Why Athletes Are Turning to Water Workouts for Cross-Training
If you take your exercise seriously, you may find that training leads to strains and more serious injuries, even though preventing them is the whole point of training. In the attempt to get your body into top condition to cope with the demands you put on it, it is possible to get injured.
That is why athletes are turning to water workouts for cross-training. Water isn't just vital for hydration. It's also a powerful training medium, with its natural resistance aiding muscle development and cardiovascular performance while also acting as a cushion to protect bones and joints.
Reduced Impact & Injury Prevention
Training injuries can be divided into several categories. Acute injuries are the headline injuries, the ones that often happen in contact sports. Soccer, for instance, is notorious for acute injuries, although these are largely irrelevant in terms of training. It's not the training of the body that causes these, but the actual playing of the game. So, you might pick up an acute injury during training, but it won't happen in the gym. It will be in the heat of the battle that is soccer.
Overuse injuries are common results of training. We think of them as wear-and-tear injuries, performing movements that may not in themselves be hazardous, but can have unfortunate effects: things like stress fractures and Achilles tendon problems.
The body is a machine, but an unusual one in that it is made of tender tissue and flesh on top of a skeleton. A novelist once named his book The Soft Machine, meaning the human body, and it is a brilliant way of looking at it. While engineered machines tend to have a hard shell to protect them, the human body has skin, fat and muscle out there, with similarly vulnerable cartilage doing connecting jobs. It is not surprising that injuries happen.
The fact remains that athletes have to train, but how can we do this without risking injury? This is where aquatic training comes in.
What is cross-training?
Cross training simply means general training, giving the entire body a workout rather than concentrating solely on the parts that will be called upon most during a game. A baseball pitcher, for instance, relies heavily on their throwing arm, but there is also:
Running and catching to be done
Twisting and turning movements
Starting and stopping actions that can pose risk during training sessions
Full Benefits With Minimal Risk
Training doesn't pose such a risk in water. Water makes everything low-impact, and reduced impact means injury prevention.
Key advantages of water training:
Full-body resistance training with all the benefits but a fraction of the risk
Cardiovascular endurance with far less risk and maximum benefits
Natural support that protects your body during intense workouts
Consider professional swimmers. They never seem to be injured, and where do they spend all their time? Immersed in water, with their body supported by this incredible natural training environment.
Swimmers build exceptional muscle power and flexibility while avoiding many of the impact injuries seen in land-based sports.
Prevention and Cure
So far, we have looked at the preventive side of aquatic training: building the body up to peak condition to give it the best chance of going through all that exertion in the heat of the battle.
But accidents happen and whether you sustain an injury on a soccer pitch or in a basketball court, the road to recovery can be a long one. To bring mobility back to an injured body part when you have been shielding it can be tricky, because other parts will have been called into unaccustomed action to give the injured one a break.
Water exercise for injury recovery:
Provides the environment your body needs to heal
Builds serious fitness in a safe, supportive setting
Prepares you to return to the field or track with confidence
Sooner or later, if all goes well you will be back out on the field, or maybe the track, doing what you do and having to push past the fear of aggravating an old injury, because you have to continue to give your all. Until you reach that stage you can get some serious fitness under your belt in the safety of water exercise classes.
Integrating Water Workouts into a Training Program
Athletes now recognize that mental recovery is just as important as physical recovery.
Another one of the wonderful qualities of water is its soothing effect, and when this can double as physical training, you've got yourself a win-win situation. Getting fit while mentally relaxing is a powerful combination.
Specific Water Workout Techniques for Athletes
To get the best from aquatic workouts requires specialist knowledge, and that means it is important to choose your pool or fitness club well.
Questions to ask before signing up:
Do they have qualified instructors? You need more than someone who can swim and is well-versed in safety matters.
Does the instructor understand your requirements? They should be able to put you on a carefully targeted program.
Can they strengthen weaker areas and balance your performance?
What you need is a fitness partner who can help you get out into the game in optimal shape, so you can perform at your best. Reach out to Aquatic Performance Training to get a program that suits your needs.