The No-Laps Pool Workout [Plus more workout tips, parenting articles and photoshoot outtakes!]

Some of you saw this pic when I Facebook/Tweeted it and were wondering what the Gym Buddies and I were doing at the bottom of the pool (and some of you also wondered how I have lived this long and not learned how to be underwater without plugging my nose – in my defense, in all the other pics I’m NOT plugging my nose but they turned out blurry so you’ll just have to take my word for it.) and now I can finally tell you about our Shape Magazine swimsuit photo shoot! (Never thought I’d be typing those words! Don’t worry we’re not standing thigh high in the water wearing bikinis and a fake tan.)

 

Gym Buddies Allison (our photogenic covergirl above), Megan, Krista, Daria and I are the lead story on Shape.com today!

Lap swimming is one of the most intense workouts there is but if you can’t swim laps or you’re like me and just hate it (it feels like controlled drowning!), you can still get a great total body workout in the pool this summer. Anything you can do on land, you can do in the pool but the resistance from the water makes it that much harder. Chris Kost, who in his 20 years of aquatics experience working with pro athletes like baseballer Joe Mauer says, “Most people think of aquatics as just for gray hairs but you can do boot camps, power x and other high intensity classes that incorporate everything from therabands to kettlebells in the water.” Try using some of these moves as part of an existing routine or make up your own circuit. Either way you’ll get a great workout – no lap swimming required. To read the rest of the article on Shape.com (and see how much fun we had with the underwater camera) follow the jump…

If you didn’t catch my fitness series on Workout Junkie, check out my posts Workouts for People With No Money, Workouts For People With No Equipment, Workouts For People With No Time and Workouts For People With No Childcare.

For Redbook this week, I wrote articles on “Mom Debate: Do You Spend Too Much Time on your Smartphone When You’re With Your Kids?” (So do I win the award for longest post title ever??), My 8 Worst Parenting Mistakes (According to my kids) (If you read just one of my articles today, read this one – hilarious!) and “One Mom Confesses To Not Liking Her Own Child: Did she cross the line?” (this one I still feel really conflicted about – super sad.)

And if you want to know why Forever 21 gives me a guilt complex, check out my book review of Lost In Translation for the BlogHer Book Club.

And most importantly: the outtakes from our underwater photoshoot!

Turns out the laws of physics will not be thwarted and so to prevent us from floating to the surface while snapping those underwater shots, another Gym Buddy had to hold us down. Here, Krista is holding Allison under the water while (5-months pregnant!) Daria models and her son watches.

Daria on the bottom side of “the otter roll” – she obviously learned how not to plug her nose!

I am laughing hysterically for some reason – because Krista told me I look like a hyperactive 5-year-old? Because someone took an underwater shot of me picking my swimsuit wedgie (aHEM!)? Because the old folk’s pool class right next to us was playing oldies?? The whole hour was one long laugh fest.

Krista and Allison had way too much fun with the underwater camera!

Daria takes a snuggle break with her son – you can see where he gets his gorgeous grin!

Allison is too cool for school. Or the pool.

What happens when you take a picture half in the water and half out. You can see why we didn’t do any more this way!

35 Comments

  1. Gym buddy Krista

    In the pic of Allison and I, I look like a conehead and she looks like a Romulan! Too funny!

  2. GREAT pictures!!!!
    I’m gonna go read the article. I’m not crazy about swimming laps, but I LOVE the pool. (I even thought for a while about learning to teach aqua aerobics.) I’d like some exercises I can do while my kids are splashing around.
    I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: you guys ROCK!!!!

  3. Does the colour of your toenail polish match your bathing suit? If yes, I’m very impressed. Very, very impressed.

    • Hahahah! Actually no. My suit is purple and my toes are cobalt blue but they look pretty close in the pics

    • That’s pretty funny you mention this – we just went on a quick “start of summer vacation trip” and the first day I went and got a pedicure, and picked a color that matched my suit…an electric blue! (Love it!) 🙂

  4. I’m not a fan of lap swimming either. You described it perfectly when you said, “it feels like controlled drowning.” Hilarious! Great Shape article. I knew about 5 or so of those exercises but now have 30 more I can do to burn major calories while stayin’ cool in the pool with the kids all summer long. Thanks!

  5. SO
    WORTH
    WAITING
    FOR.

  6. I’m still trying to find the actual article…all I can find are the photo-shoot pictures. Got a link?

    • The link should go directly to the slideshow. As you click through the pics, the description & my text is on the right hand side of each slide.

  7. I like being in the water! I was one of the worst swimmers on my high school team 🙂
    I’ve done lap swimming for tri training. The only downside I’ve found is talk about a bad hair day!!

