Stress Relief

Stress… Just the word makes me want to take a deep cleansing breath.  It is the word used when we feel overwhelmed, burdened, or loaded.  Most often we talk about stress in light of a challenge or a threat to our well-being. We interpret our stress levels by what we feel we can handle.  I’ve known times, as I’m sure you have also, where the pressure of stress felt almost more than I could bear.   It is in these times where my interactions, moods, and even health become negatively affected.   But stress is not always negative.   Some types of stress can be positive; it gets us going, keeps us moving, and keeps us striving, trying and succeeding.

Part of our response to challenges has a physiological element and affects our physical state. The way we respond to a challenge may in itself be a type of stress.  Did you know there is a connection between exercise and stress relief?  Being active can boost your feel-good endorphins and distract you from daily worries. Endorphins are anxiety fighting super heroes.  Virtually any form of exercise, from aerobics to yoga, can act as a stress reliever. If you're not an athlete, or even if you're downright out of shape, you can still make a little exercise go a long way toward stress management.

 

I am frequently asked what qualifies as the best stress relief exercise.  That is impossible to answer without knowing you personally.  But a great place to start is in the water.  When submerged to the neck in water, 90 percent of a person’s body weight is reduced. Combine that with a warm water environment, flowing movements, and the valuable energy of physical activity; the body receives therapeutic benefits and the brain interprets the experience as positive.

The direct stress-busting benefits of water exercise are well documented.  Water surrounds you during the entire exercise routine making resistance three-dimensional.  Movement in one direction meets with equal resistance in the opposite direction and encourages muscle balance and parity.  As well, it is a low-impact activity that takes the pressure off your bones, joints and muscles.  It offers natural resistance, and helps you get strong.   It is meditation in motion, and has the ability to improve your mood by boosting your endorphin super heroes.  At the Palm Desert Aquatic Center we can help you make water part of your stress relief routine.  Call us. 760-565-7467

Good News!

Are you one of those people who want to be healthy and not just feel healthy?  That’s what I thought.  Me too!  If I gave you a prescription for a single activity that could help you get to your ideal body weight, while strengthening your heart muscle, lowering your cholesterol, reducing your risk for diabetes, and assisting you with balance, flexibility, and stamina all with little to no impact to your skeletal system, would you be interested? 

The good news is that I have that prescription.  There is a single aerobic activity that has the ability to do all those things and more.  While building your body into the healthy framework you desire and helping you feel and look younger.  It sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?  Well it’s not and guess what….it’s swimming.

Swimming offers something no other aerobic exercise does: the ability to work your muscular system, your cardiovascular system, your respiratory system, and more all without harsh impact to your skeletal system.  Gone are the days when you have to run through foot pain or bike while your knees throb.  When the human body is submerged in water, it automatically becomes lighter.   When immersed the body bears less impact on the framework making the pool an ideal place to workout stiff muscles and sore joints while burning calories.

Have you ever seen a flabby fish or a weak looking competitive swimmer?  Me either.  Swimming provides a unique element to a workout that you don’t get while walking, jogging, or biking so you can look and feel fit.  Water is twelve times denser than air and provides resistance with every move you make.  Resistance exercise is the best way to build muscle strength and tone.

Swimming as well puts the body framework through a broad range of motion that helps joints and ligaments stay loose and flexible. Range of motion is imperative to a healthy lifestyle.   The body is made to move and your range of motion determines your ability to go and do the things you want.

If you are one of those people who wants to be healthy not just feel healthy.  If you want to get to your ideal body weight while strengthening and toning without unnecessary impact.  Swimming could very well be the answer.  For more information, for swim lessons, or to speak to a trainer call us at the Palm Desert Aquatic Center 760-565-7467.

Boredom-The Enemy to Good Health

Often I have swimmers ask me what they can do to take the boredom out of a swim workout or any workout for that matter.   Exercise boredom is not exclusive to swimming. Even the most eager and dedicated fitness enthusiast gets bored with exercise.  It is common to find a workout niche and stay in it until boredom sets in.  Many of us get comfortable in a particular workout routine and we become habitual with what it takes to accomplish the exercise and familiar with the way the workout makes us feel. 

Boredom however is the enemy to good health.  It leads to workout slumps filled with lack of inspiration, poor excuses that keep us away from the pool or out of gym, low motivation, and sometimes the desire to quit exercise practice all together.  Here’s a word of advice.  Don’t quit.  Instead, change it up.

