core in the process.
Squat Jumps and Plie Jumps: Squats are self-explanatory, but for non-dancers, a plie is a jump that starts with bent knees and turned-out hips. Begin in the shallow end of the pool with legs shoulder-width apart and toes rotated out. Push your hips back like you are sitting in a chair and then using your legs push yourself back into a standing position until your body comes partially out of the water. Allow yourself to land back on your feet in the starting position. Jump 10 times.
Dolphin Kicks: Keep your feet pressed together while you kick up and down like a dolphin. With this powerful exercise move, you’ll want to let your entire body undulate in a fluid, wave-like motion.
Pool-Edge Push-Ups: Place your hands on the edge of the pool, just over shoulder-width apart, brace your core, shift your weight into your upper body so that your toes lift from the floor of the pool, and raise your torso out of the pool until your arms are fully extended. Pause, then slowly lower your body back to start and repeat. If this feels too difficult on your chest, shoulders, or triceps, or if you aren’t able to perform many reps with proper form, use your lower body for support by using your legs to jump off the bottom. Daly notes this can also help make this a full-body exercise.
Prone Scissor Kick: Start in deep enough water that your feet are not touching the ground. Holding onto the edge of the pool or a flotation device, lift your legs so your body is in a horizontal position, keeping your spine neutral from the back of your head to your tailbone. Keeping your knee soft, kick from your hip (as if you were kicking a soccer ball), whipping or flicking out through the toes. Repeat using the other leg. Move your legs faster and kick harder to up the resistance (and the workout!) - you should be creating white splashes at the surface of the water. Focus on keeping your body in one straight line from the back of the head to the tailbone as you kick. This will increase how hard your glutes (your body’s biggest muscles) have to work. You can also loop a resistance band around your legs to add a greater challenge.

Fun Pool Activities

Who says exercise can't be fun? These activities will get your heart rate up while enjoying the water.

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Beach Ball Toss: This cardio workout never gets old. Toss around a beach ball to your family members while watching them kick around and try to catch it before it falls!
Ping-Pong in the Pool: Did you know you can buy a floating ping-pong table just for the pool? The water might move the table here and there in a completely unpredictable way, but hey, that just adds to the fun.
Underwater Handstands: Kids who like putting their heads underwater and turning upside-down will love this.

Strength Training in the Pool

Pool workouts allow you to perform strength-training exercises without any equipment, since the water creates a natural resistance.

Bicep curls: Holding your arms down at your sides, open your palms and squeeze your fingers together. Then bend the elbows and curl your forearms up so that your hands press up toward your shoulders. Return your arms down to your sides and repeat. Do this in chest-deep water for more resistance.
Tricep extension: Stand up straight and hug both elbows in toward your sides. Bend your elbows at 90 degrees so that your hands are out in front of you and your forearms are parallel with the bottom of the pool. Press your arms up and back through the water to straighten your arms behind you, squeezing your triceps. Return to bent elbows and repeat.
Chest press: Stand straight and reach your arms straight out to your sides underneath the water. Open the palms and press the fingers together. Then, keeping the arms straight, bring your fingers together in front of you as if you are hugging your arms around a tree. For a bonus, flip the palms so that they face the reverse position when bringing them back out to the sides. Repeat.
Press to Row: Start standing holding a kickboard against your torso and lower into a squat position so that your chest is submerged in the pool. Brace your core, and extend your arms and the kickboard forward against the water, then immediately pull your arms and the kickboard back toward your chest. You should feel the muscles of the back working.

Hybrid Swimming Pool Workouts for Weight Loss

These suggested workouts combine swimming aerobically and anaerobically, with strength and cardio activities in and around the pool. It is suggested that you start the program with a Sunsational Swim Instructor for private swimming lessons at your home or community pool. You will swim at an easy, medium and accelerated pace. You will activate and work arms, legs, and core. You will be in the pool, on the edge, and out of the pool. These workouts are beloved by competitive swimmers because they are fun and effective. Get ready!

