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If you haven’t heard of ‘deep water running’, it’s just as it sounds; Jogging in a body of water deep enough that your feet can’t touch the bottom. Sound strange?
Well, surprisingly it actually has many health benefits, making it a common exercise used by athletes and exercise enthusiasts to rehabilitate injuries and improve fitness and overall health.
Deep water running can be done with or without a floatation device for extra support. Because your body is buoyant, you’ll naturally float, giving you a full body workout without the impact to your muscles and joints.
So why opt for this type of workout over your regular run?
While regular running can wreak havoc on your body and joints - particularly knees and ankles - deep water running achieves the same results and effects on the body, without the same impact. The density and buoyancy of the water you’re floating in minimises any impact to your body, meaning you can stretch, tone and strengthen without the stress and strain to your bones, joints and ligaments.
This makes it an excellent option if you’re concerned with reducing injuries and protecting your body, particularly for those who are injury-prone.
Deep water running not only prevents injuries, it also helps to rehabilitate them! Athletes in particular, turn to deep water running to help treat and manage injury, as it lets you continue working out even while injured (thanks to the low impact nature of the workout), so you can maintain your fitness through this time.
It can also support recovery from stress fractures, ligament damage and other common injuries - double win!
Deep water running is a super effective workout as it actually burns more calories than the land-based alternative. A study found 30 minutes of deep water running burned around 150 more calories than jogging on land for the same amount of time.
Plus, it’s a full-body workout, targeting your legs, arms and core each and every time for maximum toning and strengthening results.
Not only does deep water running maintain your fitness level and activity throughout injury, it also improves cardiovascular health. The added resistance of the water, as well as the use of your full body throughout the workout, makes deep water running an excellent option for improving heart and cardiovascular health, also reducing your risk of disease at the same time!
So there you have it, not only does deep-water running have plenty of health benefits (and even advantages over its land-based counterpart), it is suitable for absolutely anyone - beginner to advanced, to anyone struggling with injury too.
Try it today and see the results for yourself.
For more fitness and health tips and tricks, check out the Fitness First blog today!