Ask a Trainer: Make summer splash

Q: I want to lose weight and tone up for the summer and I want to try some new exercises to help me with my progress. What are some non-traditional exercise that will help me get summer-ready? -Jaime R.

A: Great question, Jaime! We’re hearing a lot of similar questions lately. Workouts can get stagnant, boring and less effective when you do the same exercises over and over. Switching up your workout mix and adding moves that you’ve never done before can really help make things more interesting and enjoyable. It can also help push past plateaus and help you realize greater results just in time for pool and beach season. With so much water around our summer activities, why not use it to workout out, also?

Water balls are a great way to get a different kind of workout with some common movements. Because the water doesn’t stay in one place in the ball, it helps engage more of your core stabilizing muscles and add a greater element of difficulty to common moves.

For example, Anytime Fitness, Winter Park member, Drew, shows us in these photos how to use a water ball as a kettle bell, doing kettle bell swings. By using a water ball for this movement, Drew is forced to pay greater attention to his form and execution of the swing, so the movement is more fluid and the water doesn’t slosh around in the ball. With the kettle bell swing, your objective is to build momentum through the top of the swing and a smooth transition back down, so the water doesn’t just fall straight down with gravity. Try to keep the water at the bottom of the ball throughout the entire swing in order to execute a proper swing. Doing four sets of 15-20 reps will really get your heart-rate up.

Another great movement with the water ball is similar to the clean and jerk. We’ll get creative with the name and call it Exercise 2 in the photos. Drew shows us this great complex movement with the water ball beginning on the ground and him in the squat position. In one explosive movement the bursts into a standing position and lifts the water ball over his shoulder. In a controlled movement he then returns to his starting position of a squat. He then immediately explodes back up lifting the ball over his other shoulder. This movement uses so many muscles through the movement with added muscles engaged to keep the water ball under control. This is another excellent movement to increase your heart rate and boost your metabolism before the summer. Try doing another four sets of these for 15-20 reps.

The water ball is so versatile, enabling you to do so many different variations of traditional workouts with an added element of difficulty. Try using these with squats, shoulder presses, curls and triceps presses. There are so many workouts that you can adapt to include the water ball; you just have to get creative!

If you don’t have a water ball, stop by Anytime Fitness, Winter Park and we’ll help you get creative and tone up for the beach, the pool and your picnics.

Patrick McGaha Jr., member experience manager at Anytime Fitness, Winter Park, is dedicated to building a welcoming environment in the club, conducive to helping members and clients reach their health fitness goals. To get your fitness and nutrition related questions answered by a certified personal trainer, or for a free personal training session, call us at 321-972-5833 or email [email protected].