'Get Speedo Fit' offers great water workouts without swimming a stroke

WEST LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Many athletes will state training involves heavy lifting and speed work at the gym, but according to professional surfer Laird Hamilton, that won't help in the long run.

"A lot of our fitness is really undermining our health and we don't realize that when we go to the gym and then we come back and we feel like somebody beat us up," said Hamilton.

Mark Verstegen, whose EXOS institution trains elite athletes from Major League Baseball to the World Cup, joined Hamilton to create "Get Speedo Fit" in hopes of getting athletes in the water.

"Every athlete in our system has always gone in the water. So what we're sharing with you is not something that was just created, we've been doing this forever," said Verstegen.

"Get Speedo Fit" is a series of free online videos from novice to Olympic level. For the most part, you'll be vertical.

"It's really all about going in the water. It's not just swimming laps," said 12-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin.

And this isn't your grandmother's water aerobics. The workouts use body weight and inexpensive pool tools to create slow movement muscle work.

"Your coordination tends to be better in the water. There's also less gravity. You are more buoyant. So it's just mixing up your routine," Coughlin said.

"This isn't necessarily a one size fits all kind of thing. You can certainly cater it to for whatever you're looking for specifically," said Olympic medalist Nathan Adrian.

"There's really five benefits of training that we can replicate in the water that's hard to replicate in the gym," said Speedo spokesperson Pierre Martin.

Those five things are: less gravity or impact, consistent resistance, cleaner coordination, less pain more gain, and a natural compression to help flush waste from tissues in order to improve circulation and faster recovery.