  8. Maybe next, for non-lap swimming water exercise, you should try synchronized swimming. Fun and REALLY HARD.

  9. NICE CLICKS!!!

    I love exercise but i never tried it in the pool….but the snaps and the information’s on your blog inspired me to do so.now i am also gonna try that in the pool.it seems to look very COOL.
    Thank You

  10. OMG that looked like so much fun! I need to start utilizing my pool for these workouts…right now, the only thing getting any pool action is the motorized pool cleaner we call “Fred”. 🙂

  11. I’ve never tried in the pool to have an exercise, all I know is to swim. Your information tells me to do that kind of exercise when I’m in the pool. Thanks.

  12. It’s like a funhouse mirror!! 🙂 haha.

    I love swimming as exercise!! I was on a state championship varsity swim team for 2 years in high school and LOVED it [and for the record I still prefer to plug my nose with my fingers when I swim recreationally now!]

  13. I love your bathing suit, Charlotte! I always have the toughest time finding one-piece suits that don’t look like something my grandmother would wear. Where’d you get yours? 🙂

    Also, I love, love LOVE the picture of you laughing. I’m glad you had fun.

    • Target, baby! It was $20 bucks I think. They’ve got them in every color, go get you one!

  14. LOVE this pics & so much happiness in them!

  15. So that looks like a ton of fun. AND according to this post you wrote 8 articles this week? Correction, 8 of your articles were published this week? HOLY CRAP! Oh, and that’s besides writing one here every day. Goodness gracious.

  16. I have just started swimming, and agree that it often feels like controlled drowning. I just don’t know how people feel so relaxed that they can go laps upon end without feeling as though they might fall to the bottom of the pool for an early demise! I love the post about parenting mistakes, Charlotte. So funny! And good to know that your kids have a sense of humor. Let’s hope that when mine are old enough to recount my (seemingly endless) mistakes, they do too.

  17. Fantastic photos! Thanks for the great pool workout, too – I’m hoping to start swimming once a week at the Y so I’ll have to give these ideas a shot.

  18. First of all, congrats on another Shape.com article/slideshow. I checked it out and, while I hate swimming, I thought it was VERY well thought out, VERY diverse in its exercises, and could be used by a lot of people I know. It actually could be a good little book all by itself because I don’t think there’s that much like it.

    Second of all, Charlotte, you better not complain about your figure for a long long time! You look great in a swimsuit, while many of the rest of us are trying to look great in something way less revealing, like our yoga capris.

    🙂 Marion

  19. Oh my…I spent the last few days searching the internet for new things to do in the pool for workouts as I rehab my ankle. Thank you soooooo much!

  20. I love reading your blog! I just have a random question. It’s really hard to scroll down and continue reading posts. Does anyone else have this problem? it doesn’t happen on any other sites to me. it’s so frustrating because i want to read through!

    • Sadly, no, you are not the only person with this problem! It’s a known bug with my new site and I’m working on fixing it although I’ve kinda run out of things to try. Thanks for hanging in there. I swear I’ll get this taken care of!

  21. Congrats! The pictures and descriptions are great! I did a lot of underwater resistance training in college, and forgot what a good workout it is – next time I’m in a pool I’m going to have to grab a noodle and start doing some crunches! Looks like you all had a lot of fun 🙂

  22. Charlotte you always have so much fun!
    I’ve never tried swimming workouts before, I think its because I have a fear of chlorine, LOL. I love that you try all kinds of things, and I am still thinking about the hula hoop video, Loved It!

  23. What beautiful photos! You all look so joyful.

  24. Oh thanks for this link! I’m bookmarking this article and trying out some of these in the week to come. I used to do really hard-core aqua aerobics classes, but since my illness I haven’t got my fitness back up to that level, in fact, I’m finding exercise of any kind difficult and painful. I’d forgotten about exercising in water – that way I don’t strain my joints (I can actually do lunges in the pool) and I can control the intensity of the cardio portion. I have a ball that I can use, so I’m sorted. Swimming is not my thing either!

  25. Maybe next time I should do this exercise on the swimming pool..Thanks for sharing..

  26. The pictures and descriptions are great! I did a lot of underwater resistance training in college.So funny! And good to know that your kids have a sense of humor.

  27. I’m glad you had fun. I like being in the water! It actually could be a good little book all by itself because I don’t think there’s that much like it. I’m still trying to find the actual article…all I can find are the photo-shoot pictures.

  28. Pingback:The “Food Baby” Phenomenon: The Flat Abs Myth Part Two [You're not fat. You're not pregnant. You're normal.] | The Great Fitness Experiment

  29. Pingback:The “Food Baby” Phenomenon: The Flat Abs Myth Part Two [You're not fat. You're not pregnant. You're normal.] | Everyth1ng

  30. Great blog page listed here! As well your internet-site masses way up rapidly! Precisely what web host are you currently the application . Aqua Aerobicof? Should i am having your affiliate marketer link on your web host? If only my website packed up as easily when yours : )