How to Swim for Slim Thighs
The best recipe for slim thighs is to lose the fat you may have jiggling on the outside of your thighs and tone up the underlying muscles within them. To do this you'll need to combine healthy eating with aerobic and strength exercises. A great place to start those exercises is your nearest pool.
The best recipe for slim thighs is to lose the fat you may have jiggling on the outside of your thighs and tone up the underlying muscles within them. To do this you'll need to combine healthy eating with aerobic and strength exercises. A great place to start those exercises is your nearest pool. Whether you are a strong swimmer or a dog paddler you can reap the benefits of water aerobics, and slimmer thighs is one of them.
More Math Than Magic
The secret to losing excess fat, whether it's on the outside of your thighs, the inside, or anywhere else on your body, is more math than magic. For results, you need to burn off more calories than you consume. To effectively torch calories you need both aerobic exercise and strength training. Since water aerobics, or aquatics, combines weight resistance and cardiovascular activity, it makes for an effective fitness program and is easier than regular swimming. Harvard Medical School reports a person weighing 155 pounds can burn about 228 calories swimming for 30 minutes. That involves actively propelling your body through the water using the breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly or freestyle.
A Gentler, Easier Water Workout
For those with less swimming ability or inclination, water aerobics provides a gentler, easier means for accomplishing your fitness goals. By performing a continuous circuit of exercise moves in waist-deep water, a 155-pound person burns about 149 calories in a half hour. As the American Council on Exercise notes, people are 90 percent lighter in the water, which is why familiar moves like lunges, lifts and kicks are easier to perform in the pool than on land. While most gyms and recreation centers offer water aerobic classes, you can replicate a couple of thigh-slimming moves whenever you are at the pool.
The Pendulum Move
The pendulum move is effective in working the muscles of the inner and outer thighs: the adductors and abductors. Strengthening and toning these muscles can give your thighs a slimmer looking, more toned appearance. Standing in waist deep water, slowly lift your left leg out to the side as far as you can and then gently swing it down and across in front of your right leg as far as you are able. Glide your leg back through the water all the way to the left for one full repetition. Continue the movement to the side, down, across, down and back 16 times. Switch legs and repeat another 16 times using your right leg.
The Flamingo
Another move that will work the inner and outer thigh muscles is the flamingo. Stand on your right leg, bend your left leg at the knee and support your left foot on your right knee, like the bird. Working your left leg, keeping your knee bent, slowly rotate your left knee out to the side and back in to the right. Stay balanced as best you can on your right leg. Hold on to the side of the pool if you need to for support. Repeat the outward, inward rotation with your knee 16 times, always with your left foot on the right knee. Switch legs and repeat 16 times.