Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

“While basic core-strength exercises including planks, crunches, sit-ups, bridges, and abdominal presses can be done on land or in gyms, we like to do KAATSU core exercises in Huntington Beach and Seal Beach where we train,” said Steven Munatones.

It is especially useful for competitive swimmers, fitness swimmers, masters swimmers, marathon and channel swimmers, wild swimmers, water polo players, lifeguards, kayakers, stand-up paddlers, and surfers who can do a variety of core-strength and shoulder exercises in the pool.

“We use a Bosu Ball and KAATSU Aqua Bands – either on our arms or legs. But these exercises can be done without any pneumatic blood flow moderation devices.

In the exercise shown above, you can start in deep water so you cannot stand on the bottom of the pool. Place your hands on sides of the Bosu Ball and pull yourself up on top of the Bosu Ball, using your arms and legs. Balance on the ball for a short time (3-10 seconds) in order to stress on your core. Then, slide off the ball back into the water and repeat.”

Steps:
1. Pull yourself up on top of the ball
2. Balance on the ball
3. Drop back down into the water and tread water to stay afloat
4. Repeat until failure – where you cannot do any more repetitions
5. Then rest 20 seconds between each set
6. Do 3 sets (with the Aqua Bands on your arms and then subsequently on your legs, if doing KAATSU)

“For me as an older swimmer, it is harder than it looks.”

Other core exercises in the water are shown here.

If the KAATSU Aqua Bands are used, the intensity of the exercise significantly increases. The KAATSU Aqua Bands can be inflated and monitored with the KAATSU Master, KAATSU Nano, and KAATSU Master 2.0 products.

“After we tighten to our appropriate Base SKU and inflate to our Optimal SKU pressure, we do a few KAATSU Cycles in order to warm-up and are ready to start these shoulder and core exercises.”

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