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Aquatic sports have many exceptional qualities that make it a perfect workout plan for people of all ages including:
Keeps your heart rate up but takes some of the impact stress off your body
Builds endurance, muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness
Helps maintain a healthy weight, healthy heart and lungs
- Tones your muscles and builds strength
- Provides an all-over body workout, because nearly all your muscles are used during swimming
Improving flexibility providing good low-impact therapy for some injuries and conditions
Alleviating stress improving coordination, balance, and posture
Being a relaxing and peaceful form of exercise
Competitive
Aquatic sports will teach you the importance of hard work, of being humble, and of being a team player.
If you can swim, you CAN save your life!
There are hundreds of thousands of swimming pools and hot tubs in Canada, but more than one-third of adults can’t swim the length of a pool, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A highlight from the 2019 Royal Lifesaving Society of Canada reports that 79% of drowning casualties were male and 94% of the 15 to 19-year-olds who drowned, were not wearing lifejackets.
All you need to swim is a suit and a pair of goggles. Eventually you may want to invest in a kickboard, hand paddles, a swimmer’s snorkel, a drag suit, swim fins, and a bag to put it in! On average if you want to be a good swimmer it will take around five to six months or so. If your goal is to compete with other swimmers then you must give yourself at least two years to relish and be the best. You could take as long as you want. If you like swimming and are around 9–14, you can become ‘good’ in a year. From there, who knows? Maybe the Olympic podium?
If you are good at gymnastics and are comfortable with water, then diving may be the sport for you! We’d recommend you learn to swim before you dive! But if you enjoy heights, an adrenaline rush, and want to learn to spin, twist, and tumble showing your incredible flexibility, then diving is for you. The sport of diving is safe, fun, and exciting. More than 20 million children participate in organized sports, but only a few thousand of the most talented athletes will become divers making it a sport that is more accessible for achieving competitive success.
Artistic swimming demands advanced water skills, requires great strength, endurance, flexibility, grace, artistry, precise timing, and teamwork, as well as exceptional breath control when upside down underwater. Competitors show off their strength, flexibility, and aerobic endurance which are all required to perform difficult routines. The best news is that whether you are a boy or a girl, artistic swimming offers competition for all. If you enjoy dancing, gymnastics, running, and a “performance” aspect of the pastime – this sport is a great choice to consider!
Water polo players move the ball by throwing and dry passing it to a teammate or swimming with the ball in front of them. Players are not permitted to push the ball underwater to keep it from an opponent or push or hold an opposing player unless that player is holding the ball. Water polo is an intensely physical sport and is often compared to hockey, football, and soccer.
Recreational
Swimming is a great recreational activity for people of all ages. Recreational swimming can provide you with a low-impact workout and it’s also a good way to relax and feel good.
The NAqC will be building a program of activities and classes to provide support in the areas of learning to swim and dive as well as fitness classes. More information will be available once the facility is open and will cater to both able-bodied and para-swimmers.
Along with our state-of-the-art accessible indoor pool that elevates physical rehabilitation, improves wellness, and promotes an enhanced quality of life, the National Aquatics Complex offers a facility that works alongside personal therapists of special needs children to improve motor skills in an environment that is inclusive and safe.
For children with special needs, aquatic therapy can focus on therapeutic play-based functional movement, improving range of motion, helping to facilitate neurodevelopmental growth, improved body awareness, increased balance, sensory integration, mobility skills, and most importantly, having fun. The Aquatic Therapy and Rehabilitation Institute defines Aquatic Therapy as “The use of water and specifically designed activity by qualified personnel to aid in the restoration, extension, maintenance and quality of function for persons with acute, transient, or chronic disabilities, syndromes or diseases”. Clients with Autism present an interesting opportunity for recreational therapists to use aquatic therapy interventions as part of their overall treatment plan.
Fitness
Pools that never end!
Buoyancy: Depending on water depth, body weight can be reduced up to 90%, greatly reducing joint stress and pain you may experience outside the water. While gravity can make land exercise daunting or even impossible for some, the buoyancy—or upward force—of water will support you and provide an ideal, low-impact workout setting.
Resistance: Water will naturally put up a fight and resist movement, providing you with a strenuous workout. Endless Pools also offer swim current and hydrotherapy jet options that enhance resistance. Rather than deal with heavyweights and complicated machines outside of the pool, utilize the natural resistance of water to strengthen your muscles in a safer, more versatile environment.
