New health trends are quickly emerging as people seek ways of keeping fit. One effective health trend is aqua cycling. Aqua cycling continues to gain popularity for being the perfect exercise that offers maximum health benefits with very minimal pain.
What is Aqua Cycling?
Aqua cycling is a form of aerobic exercise that uses a specialized stationary aqua bike, known as a Hydrorider, in a pool. The equipment is submerged in 1.2 meters -1.6 meters of water and it features 4 paddle flywheels to ensure resistance increases as the cycling speed increases. Water Cycling combines a low-impact but intense cycling workout with arm, chest, and core exercises for full-body fitness which is easier on your joints than other forms of cardio like running.
Health Benefits Of Aqua Cycling
Improves Cardiovascular Health
The aqua cycling workout is the perfect way to maintain heart health and a healthy cardiovascular system. Water cycling enables you to have a higher intensity workout but maintain a lower heart rate since your heartbeat frequency is 10% lower while working out in water than when on land.
Working out in the water has many benefits for heart health and help those suffering from a heart condition manage it and live a healthy life. The benefits of water fitness include: Making the heart stronger, decreasing the resting heart rate, making blood vessels more supple & reducing blood pressure Increasing stroke volume.
Improved flexibility
While you’re riding on a stationary bike in the water, your body will be working to support itself as it moves. This will help improve your flexibility and range of motion in your hips and knees, which can be especially beneficial for people who spend a lot of time sitting or standing up straight all day.
In addition, it’s also great for loosening up your back and shoulders—especially if you’ve been experiencing pain or tightness there.
Many people find that aqua cycling helps them improve their posture. Aqua cycling has low impact on joints and does not lead to micro-damage to muscle fibres and connective tissues. This reduced impact on your joints, muscles, and bones can help improve your posture since there is no micro-damages or injury that could negatively affect your body positioning.
Weight loss
Aqua cycling is a low-impact exercise that burns calories and tones your body. The water creates resistance, which helps you burn more calories than other forms of exercise, while also providing a comfortable environment to perform.
Aqua cycling is an excellent way to achieve weight loss goals. The high resistance of the water makes aqua cycling a quick and effective calorie burner. This burns up to 800kcal per hour since your body works harder and has a higher metabolic rate, leading to reduced body fat.
The high resistance and evenly distributed load ensure that body muscles are evenly exercised, giving the body an even look. This is unlike normal exercise where some muscles are exercised more, giving the body an uneven appearance with some muscles being bigger than others.
Low-impact workout
Aqua cycling is a low-impact workout that allows you to get the most out of your cardio time. Because it’s done in water, there’s low impact on joints, muscles, and tendons which makes this an ideal exercise for people with joint pain or injuries.
The buoyancy of the water also helps to distribute the weight of your body evenly so there’s less pressure on your joints. This means no next-day soreness and you can continue to work out more frequently.
Low risk of injury
Aqua cycling is a low-impact workout that can be done by people of all ages and fitness levels. While the motion of pedaling in water may take some getting used to, the risk of injury is minimal compared with other exercise options.
It’s also great for those who are injured or disabled and want to stay active, as well as those who are new to exercise but aren’t ready for high-impact workouts yet.
Improve Coordination And Body Strength
Aqua cycling improves coordination and body strength in the following ways;
- Balance and coordination: The water provides a natural resistance that helps build your balance and coordination.
- Strength: Cycling under water causes hydrostatic pressure that increases blood flow to the muscles. This energises your muscles so they don’t fatigue quickly, enabling you to work out longer and build stronger muscles.
- Core muscles: Vigorous cycling is an effective way to improve core strength by working the abdominal muscles, back, and pelvic floor muscles.
- Flexibility: Since you are exercising in water, it allows for a greater range of motion than that achieved on dry land.
Aqua cycling is a great way to improve physical health, and it’s easy on the joints and muscles
Aqua cycling is a great way to improve physical health, and it’s easy on the joints and muscles.
Studies show that aqua cycling improves cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, balance, flexibility, coordination, and body composition. As a bonus: it can be adapted for people with limited mobility or certain medical conditions.
Aqua Cycling classes are also a fun way to stay in shape while meeting new people in your community! It’s perfect for beginners who want to try something new without having to worry about injuries from intense workouts. This low-impact exercise will help you get started on your journey toward becoming more physically active and as you cycle resistance increases so you can continue to grow and challenge yourself. Aqua cycling is good for beginners all the way to elite athletes.
Start your aqua cycling journey today and enjoy its immense benefits.