Water Walking 2024: Benefits & Aquatic Exercises For Weight Loss

Swimming is one of the best exercises because the entire body is being challenged no matter what stroke is performed. This particular aquatic exercise builds muscle strength and endurance, and it also helps with joint pain, cardiovascular fitness, and healthy weight maintenance by burning a significant amount of calories. 

Swimming also helps dieters benefit from supplements such as fat burners that can be taken to complement a healthy diet and regular exercise regime. However, other aquatic activities can prove beneficial for your health, too. So, if you fancy something more tranquil, you may want to take up water walking instead of swimming because of the change of pace that still offers similar benefits.

What Is Water Walking?

Water walking is one of those aquatic exercises that do not involve entering deep water. So, if you are water-phobic, this is an excellent way to keep active in the water without worrying about your fear of water interfering with your exercise routine. 

The activity itself is a low-impact cardio exercise that does exactly what the title suggests in that it involves walking in waist-high or chest-high water. This gentle form of exercise is great for those who may suffer from diseases of the joints and bones, such as arthritis and osteoporosis. Water walking is also ideal for seniors or those undergoing rehab after an accident or injury. 

The natural buoyancy of the water allows muscular activity and joint range of motion without the pulling or challenging exertions needed against gravity which can jeopardize the joints. Yet, the density of deeper water offers resistance against the body, and this is why water walking pushes the muscles a little harder than if you were simply walking on land.

As well as being a suitable form of exercise for those suffering from medical conditions, water walking is highly recommended for individuals who may be fasting as part of a diet regime. This and other low-impact exercises can increase fat and calorie burning without causing issues such as dizziness and sudden drops in blood sugar, whether it is an intermittent fast or alternate-day fasting. 

The equipment needed is the same as swimwear, with the addition of optional water shoes to help protect and cushion the soles of the whole right and left foot. It may take a while to adjust to it, but to benefit from deep water walking, you are required to keep your back straight, shoulders back, and chin up. Walking long strides is best, and this will prevent you from being tempted to continuously lean forward. Pressing into your heels and then your toes and swinging your arms as you walk will help you maintain balance in the water.

The Benefits Of Water Walking

Muscle Toning

If you don’t fancy or cannot physically complete or tolerate gym and body weight training sessions for whatever reason, then you should consider water walking as an alternative. It won’t build massive amounts of lean muscle, but it will help tone the body, which is more of a holistic approach. 

Walking in water uses more strengthen muscles than you think! Besides being an obvious workout for the legs and hips, it can tone the stomach, arms, and shoulders when you keep your arms by your sides while walking. With all these muscles engaged as they help push against the resistance created by water, the whole body gets a workout with less chance of muscle pulls and injuries. Also, maintaining the correct posture in water requires both flexion and relaxation of opposing muscles, resulting in a balanced strengthening of many muscle groups.

Fat Burning

Like land-based walking, water walking offers a great cardio workout and helps you burn fat. The fat-burning process can be enhanced further if you also follow a diet that puts you in a caloric deficit. 

Water walking can burn more calories and more body fat than land walking because the body is working that much harder. As already mentioned, water adds a natural resistance that the body needs to push against, and this can be cranked up further still by adding weights to your ankles and wrists. The inevitable increase in heart rate will lead to this cardio workout utilizing your fat storage as fuel even more. Adding weights also helps build muscle mass and gives you an overall toned look.

Pain Relief

Water walking is a safer alternative physical therapy exercise for those who suffer from chronic pain caused by joint stiffness, arthritis, osteoporosis, and musculoskeletal problems. Again, due to the buoyancy at work, it is gentle yet effective at restoring flexibility in joints and alleviating stiffness. This, in turn, decreases the amount of pain suffered by many individuals. This is important, as pain is a major reason many will give up on exercise.

Aquatic walking and therapy can be a good starting point for aiding recovery and increasing the mobility of those suffering from pain and stiffness due to various conditions.

Increased Exercise Intensity

Studies have shown^[2] that even though water walking is considered a light form of exercise, it still works the muscles intensely. This all comes down to drag forces in water that decrease walking speeds but make the body work harder to combat the resistance created. 

This is especially beneficial for the legs as research has shown that the activity in the tibialis anterior and vastus medialis is higher during water walking^[3] than land walking. The conclusion is that high energy levels can be used up while you are water walking without the risk of injury associated with more vigorous exercise.^[4]

Calorie Burning

Many aquatic exercises are great for dieters because they help burn calories but put far less stress on the body’s physical function than gym sessions. A vigorous workout using a treadmill or exercise bike will burn off more calories than water walking. However, when comparing water sideways walking and water jogging, together, against the land-based equivalent, the water variants win hands down as better calorie burners. 

Other Aquatic Exercises To Try

One-Legged Balance

A very simple exercise is the one-legged balance. This again follows the principle that the aquatic version works the muscles harder than the land-based equivalent, especially with oppositional muscular action required to maintain posture in the water. 

All you do here is stand in waist-high water and lift one leg as high as you can while leaving it slightly bent at the knee as you raise it. When you swap legs, you will need to work the muscles hard to stay balanced because of the added resistance of the water combined with a tendency to fall forward or backward from the buoyancy of the water environment. 

This exercise is excellent for all the leg muscles, and it also strengthens your core as well. Ten reps for each leg, holding the position on the leg for thirty seconds, is adequate.

Fly-Backs

Fly-backs are great for the back, arms, and upper chest and help with posture. In chest-high water, begin in a lunge position with your right knee bent and your left leg straightened out behind you. Next, reach out with your arms at chest height in front of you, and then push your left arm out straight from your sides in a “wing-spreading” action. Relax and return to the original position to complete another rep.

Chaos Cardio

Chaos cardio involves jogging at high intensity in a zig-zag formation from one end of the pool to the other. This activity is great for strengthening the lower body and core. 

Make sure your abdominals are doing most of the work here while letting your arms and shoulders take on the remaining workload. The zig-zag pattern creates an even stronger water resistance that the upper body has to power through than just water walking. You do not have to do many of these to get the heart pumping, and five minutes should do the job!

Final Thoughts

Water walking is a gentle but effective form of exercise for everyone who enjoys healthy living. What is unique about this form of exercise is that it is a great workout that is suitable for chronic pain sufferers, individuals with diseases such as osteoporosis and arthritis, and seniors. In addition, because it can relieve stiffness and improve mobility in the joints, it can simultaneously soothe pain while achieving exercise goals, instead of aggravating the condition being treated like some more vigorous forms of exercise have been known to do.

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