The Benefits of a Swimming Treadmill

Whether you are a professional athlete, looking to improve your cardio, or a fitness enthusiast wanting a low-impact workout, a swimming treadmill is a great way to get fit and stay healthy.

The buoyancy and resistance of water provides a more effective workout than running or walking on land. This is especially beneficial to those who are recovering from an injury or trying to rehabilitate their body.

Boosts Cardiovascular Endurance

Swimming is an excellent aerobic exercise that burns fat, improves muscle tone and strengthens the heart. It also helps you maintain a healthy weight and reduces your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Swimming increases your cardiovascular endurance, which is the ability to do long-lasting aerobic exercise without becoming exhausted. This means you can workout for hours on end and still have energy to do other things like take a shower, eat or drink, go shopping or attend social functions.

It also boosts your VO2 max, which is your body’s maximum capacity to utilize oxygen during high-intensity aerobic activity. This number is important for people who want to lose weight, get healthier, or stay fit at any age.

Cardiovascular endurance comes from your heart, lungs and circulatory system working together. It’s not necessary to be a marathoner to build cardio endurance, but it’s a good idea for any person looking to improve their fitness levels and performance, says Rick Prince, CES, kinesiologist and founder of the United Endurance Sports Coaching Academy.

If you’re trying to increase your endurance, the best place to start is by getting more consistent with your current workout routine. This will help you see results sooner than if you tried to do it on your own, said Prince.

Adding a new type of exercise to your fitness regimen can also help you develop cardio endurance, explains Prince. He recommends using a swimming treadmill as a way to add variety to your workouts.

Another way to enhance your cardio endurance is by increasing swimming treadmill the intensity of your workouts. This can be done by doing a cardio activity on a treadmill at a higher speed or an interval training session that uses short bursts of intense exercise followed by a recovery period.

To improve cardiovascular endurance, swimming is an effective workout that can be done in a pool or at home. It improves blood circulation and oxygen flow to the heart, helps regulate blood pressure and decreases inflammation in the arteries and veins. It’s also safer for older adults than running or cycling.

Strengthens Muscles

A swimming treadmill can be an effective way to strengthen muscles. It’s a great alternative to running, which can lead to shin splints and other injuries. The water also provides added resistance, making it harder for your body to move.

One study by Texas A&M University found that alternating aquatic and land treadmill workouts with strength training helped athletes increase their lean muscle mass. Another showed that swimming can be used to improve leg and hip muscle strength.

Using common accessories, such as kickboards, fins, and pull buoys, swimmers can add more to their workouts. They can also combine resistance training with lap swimming to get a more robust workout.

According to Kim Evans, a fitness specialist at Spring Lake Community Fitness and Aquatic Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the most effective way to build strength is to divide your workout between upper and lower body exercises. For example, use a pull buoy to enhance your leg strength, while a kickboard works the arms.

You’ll also want to consider a pool-based circuit of various exercises, including a backstroke drill that tones your abs. Young says that it’s best to alternate your exercises with a few rest periods in between, so you can avoid injury.

In addition, swimming can help you avoid joint and muscle pain caused by aging or chronic conditions like osteoarthritis. During a 12-week study of 38 OA patients in their mid-60s, those who did underwater treadmill therapy were found to experience notable improvements in knee and hip muscle strength and flexion.

The best part about swimming as a form of exercise is that it’s safe for people of all ages and abilities. It’s also a great way to tone and tighten your entire body. Plus, you can do it in the comfort of your own home, or at a local gym.

Relieves Joint Pain

Swimming treadmill is an exercise that helps in the relief of joint pain. It also boosts overall health and prevents chronic illness.

The key to reducing joint pain is to maintain good strength and flexibility, according to swimming treadmill experts. A healthy lifestyle involves a wide range of activities that will help your muscles and bones to maintain the proper strength needed to support your joints.

For example, if you are suffering from back pain, it is important to exercise regularly so that your muscles remain strong and don’t weaken. When you don’t exercise, your muscles become overworked and stiffer, making your joints more painful and less flexible.

Many people with arthritis find that a water workout like swimming or a walking treadmill relieves their joint pain and increases their overall level of fitness. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Physical Therapy Research International found that underwater treadmill walking improves gait kinematics and reduces disease-specific pain in patients with osteoarthritis.

In a similar study, 71 OA patients in a six-week program using a heated pool had reduced pain and improved joint mobility. The pool’s warmth soothes the joint and helps to loosen tight muscles, which further reduces joint pain.

Unlike other exercises, swimming is relatively low-impact. Depending on the level of water, you can bear up to 90% of your body weight while in the water, which means that you don’t have to put as much force on your joints.

Another benefit of swimming is that it allows you to get more exercise in a shorter amount of time. It can be done from the comfort of your own home or at a local aquatic center, YMCA, or community pool.

Swimming can be done at any age and is a great way to keep your joints mobile. You can start with simple steps to walk in the water and work up to a longer distance.

Many aquatic centers, YMCAs and community pools offer classes that are designed specifically for those with arthritis. These include interval and continuous training classes that incorporate walking, stretching, or strengthening exercises into a full-body workout.

Helps with Rehabilitation

Whether you are a runner who has been sidelined with an injury or a senior citizen whose mobility is limited, an underwater treadmill can help you recover and regain your fitness level without causing any further damage to your body. A reputable company like H2O for Fitness manufactures underwater treadmills that allow you to walk and run through water, reducing the pressure, shock and strain on your joints, muscles and ligaments.

For people undergoing rehabilitation after an injury, the ability to exercise on an aquatic treadmill can reduce psychological stress and encourage patients to remain committed to their recovery plan. Physical therapists can use underwater treadmills for jogging and walking sessions, or they can include them in an overall physical therapy program as a way to increase endurance, improve range of motion and strengthen muscles.

A study conducted by Texas A&M University (TAMU) found that athletes who alternated their workouts on an underwater treadmill with on-land strength training saw better improvements in muscle mass than individuals who performed only non-aquatic exercise. TAMU researchers also found that older adults who used underwater treadmills for rehabilitation had lower incidences of falls than those who didn’t participate in aqua activities.

Underwater treadmills can also help with gait training, which is important in strengthening and increasing flexibility for patients with disabilities such as arthritis or spinal stenosis. The correct but exaggerated gait pattern that is achieved by walking or jogging on an underwater treadmill can strengthen the joints by promoting flexion and abduction in the hips and knees.

The exaggerated gait is particularly beneficial for patients who have limited joint flexion following surgery to repair an anterior cruciate ligament, but it can be useful for other injuries and conditions as well.

Physical therapists can use an underwater treadmill to strengthen muscles around the ankle, knee and hip as part of a treatment for osteoarthritis (OA). A 12-week study on 38 OA patients found that strength and flexion improved by 18 percent in the knees and 12 percent in the hips with a combination of exercises and aquatic therapy.