Bathtub birthing, newborns that swim without summer classes and grandmothers who jumped into village wells back in the day. In the face of these, our fear of water seems misplaced, even silly. But if you really can’t get over it, there are other ways a pool can benefit you.
Pool prowl
When Bengaluru-based Pooja Bhatia Arora first began her weight-loss journey, soon after the birth of her baby, she plunged into it with a vengeance, exercising intensely twice a day. “I was very big back then,” says Arora, who today offers aqua aerobic classes in multiple locations across the city. High-impact workouts, often associated with weight loss, took a toll on her knees. The debilitating knee pain was serious and she had to be operated upon. Which meant that she could no longer do the high intensity workouts she loved.
She began looking for alternatives and discovered that Singapore’s Federation of International Sports, Aerobics and Fitness (FISAF) offered a certification in Aqua Instruction. It opened her eyes to the possibilities. “I understood how to treat water as a medium of resistance and began developing new workouts on my own,” says Arora.
Water tones and sculpts the body without hurting the joints which means, “You can do HIIT in the pool even if you are overweight—the buoyancy of the water will protect you,” she believes.
Dr Chitra Kataria, who heads Rehabilitation Services at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Delhi takes it one step further. She says it can be a therapeutic medium. “In water, your body weight goes down by upto 90%, reducing load on the joints,” she says. It is not just soothing but also increases blood circulation, promotes cell renewal and helps eliminate toxins through perspiration and lymphatic drainage (clearing the body of fluid accumulated in the lymph nodes). All kinds of conditions can be treated with hydrotherapy, including, “neck pain, back problems, muscular dystrophy and arthritis,” she says. So if you have a problem, check with your physiotherapist what exercises you can do in a pool.
Water babies
The actual beginning of hydrotherapy is somewhat sketchy. Ancient civilisations have always embraced the healing powers of water. The religious experience of immersion is probably tied to this ideology, while dipping into the hot springs at Bath was believed to be a cure for a number of infections, including leprosy. Both Charles Dickens and Lord Alfred Tennyson resorted to hydrotherapy to treat their medical conditions.
It was Jack LaLanne, the Godfather of Modern Fitness who seems to have formalised a system of exercising in water. LaLanne, who embraced exercise at the age of 15 and never missed a workout till he died at 96, introduced water aerobics on his television show, The Jack LaLanne Show in the 1950s.
The trend has continued. What started as free-hand exercises in pools for the elderly or a gentle workout for people undergoing rehab, has transformed into a dynamic, engaging sport that uses specialised equipment, choreographed moves and engaging music.
“Personally, I am a great fan of Aqua aerobics,” says Nawaz Modi Singhania, founder of the Mumbai-based Body Art Fitness Studio, who claims it’s a great summer workout. Since most of India has prolonged periods of hot weather (and since we rank third as the world’s most obese nation), it works just right, for everything from “fat loss, a healthy back, strength, stamina, flexibility, to improved balance, posture and coordination,” she says.
Hydro care
Almost any land-based exercise can be adapted to be performed in water, including yoga, spinning and Zumba. And the benefits of the same exercise are compounded this way, believes Victor D’lima, the founder of AquaStrength, a Mumbai-based “aqua spinning pool studio”. Spinning, a fantastic cardio workout, gets even better when you perform it in a pool. “You are waist-deep in water for the entire workout and the resistance of the water will make it harder for you to pedal. You will have to put in an extra effort, which will effectively burn more calories,” he says. Additionally, the activity is impact-free, causes no soreness, reduces stress, and most importantly, is a lot of fun, he says.
If you are a high-stress individual with cortisol levels constantly running amok, take your yoga class to the pool. “Aqua yoga will fill you with happiness and energy, which is one of the essentials of well-being,” says Sarvesh Shashi, founder of Zorba – A Renaissance Studio. The human body is made of 70% water, he points out, so “practising stability, breath and body movements in the water takes the practice to another level.”
For those who are beginning, the same pool rules for a swim apply: skip the workout if you have open infected wounds, skin infections, fever, uncontrolled incontinence or a recent cardiac or respiratory problem, cautions Kataria. But for the rest, the water world is your oyster. So go ahead and embrace your inner mermaid (or man).
Arora, an obese kid who spent most of her life being very conscious of her body, agrees. Not only did her body shape change drastically but it also helped her get over her body image issues. “Slipping into a swimsuit and jumping into the pool is so empowering,” she says.