Vary Your Heart Rate

There is a lot of talk about interval training, high intensity interval training, etc., and there are enough acronyms describing these types of training to fill a bowl of alphabet soup. For our purposes, we will keep it relatively simple, using a color scale to describe and track effort levels in your workout. Normal resting heart rate for adults is around sixty to one hundred beats per minute. To check your resting rate, take your pulse for ten seconds. Your count should be six to ten beats.

Orange Exercise: In warmup mode, which we will call “orange”, you should count twenty to twenty-two beats during that ten-second pulse. Start with a short swim, or kick on the noodle or board, for two minutes or so; or do twenty to thirty jumping jacks or jumping slides, or even just the arms motions. Take your ten-second pulse, trying to hit that 20-22 beats mark. If your pulse is still too low, repeat the round.
White Zone: Just beyond warm up mode, almost reaching aerobic work, is called the “white” zone. You will count twenty-three to twenty-five heartbeats per ten seconds. In white zone you will be doing easy, sustained motion. Depending on the size of the pool, your goal will be to do something like two rounds of the following: swim for thirty seconds, rest for fifteen seconds, with eight repeats. Take a minute break after round one, which would be the eighth repeat. Check your pulse after each set of eight. Try to stay relaxed and almost languid, until you get the feel for what 23-25 beats per minute feels like. There is definitely a learning curve to this process! Once you have landed solidly in the white zone, sustaining your pulse at 23-25 beats, you can safely head into some hybrid work.
Pink!: In a good aerobic pace mode, hitting your flow, feeling a little burn, your pulse count should be “pink”, at twenty-six to twenty-eight counts per ten seconds. This zone is a favorite training zone for athletes of all ages and abilities who are trying to build an aerobic base. It is also a little easier to sustain for a long period of time when doing interval training. And this is where I think it gets to be fun! Equipment: You might want pool shoes and a mat (mat on the deck). You will also need your kickboard or noodle, soccer-size ball or milk jug or dumbbell, and jump rope. The combinations are endless, however, let’s start with the base set that you did in the white zone: two rounds, 8x:30 swim or kick, with :15 rest. Let’s switch the rest to what is known as “working rest”. Instead of doing a set amount of time to rest, we will do a set number of exercises during the non-swim time. So - start with :30 swimming or kicking. When done, grab the ball and go to the deep end. Hold the ball in the air and position your body vertically. Execute fifty flutter kicks, let go of the ball, and then start your second :30 of swimming. When done, hop out of the pool and do jump rope thirty times. Get back in, do your :30 swim or kick, and at the shallow end, push your kickboard of noodle straight down and back up in the water twenty times, then let go, and do your next :30 swim. Add in-pool jumps, step climbing, press outs, situps, squats….anything that you can think of to do between swim repeats. After 8x:30, check your pulse. Let it return to white zone before you start round two.
In the Red: At your highest aerobic mode, your ten-second pulse should be in the twenty-eight to thirty beats range: “red”. Red mode is similar to pink. However, in this zone, you will increase your time and distance of swimming, as well as your tempo. For instance, you might try 6x1:00 of swimming or kicking (mix it up if you can!) at a fast pace - small quick kicks, faster tempo and more arm strokes to the pull. Then, on deck, add in twenty lunges at the same pace as your pink set, or ten jumping jacks at double-speed. Really you can use any activity, but vary them up (for a better workout and to avoid injury). Let your heart rate return to the pink zone before starting another round in the red!
Blue - Whoo!: Thirty beats or higher in your ten-second count ushers in the anaerobic (“blue”) mode. If the red zone was comfortable for you, you might want to try the blue zone. If not, give it some time and get very comfortable in the pink and red zones. Blue swim sets will include swimming faster and shorter than in red - let’s say :45 swim at your fastest speed. Follow with working rest of challenging and explosive activities: repeatedly jumping in and out of the pool (5x is good!), ten burpees, etc. During a blue set, you will want to take a rest after your activity, count your pulse, and get it back to red, before you do another repeat of :45 swim or kick and explosive activity.

