Arthritis and Exercise: All About Water Workouts

You may remember doing calisthenics in high school or maybe you have grim memories of aerobics classes where you were doggedly leaping about, always one step behind and definitely not having fun.

Exercising in water is a whole new experience and most people with arthritis love it. You don’t need any special skills, and with certain simple equipment, you don’t even need to know how to swim. All you need is water. The natural buoyancy of the water aids movement, letting you do exercises that might be too painful or stressful on land.

Water exercise covers a wide range of activities: water aerobics, supervised sessions prescribed by a physical therapist, or running or doing jumping jacks in your backyard pool. It can be done with your head completely above water or can include bobbing or rolling in water. It can be done in deep or shallow water, in a regular pool, or in a heated therapeutic facility.

And water is a great place to work out. Water effectively reduces your body weight by 90 percent. So if you weigh 150 pounds, in water your limbs only have to support 15 pounds. Stress on joints, bones, and muscles is kept to a minimum.

Water can also help cool you off as you exercise, and any stiffness or pain you may be feeling may decrease. In heated or therapeutic pools there's no cooling effect, but the warm water helps relieve the pain of stiff joints or injured limbs.

And because water provides resistance to movement, pushing to move through it can tone and strengthen muscles and improve your range of motion. You get benefits similar to those from doing the exercises on land but with none of the jarring or pounding.

The Right Gear

For a simple water workout, in many cases you won’t need a swim cap or goggles, as you don’t even put your head underwater. If you can’t swim, you may want to use a flotation vest, which also comes in handy for certain exercises. If you walk or jog in the pool, for example, the vest will keep you upright so that you don't have to struggle to keep your balance. Or you can use it in deeper water to keep an injured foot or ankle completely off the pool floor. You may also want fins, a pull-buoy, or a kickboard to vary your routine.

Getting Started

Once your doctor has given the okay, you can sign up for a class at the community pool or devise your own workout. If you have a physical therapist, your therapist will design a program for you.

Whatever your program, spend five minutes warming up to get your body ready. You can warm up in the pool or in a whirlpool or hot tub. You can sit on the edge of the pool and do flutter kicks and circle your feet in the water. Or, while you’re in the pool, jog in place or do other stretches.

A good beginning water exercise session might include a 5-minute warm-up, 10-minute workout, and 5-minute cool down, three times a week. Another workout you can do on your own is pool walking or jogging. After a warm-up, spend 10 to 20 minutes traveling back and forth from one end of the pool to the other. For variety, try walking sideways or backwards. If the pool bottom is slippery, wear a pair of rubber-soled water socks or water sandals.

For most pool exercises, a good temperature range is 82 to 86 degrees. Pools cooler than that are suited only for vigorous workouts, and the 92- to 98-degree heat of therapeutic pools is only for gentle range-of-motion work.

 Last Updated: 8/23/2002
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