Aqua aerobics: Swim your way to fitness

Aqua aerobics is not all about swimming; the exercise of resisting water helps you stay fit, writes Kiran Sawhney.

Perhaps your knees ache from jogging. May be, you've always envied the lean, long- muscled look. Or you simply need to escape the urban bustle and meditate in twenty- five-yard rectangular womb.

Whatever your motive, using water resistance as a way to get strong and stay in shape is a cool workout and one that leaves you wanting for more. Moreover, its health benefits have been proven by water exercise research.

If you do not know swimming, do not fret. You are standing neck deep in water and doing all the exercises. Moreover, since you are working against the resistance of water, you end up burning eight times more calories than any other normal floor aerobics.

Yet, the buoyancy of water works to help you in the movement. So, you work better on your flexibility too. Hence, you strengthen and stretch much better in water. Movements are naturally balanced in water. Muscles that are tight on land are stretched with buoyancy in the water, whereas lax muscles are strengthened with the resistance of water.

Age too is no bar. It is suitable both for the aging population and the baby boom generation, which is looking for more forgiving exercise program that will achieve results.