HealthJay

If the pool is too small or too crowded for lap swimming, you might consider an aqua-exercise program. Even people who are not good swimmers or those with a physical limitation can benefit from such activities.

The greater resistance of water will hasten warm-up and increase muscle strength during calisthenics such as the toe touch and side-straddle hop. Stretching and twisting exercises include bounding with arm stretch, leg swing, and such gutter-holing drills as the leg cross.

You can practice your swimming strokes in shallow water. The standing crawl will help perfect the efficiency of your arm and hand motions; the frog kick used in the breaststroke can be practiced while holding on to the gutter. Later, separate arm and leg movements can be coordinated with each other and with proper breathing.

Aquaexercises can also be used for strengthening muscles: the wall push-away will help tone thighs, shoulders, and abdomen; the knees up and leg twist will tighten abdominal muscles at the same time legs and hips are worked; the wall push-up builds arm muscles and get you out of the pool at the same time.

Exercise Afloat

                Working out in a small boat is certainly one of the most pleasurable ways to get in shape. There is none of the traffic, noise, or air pollution of city streets, none of the trauma of jogging. Canoeing or rowing not only provides excellent opportunities to improve physical fitness, they can be combined with fishing and camping to achieve relaxation and tranquility.

                The canoe, as the Indians taught us, is an extremely useful and versatile boat, one that can hold two people and their cramping gear and can be portaged (carried overland) for exploring or seeking better fishing waters. It is, of course, the arms and shoulders that get the workout-other in portaging.

                For more strenuous exercise, you might want to graduate from a rowboat to the shell, a finely designed craft that is second only to the bicycle in utilizing manpower transportation. Rowing a shell helps condition the entire body.