Athletic Enhancement Using Water Resistance

by Jennifer Drinkwalter, EP, CSCS, Billings Family YMCA Aquatic Director

Athletes train hard and long, sometimes avoiding signals of over use from their bodies. Intense training can cause athletes to encounter overuse injuries. Runners are one example population often suffering from overuse injuries such as stress fractures, tendinitis and strained muscles. Athletes can also experience injuries from overdeveloping one set of muscles at the expense of the ones that oppose them. How can injuries be avoided while strengthening hearts, lungs, muscles, tendons, and performance? One answer is to cross train. More specifically, cross training in the pool using water resistance.

Pools provide an environment for deep water running, swimming laps, and various deep and shallow water exercises. Deep water running virtually eliminates a heel strike, and strain on leg joints. A greater use of upper-body muscle mass also takes place during deep water running. This sets an opportunity to help athletes develop strong shoulders, pectorals, upper back muscles and strong core muscles in the abdominals and mid-low back. Working on these opposing muscle groups is important for athletes, strong lower-back muscles need to be balanced with strong abdominals; well-developed pectorals must be complemented by strong upper-back muscles. Deep water running provides a great addition to any training program. Research conducted using endurance athletes cross training with deep water running, has proven to be very successful. Using the water during injury and layoffs, athletes can decrease the loss of VO2max and performance.

Deep water running is an exercise that requires the use of belts and in some cases other devices for extra resistance such as Hydrofit Cuffs, Hydrofit Wave Webs, and bands. Correct form is an important part of deep water running. A few things to watch for, shoulders must stay back over the hips, using back and abdominal muscles for stabilization. In comparison, the form for deep water running, is a lot like the form used for sprinting. Legs should go from a straight leg to at least a 90-degree bend with feet flexed at all times. With a flexed foot, the legs are forced to use the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteals by simulating a heel strike. With use of water resistance, correct form, and a desire to try a new way to train, your workouts can be challenging and beneficial to any workout regimen.

Lap swimming also provides a great opportunity for cross training in the water. Although the skills are required to be able to swim, VO2max can be increased greatly during lap swimming. The body is required to control breathing, which requires a little more concentration from new swimmers. However, learning to swim can be an excellent choice for those athletes working on core muscles and trying to improve posture. When a body is swimming in the water, the spine is in its natural, gentle, front-to-back S shape, and it is supported by its own stabilizer muscles that run between each vertebra. Muscles in your neck, torso, and hips that hold you up also roll your torso and power your kick in the water, thus making them strong, but just as important, training the muscles to be symmetrical in shape. It is never too late to learn to swim, and those people that don’t want to get their face wet can also benefit from kickboard workouts. This is a great choice for those just getting started in the water.

People often think they don’t get a "good enough" workout in the water. Contributing to the not "good enough" attitude is the fact that during cardiovascular exercise in the water, the heart typically beats 17 beats less per second. The loss of 95% gravity in the water is the reason that the heart does not have to work as hard to circulate the blood. This is only true when someone is at least shoulder depth in the water or swimming the right way to work out in the water.

Here are some more specific athletes that can benefit from water workouts. Beginning with runners, water eliminates constant pounding on the heel while working the heart and lungs. Runners also may find that they don’t fatigue as fast because there is less pounding on joints, and more focus on the cardiovascular system. As stated previously, the loss of gravity allows for the body to feel the fatigue from the cardiovascular system rather than the joint and muscle fatigue from pounding cement and other hard surfaces. Volleyball players can develop great shoulder, back, abdominal, and hip flexor muscles by using water workouts. Swimming the front and back crawl, and deep-water arm movements (jog-arm simulation, jumping jack simulation, etc), when submerged to the shoulders, can enhance the anterior, middle, and posterior deltoid muscles. The upper back and shoulder muscle tendon attachments usually are strengthened by the exercises that ask for shoulder rotation, flexion and extension. Abdominal muscles, important for jumping, hitting and serving the volleyball, and other important moves, are strengthened as well. The constant stimulation from moving water forces the abdominals and back muscles to keep the body in an upright position while running or doing deep water exercises. Therefore, this provides a great cross-train for athletes in addition to sit-ups and other core muscle-developing exercises. Other athletes, soccer players (running), cyclists (endurance), strength athletes (extra tendon strengthening), rehabilitating athletes, rowers (shoulders and arm muscles), climbers (shoulders and back muscles), and softball players (shoulder and back muscles), also benefit from deep water exercise and lap swimming.

If you are an athlete, injured athlete, into fitness, or would just like to try a new way to exercise, this is a great way to keep in shape and enjoy the cooling properties of the water while working hard. If and when you decide to try a water workout, make sure you have the right equipment and the right person to show you how to do it. Water workouts can be a lot of fun, but sometimes discouraging when the properties of the water are not understood. Make waves, stay cool, and try a water workout, you may surprise yourself.

Jennifer Drinkwalter is the new Aquatics Director for the Billings Family YMCA. Drinkwalter is a graduate of Rocky Mountain College with a B.S. in Exercise Science and is also a certified Strength and Conditioning specialist with the National Strength and Conditioning Association.