Range of Motion: The warmth (Endless Pools can be heated up to 90 degrees) of water can enhance your therapy, relaxing your muscles and increasing blood flow to your muscles and joints, providing you the opportunity to improve your flexibility. Develop a greater range of motion to maintain your ability to complete everyday tasks.
Swim laps, using kickboards to remain buoyant or a ski belt around the hips (if necessary for floatation) and hand paddles for added resistance. An inflatable collar can also help keep water out of the face.
In shallow water, use foam dumbbells to help build upper-body strength, or ankle weights to strengthen leg muscles.
Exercise arm and leg muscles in deep water using an inner tube or “noodles” underarms.
Swimming with water gloves pushes more water with each stroke and increases propulsion and the speed of forward movement. This added propulsion can be particularly beneficial when you perform water aerobics, helping keep the body afloat and in proper position to do the required exercises. The added propulsion during regular swimming movements also can acclimate the swimmer to moving through the water with greater speed, which may help achieve improved swimming speed without the gloves.
Watsu is a therapeutic relaxation technique where the therapist moves the participant through the water. The movement allows for complete relaxation and can be very beneficial for people with disabilities and for those who experience chronic pain.
Ai Chi is similar to Tai Chi but it’s done in the water, using a combination of deep breathing and slow broad movements.
Water yoga uses the same concepts as yoga on land! Water yoga is designed to relieve stress, but movements help build internal energy and strength. Techniques are also designed to help with balance, flexibility, and coordination.
Low impact aquatic classes provide an aerobic workout and strength training without putting pressure on joints.
Aqua-cycling takes place in a pool. Students get on stationary bikes that are submerged in 3-4 feet of water, and particularly good for those with limited mobility or recovering from injury. The water’s buoyancy helps provide support to working muscles and joints, and the moisture in the pool draws heat away from the body and helps regulate body temperature. There is also the added resistance of the water, which makes some movements and exercises more challenging than on dry land the water.
Create your own program! Break free from the limitations of land exercise. inside a pool, you can swim, run, jog, walk, stretch, work on balance, practice aerobics, and more. The freedom of a low-impact, low-stress, safe environment will allow you to rehabilitate, train, exercise, and regenerate your body.
Therapeutic
A few facts to consider concerning water therapy. Simply put, aquatic physical therapy is the practice of physical therapy in the water. An aquatic program is designed by a patient’s physical therapist can be developed to be part of an individualized treatment plan to achieve specific goals.
Steam room benefits include:
- Improves circulation
- Lowers blood pressure
- Reduces stress
- Clears congestion
- Promotes skin health
- Loosens joints
- Burns calories
- Boosts immune system
The ultimate list of hot tub health benefits
- Improved range of motion. As we age, we lose our range of motion.
- Relief from the symptoms of arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
- Relief from the symptoms of fibromyalgia.
- Relief from lower back pain.
- Decreased anxiety and stress.
- Better sleep.
- Eases sore muscles.
A few of the body rejuvenating benefits of sauna after workouts:
- Makes you feel great
- Removes metabolic waste
- Increases endurance
- Reduces stress
- Skin cleansing
- Improves cardiovascular fitness
- Burns calories
- Helps you sleep better
Cold water immersion therapy activates the body’s natural healing powers!
- Improves the lymphatic and immune system
- Improves circulation
- Reduces muscle inflammation
- Creates a sense of well-being
- Can facilitate weight loss through metabolic rate producing heat which results in weight loss
- Increases mental toughness
- Can reset temperature regulating system
There is an abundance of evidence that different water temperature: freezing (saunas and cold plunges), warm (bathing), and hot (steam rooms) creates effective reaction for our bodies and for our health. Water has been used for active repair after accidents, surgery, and debilitating illnesses.
NAqC will have available for use (booking or drop-in) therapy pools, hot tub, steam room, saunas, and exercise pools.
WARM WATER facilitates muscle relaxation and increases peripheral circulation; stimulates body awareness, balance, and trunk stability
- VISCOSITY OF WATER provides resistance for strength training
THE REDUCTION OF GRAVITATIONAL FORCES in the pool allows the patient to stand and begin gait training and strengthening exercises without causing further damage to healing structures
BUOYANCY in warm water results in decreased pain sensitivity and supports the joints and one’s body weight. It reduces gravitational pull and lessens compressive forces overall.