Question for Aquajock or other aqua joggers

[Venus]

Right at the beginning of my weighloss journey, while still recovering from a knee injury, I was encouraged to try water walking/jogging. I did, but did not have the proper shoes and I hurt my foot on the bottom of the pool...may have also been weight related.

The pool here where I work is 4' to 4.5' deep...it's a lap pool with no deep end. That presents 2 problems for me...I'm only 5'0", so I'm not always out of the water enough to breathe and also there's no way to just jog in the deep end like I have seen you talk about doing. My foot is fully healed and I've found that Speedo makes water jogging shoes to use in shallow pools like this, but I'm scared to hurt my foot again. Do you have any thoughts?

 

[amyg]

Do you have the belt? The belt keeps you above water anyway, I've got my shoulders out of the water (at least almost) when I wear mine. I'm 5'2" so that would mean I could run with nothing touching the floor of the pool in 4'5" water. I never ran on the actual bottom of the pool- always kind of pantomimed like you have to wearing a belt. HTH

There's also a relatively recent thread about the Aqua Jogger that has tons of info, including an A-jock workout extraordinaire.

 

[Aquajock]

Hi, Venus! Sounds like you're talking about two different kinds of aquatic work, traditional aqua jogging in a zero-impact environment, and aqua running in the shallow end where your feet do impact on the ground.


As Amy mentioned, Speedo, Aqua Jogger and other companies make float belts that enable you to keep your head above water while doing aqua "jogging" in any depth where your feet don't hit the floor. I'll bump up the thread subject that popped up about a week and a half ago for your review.

For the aqua running in the shallow pool, in all honesty I prefer a different brand of aquatic athletic shoe, the Aqua Sport model by Ryka. Ryka actually pioneered the design of the aqua aerobic shoe, and their designs have gotten nothing but better. Ryka's Aqua Sport looks exactly like a land athletic shoe, and it functions as an athletic shoe. The Speedo brand is more like a booty, and IMHO does not provide the same kind of sole support and side-off-foot support for impact-oriented work. Especially if you have a foot injury that is still healing or is only recently healed, I would put my money on Ryka, not Speedo.

As I said, I'll bump up the aqua jogging thread so you can get some ideas for a deep-water, zero-impact workout utilizing the Aqua Jogger or other float belt. This thread also has several websites listed for your reference.

AQUA FOREVER!

a-Jock

 

[Venus]

Thank you both. The reason I was focusing on the running on the bottom option is my gym at work actually offers group classes on that. They do not have classes on the floating kind (although the floating kind would suit me better since it's no impact).

A-jock or anyone, do you know how much the water does reduce the impact on the feet and knees with proper shoes? Before I spend money on the shoes I'd like to know it's not going to hurt my joints. I can only step 1-2 times a week before my knees complain and I bike a couple of days a week, but more than that my back complains, so I'm looking for an alternative to the elliptical machine for the other days that will be more fun, but not add impact.

Thanks again (and I did see the other thread that was actually what got me thinking about asking about this on the bottom kind of class)!

 

[Aquajock]

Hi again, Venus!

The degree to which water reduces impact forces on the weight-bearing joints has to do far more with the degree to which the body is submerged in water rather than the type of shoes worn (more on that in a minute). When you are standing at navel-depth, your body "weighs" about 50% of what it weighs on land; when you are standing at xyphoid-depth (i.e. the water is just underneath the breastline) you "weigh" about 30% of what you do on land, and when you are at neck-depth you "weigh" about 10% of what you do on land. These are rough estimates, and a person's buoyancy in the water is directly tied to the proportion of storage fat to lean fat-free mass. In short, the more body fat you have the more buoyant you are and the less you "weigh" in the water; conversely, the more muscle mass and other fat-free mass you have the more you "weigh" in the water. Air in the lungs also contributes to buoyancy as well.

Re shoe selection, impact absorption for the feet and collaterally for the weight-bearing joints AND the low back is another reason why I recommend the Ryka brand over the Speedo "booty" brand. From what I've seen, again, the Speedo brand has almost no sole support; the soles cover your feet and protect them against the landing surface and nothing more. However, again, the Ryka brand is an athletic shoe, and provides the same impact absorption on landings that a hi/lo, running or step shoe would provide on land. Especially if you're concerned about low back strain resulting from impact work, get the Rykas.

HTH -

A-Jock