The people that know me personally probably know I am not the sportiest person out there.
Thanks to being blessed with a naturally skinny body and the ability to eat whatever I want (yes, also all crappy food full of sugar and fat) without gaining weight, I never really thought a lot about working out.
Ofcourse, having a more toned body is something that would be nice to have, but then again why bother, I thought. I just never wanted to put in the effort that was required to get it.
However, one of the biggest resolutions I made at New Year’s Eve was to break with my bad habit and start to exercising regularly and eat more healthy.
Unfortunately, I don’t follow up on most of these resolutions anymore now that February has started and I am quickly sliding back into the bad old habits.
This time however I want to change, in the end I don’t want to end up with a cardiovascular disease and it might not be a bad thing to see some abs when wearing a bikini. :p
Anyway, one big step forward towards me getting fit is to find some way of exercising I enjoy, which for me is hard to find.
I then got an invitation to try out waterbiking and it caught my interest. At least, it was worth the try.
I realized it would be something with cycling in water, however I didn’t really know how that would make it a lot more fun or how it would be a lot better than normal cycling.
The only thing I could think of was that it probably had to be a lot harder since now you had even more resistance and so you had to use more power. Even more tiring, oooh noooo…
Wednesday I visited one of the waterbike centres in Belgium to get a session on a waterbike. I went to the one in Schilde, but you also have a centre in Brasschaat.
Wednesday I eventually went to Schilde for my first appointment of waterbiking.
They also have a waterbike centre in Brasschaat, for those who are interested.
I directly got welcomed by a very friendly girl who explained to me how everything worked.
When she explained everything, she mentioned the word ‘relaxing’ a lot and I really didn’t get why she talked about that so much. I normally don’t associate exercising with relaxing.
This is how a waterbike looks like: a special shaped jacuzzi with a bike in it. Have a look at the television in front of the waterbike… So cozy!
Soon I got why waterbiking is a perfect combination of relaxing while also exercising, training your muscles and burning calories!
This is my real opinion (it is not because I am being sponsored or anything). I think it is one of the best inventions in workouts ever!
Normally when I have had a hard day, I would never think of doing a workout since then I just want to relax. However with waterbiking I could easily go by for a session after a heavy, tiring day.
BUT… WHY IS THIS SO AMAZING?
First of all, the waterbike is actually a combination of a jacuzzi and a hometrainer.
Before you start, you can chose between a lot of different bath oils with a scent for in the water.
This scent directly gives a very relaxing feeling and next to that the water covers your thighs and stops at belly button level and it bubbels like a jacuzzi.
You actually enjoy a nice jacuzzi while you are cycling.
You can choose out one of several bath oils and scents to put into the water. This really adds something extra to your cycling experience. 😉
Also, when you cycle you have the opportunity to watch television since there is a television right in front of you when you cycle. In that way you never get bored. This is probably also one of the reasons contributing to me not liking cycling or running, just because it is so boring. With having something nice to watch in the meantime, it is really fun!
You can chose to watch regular television but you can also chose for one of the programmes where they show you movements you can do with your body to make other parts of your body more toned next to your legs while you cycle. An ideal workout!
Me in front of the waterbike. You can see that my workout program is playing on the television. You can chose between watching regular television but you can also chose for the guided workout where you train other muscles next to the ones you use while cycling. That is what I did, since it is a little needed to tone down other areas too. And these blue shoes are really stylish, isn’t it??? :p
You are also able to chose between easy, medium and hard depending on how many calories you want to burn or on how hard you want to workout that day.
Next to that you also have the freedom to chose how long you want to waterbike.
For me it was 50 minutes and after being in (or on) the waterbike, I felt totally reborn and relaxed, while also being able to work on my body. It is really an ideal option for those that always see it as a burden to go exercising regularly because with this, you actually look forward to do it (and yes, even for a couch potato like me :p).
It is also ideal when you experience a lot of stress because exercising helps with releasing the stress hormones and the concept of waterbiking makes you completely ZEN.
It looks like I am in a bath but I am actually working out, how cool is that?
I think next time, I am going to try out the waterrun, which is the same concept as the waterbike but then running in water. I will keep you guys updated!
Oh, and for people that are interested: have a look at their website where you can find all details, the exact location and all the formulas they provide.
