Heart-Rate Response to Exercise in the Water: Implications for Practitioners

Compared with the amount of research available on activities such as jogging, running, and swimming, research on aquatic exercise is still somewhat limited. In many cases it has been difficult to draw conclusions about water exercise in general because of the number of variables that affect exercise response in the water. Most of the studies that have been conducted have concentrated on discerning how exercise in the water compares with similar exercise on land. Investigators have looked at heart rate, ventilatory responses, oxygen consumption, respiratory-exchange ratios, and ratings of perceived exertion using various research protocols. Oxygen consumption and heart rates have been used frequently as indicators of metabolic workload. Heart-rate response to exercise is especially significant to practitioners if target heart rates are used to prescribe and monitor exercise intensity. An analysis of available research seems to indicate that exercise responses in the water vary with the temperature of the water, the depth of immersion, the intensity of the exercise bout (submaximal vs. maximal efforts), the exercise protocols (walking, running, calisthenics, step, cycle ergometry, use of the arms), and the skills and motivation of the participants involved in the study.