For a challenging swim workout keep your heart rate at around 80% of your max for as much of your workout as possible.  To ensure you’re staying in the zone, stop every 15 laps or so and use the clock to count your pulse for six seconds; tack a zero onto the number to calculate your beats per minute (BPM).

Incorporate training tools into your swim workout.  Use hand paddles, fins, a pull buoy, or a kick board to make it more fun.  These tools assist in strength training and muscle toning, and correct positioning as well.

Alter the pace of the swim workout.  Add a sprint here and there.  Nothing burns calories better than swimming fast.  Try swimming four lengths easy, with a long stretch and a gentle pace and then two lengths fast with a vigorous kick and a powerful pull for instance.  Or divide your workout into two or three segments swimming one or two fast laps at the end of each.

Changing up a workout-routine is essential for not only our physical bodies, but also our mental state-of-mind. The more we challenge our bodies to try new things, the further we get away from the exercise rut of boredom and the better we feel.

For additional boredom reducing exercise tips call the Palm Desert Aquatic Center (760)565-7647 and talk to a trainer.

Fear of Swimming

Fear is an intimidating instinct.  It almost has a life of its own.  It talks to us; it makes our heart beat faster and even at times it controls our choices.  Fear is a vital reaction to danger.  It helps us protect ourselves from legitimate threats, it keeps us safe.  But sometimes, what we fear is far from life-or-death and hangs us up for no good reason.  And sometimes our fears can be overcome.

Being afraid of water is a common fear I see frequently.  Most people who come to the aquatic center with fear of the water are nervous to the degree of not wanting to get their face wet or not being able to stand on the bottom.   They are anxious about getting a good breath of air when they want one and not being able to save themselves if they needed to.  

People who don’t know how to swim are often embarrassed, even ashamed that they are afraid or nervous around the water and some are reluctant to admit it.  Learning to swim is a life skill.  Knowing a few basic floating, breathing, and stroke techniques gives the swimmer confidence to enjoy any and all aquatic settings. 

The best way to go from a fearful non-swimmer to a confident swimmer is to take lessons.  Group swim lessons are taught in a group setting of more than three people at a time with a single instructor.  They are frequently skill specific or age based, beginning to advanced adults for example.  Private swim lessons are taught one-on-one; one instructor to one swimmer.  The skill level and the age of the participant is unimportant because the instructor teaches from the students’ abilities regardless of age.   Typically people advance very quickly in a private lesson environment.

Beyond getting swim lessons, a few other techniques that assist in overcoming fear or anxiety of swimming are:  Allow yourself to begin slowly.  Start where it is shallow and swim only where you know you can touch.   Learn to tread water.  Treading water conserves energy and is a safety skill that keeps your head up when the water is deep.  Learn to back float.  Floating on your back keeps your face out of the water and can be relaxing.  Finally, reward yourself as you take steps to overcome your fear. 

For more information about learning to swim or to sign up for group or private swim lessons, contact Palm Desert Aquatic Center 760-565-7467.

FREE Lessons Given by Olympic Swim Champions

I consider learning to swim an essential life skill and actually believe that knowing how to swim and being confident in and around water is more important than much of what children learn in school.  Water hazards are plentiful and they are often labeled fun.  But without the skill set necessary to be safe in an aquatic environment they can become anything but fun.  Drowning happens way too often.

Reducing the drowning statistic and teaching swimming by combining safety, recreation, and fitness is a year around goal at the Palm Desert Aquatic Center.  That’s why PDAC is gearing up to host 8 Olympians for swim lessons, basic water safety, fun races, water slides, hi-dives and more at the FREE second annual Just Add Swim event on Saturday, May 10, from 9 am to 5 pm.

Last year’s inaugural event, then called Swim to Win, saw more than 2,000 area children and adults turn out to take basic swim safety classes with Olympic swimming champs and pool staff at the popular mid-valley pool.

The City of Palm Desert, who owns this world class facility, the Family YMCA of the Desert, and the Swim to Win Foundation are the primary sponsors of the event.  Their main goal this year is to build on the success of teaching area youth basics of swimming and pool safety.  