Summary/Guide:

Orange 20-22
White 23-25
Pink 26-28 aerobic
Red 28-30 Aerobic threshold
Blue 30+ anaerobic

Please note that your actual heart rate might vary a bit from these numbers, and they are simply a guideline. Adjust up or down according to your resting heart rate.

Take your time and listen to (and trust) your body. Getting fit is a marathon, not a sprint. Good luck!

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The Power of Hydrotherapy

Exercising in water to lose weight can be extremely effective for obese and overweight patients. Statistics show that a person generally burns two more calories per minute in the water than on land. When standing chest-deep in water, the body is 80% weightless, bearing only 20% of its weight. Hydrotherapy supports an individual’s body weight, and the warmth of the water allows their muscles to relax, making it easier for patients with obesity to do various exercises with little to no pain. When hydrotherapy is paired with a proper exercise regime, it can play an important role in weight loss. Lack of sleep or insomnia can contribute to weight gain. Patients with range-of-motion or other flexibility issues due to obesity have successfully used water therapy for weight loss. An underwater environment reduces pressure on joints, allowing patients to perform exercises and movements they are not able to on land.

Underwater Treadmill

Texas A&M University completed a weight loss study comparing the effectiveness of land-based treadmill running to underwater treadmill running. The study found that utilizing the HydroWorx underwater treadmill and resistance jets at the same speeds as a land-based treadmill yielded the same cardiovascular benefits as running on land. Subjects that ran on the HydroWorx underwater treadmill also gained leaner muscle mass than their peers running on land.

Water Walking

If you enjoy walking but would like to change up your usual routine, water walking is a fun and challenging fitness option. This low-impact exercise has the potential to give you a great cardio workout, help you burn calories, and build strength in many muscle groups.

Water is much denser than air. Exercising in water requires more effort than the same exercise on land. The extra resistance of walking in water allows you to challenge and strengthen your muscles in ways you may not be able to with a land-based routine. It also helps you burn more calories, which can aid in weight loss.

Proper Form for Water Walking

To start off, try walking in water that’s about waist level. Focus on walking with proper form. To do this, keep your:

core and back muscles engaged
back straight and lengthened
shoulders back
chin up, with your head looking straight ahead
ears over your shoulders

As you walk in water, try to make sure you:

keep your torso upright without leaning too far forward or to either side
walk with a long stride
press into your heel first before rolling your weight onto your toes
swing your arms as you walk

Once you’re used to walking in water with the right form, you can move into deeper water. Start off by walking slowly and gradually increase your speed. You can walk back and forth in the pool (in an area where you can stand) and time yourself for 1-3 minutes, then speed up for 1-3 minutes.

Variations on Water Walking

Once you’ve mastered walking in water, you can vary your routine. Begin with one lap of each variation and gradually increase until you can do two to three laps of each.

Walking lunges: Walking lunges can work your quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes. For this exercise variation, walk in water that’s at waist level. To do this exercise: Step forward with your right foot. Lower your front thigh so it’s parallel to the bottom of the pool. Make sure your right knee is in line with, but not over, your ankle. Keep your back leg straight. Bring your left foot forward, and continue by stepping forward with your left leg. Do walking lunges for 1-3 minutes, and then increase your speed and continue for another 1-3 minutes. Another variation of this exercise is to do side lunges instead of forward lunges. Side lunges help to work your adductor muscles, which are located on the inside of your thighs.

To dial up the intensity of water walking, you can give your upper body a more challenging workout by using wrist weights, foam dumbbells, resistance gloves, or hand webs with any of these exercises. For your lower body, you can create a more challenging workout by using ankle weights or walking with a resistance parachute. Another way to up the intensity is to jog instead of walking in water. You can also do interval training by jogging or running for 30 seconds, then walking at your regular speed for a couple of minutes. You can continue to alternate between the faster and slower pace for 5 to 10 minutes.

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