Everyone knows drinking water is good for you. But water is also a good place to help you get into shape. A water workout is considered low impact and can benefit people of all ages. Water workouts increase your strength and flexibility, enhance your body’s contours, increase your circulation, control weight, increase you heart’s stamina and help heal damaged muscles.

Water workouts have several advantages over regular workouts. In water your weight is a tenth of what it is on land. This gives your body more flexibility than it would normally have and a greater range of motion. Water also gives you 12 times the resistance than air, so moving through water is like working with weights, but without the stress to your joints and muscles. There are fewer high-impact injuries when working out in water.

The most popular water fitness activity by far is swimming. Swimming has a lower risk of injury and is less stressful on the joints. You get the benefits of aerobic conditioning, stretching, strength conditioning and flexibility. If you want to start a swimming routine, consult with your doctor first. Always remember for safety reasons to never swim alone.

Swimming laps is probably one of the most popular forms of workouts. When you are deciding how to pace yourself, calculate how many laps equal 25 to 50 yards. Then try and complete that number in one minute. For example, if your pool is 15 yards long and you want to swim 50 yards in a minute, you would need to swim about three laps in one minute. Try using different strokes to exercise different muscles.

Other forms of water activities include water walking, water tai chi, water yoga, aquatic kick boxing and deep water running. All of these are vertical water workouts. Because resistance is 75% greater in vertical water workouts than when you swim horizontally, you can really work your muscles.

Keep these tips in mind when doing vertical water workouts:

• Buoyancy supports the body and allows you to make larger movements than on land.
• Intensity increases as you increase the size and speed of your movements.
• Balance and control is created by the sculling and downward movements of the hands.
• Before using resistance devices, such as webbed hand mitts, make sure you are balancing your arms and legs to help coordinate and stabilize your moves.
• Movements that work the body all around in various places while maintaining proper body alignment are good for muscle balance.
• Keep your abdominals tight to support a long, upright spine and tuck your hips slightly (particularly when moving backward) to maintain alignment.
• Avoid holding static stretches in cool water.
• Drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration.

Here are some exercises to try in your own pool:

• Jogging from one end of the pool and then pushing back.
• Jumping jacks (starting with the legs together, jump out and back).
• Shoulder raises front and side.
• Scissor steps with alternate arm punches.

There is not as much pressure in water workouts as there is in regular workouts. In water, you don’t have to keep up or worry that someone might see you make a mistake. So jump on in–the water’s fine.