Eight Olympian swimmers; Rowdy Gaines, Janet Evans, Jason Lezak, Aaron Peirson, Brian Goodell, Chloe Sutton, Rada Owen, and Kaitlin Sandeno will be on deck signing autographs, teaching basic swim skills, and even swimming a few races.  Please join me at the center.  It promises to be an event full of learning, swimming and fun that will be well worth your time.

The free basic swim lessons along with use of the fun aquatic center slides and diving board features and races with the Olympians will be held at the Palm Desert Aquatic Center at 73751 Magnesia Falls Drive, next to the Palm Desert Civic Center Park.

Just Add Swim runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For a guaranteed swim instruction time, registration is required.  Register by calling the pool 760-565-7467.

 

The Effectiveness of Water Aerobics

There is a general misconception that water aerobics is suitable for only pregnant women and the elderly.  But in all reality water aerobics, done right, can prove to be a very intense workout for all ages and fitness levels – even the professional athlete who needs to cross train.  In fact, according to a March 2011 article in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, Water Aerobics has been shown to provide many of the same benefits in terms of physical fitness as in land-based training programs.

There are a number of unique benefits to this form of exercise. It provides significant cardiovascular and strength training benefits due to the water’s built-in natural resistance to movement and hydrostatic pressure, while simultaneously providing added flexibility and ease on the joints.  

In water aerobics water surrounds the exerciser during the entire exercise routine making resistance three-dimensional. Depending on the force exerted, the speed of movement, and the surface area presented, the range of resistance obtained will adjust and add to the challenge of the workout.

Water exercise increases lung capacity as well, by forcing the lungs to work harder as a result of the waters hydrostatic pressure.  The pressure of the water on the chest wall during aquatic exercise opposes the muscles that expand the chest for breathing.  With regular water exercise, this resistance can strengthen these muscles and subsequently enable intake of a greater volume of air when involved in land activities.

It is also well understood that being underwater provides a wider range of motion to the joints, which can in turn increase flexibility.  Aquatic exercise provides a mode for performing difficult stretches that may not be as possible otherwise. According to the American Council on Exercise, water buoyancy reduces the "weight" of a person up to 90 percent. This subsequently reduces the burden on stress-bearing joints and muscles. For this reason, water aerobics will less likely cause injury and muscle soreness. If you, for example, are having difficulty performing certain body movements on land, you may find relief when performing them underwater.

The Palm Desert Aquatic Center currently offers eleven water aerobic classes throughout the week.  They range from shallow to deep, challenging to less strenuous, and early in the day to later in the evening. Consider beginning an exercise program or augmenting what you already have going.  Try water aerobics.  You might be surprised by it’s effectiveness.  www.pdpool.com

Do Swim Lessons Really Help?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Every day, about ten people die from unintentional drowning. Of these, two are children aged 14 or younger.  Drowning ranks fifth among the leading causes of unintentional injury death in the United States.”

Wow! As a lifelong swimmer I would like to think that most drowning is preventable with some education, practice, and common sense.  Although my wish may be a bit too simplified, I’m convinced that learning to swim is never a bad thing.  The USA Swimming Foundation gives some interesting facts regarding learning to swim and participating in formal swim lessons.  On their website, www.usaswimming.org it states that participation in formal swim lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by 88 percent among young children.  88 percent!  It also states that if a parent does not know how to swim, there is only a 13 percent chance that a child in that household will learn to swim!

Those percentages alone are enough to convince me that formal swim lessons do their part in drowning prevention.  But the stats I like to look at are on the faces of the children and adults who become confident enough in the water to enjoy a wet playful afternoon without the fear of drowning.

Learning how to float and how to propel through the water enough to make it to safety is a life skill that grants the possibility of fun in any aquatic environment.  Learning how to perform stroke mechanics and swim for fitness provides an opportunity to experience a strong cardio respiratory system and overall health.  Learning to swim proficiently could be the beginning of reaching a lifelong dream.  Like winning a medal, participating in a triathlon, teaching someone else to swim, or even becoming a United States Coastguard Rescue Swimmer.  The possibilities are endless!

The American Red Cross learn-to-swim program teaches people how to be safe in and around the water; as well as stroke mechanics and stroke proficiency.  A child as young as six months can start swim lessons and an adult of any age can learn to swim.  The Palm Desert Aquatic Center runs year around American Red Cross swim lessons for all ages and all skill levels.  Call 760-565-7647 for information.  It would be our pleasure to have you, your family, and your friends at the aquatic center in our learn to swim programs.