Playing sports, the right way!
Regular physical activity helps you stay in shape, but excessive effort can cause or promote the onset of joint problems. It is therefore necessary to choosing the right sport ! If aquabiking is for us the best way to access well-being without harming yourself, you also have the possibility of focusing on other activities.
Our recommendations
The bike : When pedaling, the knee joint is in constant action without having to support the weight of the body. Select a low gear and install the saddle so that your heels barely touch the pedal. Cycling can be practiced in different forms: outdoors, at home with an exercise bike, in the water by following aquabiking classes.
Nordic walking (Nordic Walking): It comes to us from Finland. In the 1930s, Finnish cross-country skiers trained in the summer by walking with poles. They tried to simulate sliding by walking and pushing on their ski poles. It is an excellent alternative to jogging, which wears out the joints much more by forcing the knee to support two to three times the body weight. Use shoes with good protection and good ventilation and opt for routes on soft ground (forest, field, sand), rather than on asphalt (concrete) ground.
Aquajogging : As a general rule, all exercises in water are easy on the joints. Your body is carried by the water and there is almost no pressure.
This practice allows you to work on your entire musculature while having a positive effect on your cardiovascular system and your metabolism.
Swimming : In both swimming and aquajogging, we benefit from the effect of the water's bearing capacity, which relieves the joints. Crawl and backstroke are preferable to breaststroke, which causes lordosis (curvature of the spine) and tenses the cervical vertebrae backwards. The regular leg movements specific to crawl and backstroke are better for the knee than the scissor movements of breaststroke.
Avoid “violent” sports : You should indeed be particularly careful with violent sports called “stop and go”. These include volleyball, tennis, squash, and badminton. You should also avoid running, unless you practice it in very good conditions and with equipment adapted to your weight or the surface on which you run.
