Knowing how to tone your body is simple once you have some basic information. Swimming is a great way to tone your muscles. It offers a full body workout, it's low impact so it doesn't strain your bones and joints and it's great for building core strength. Swimming also strengthens your cardiovascular system, and can improve your posture and endurance. Here are some tips for toning your body through swimming.

Swimming laps is a great way to build endurance while toning all the muscles of your body. You can stick to one favorite stroke, such as the breast stroke, the back stroke or the butterfly stroke. You can also change it up a little, but all swimming strokes work to tone the muscles of your entire body.

Water walking is a water aerobics exercise that you'll perform at the shallow end of the pool. Here's how you do it:

• Stand upright on the shallow end of the pool.
• Keep your back straight. Lift your knee as far toward your chest as you can.
• Tighten your abdominals as you raise your knee.

Go to the deep end of the pool and hang onto the side in order to do leg lifts. Extend your torso out into the water if you can do that without getting in anyone's way. Here are some leg lifts you can do in the pool. The water provides the resistance:

• Lift your knees to your chest repeatedly as you did during water walking.
• Spread your legs and bring them back together repeatedly.
• Keep your legs straight and lift them into or out of the water behind you, remembering to tighten your buttocks as you do so.

If you do these exercises quickly, you can raise your heart rate and increase your cardiovascular strength and overall endurance.

Go to the deep end of the pool. Tread water quickly, without stopping, for one minute. Tighten your adbominal muscles to enhance the toning effects. Rest for one minute. Repeat this cycle five times. You can increase the repetitions as you become more accustomed to this exercise.

Hug a kickboard to your chest while kicking on your back to tone core muscles. Keep your entire body as close as you can to the surface of the pool. If you can't use a kickboard, try doing a backstroke. Again, keep your entire body as close as possible to the surface of the water and tighten your abdominal muscles to build even more core strength.

Water aerobics classes don't involve swimming. Instead, they teach you how to practice aerobics underwater. You'll stand at the shallow end of the pool during water aerobics. Classes will consist of ordinary aerobic exercises like jumping jacks and jogging in place, but you'll also use special equipment to get the most out of simple movements, such as:

• Webbed water gloves will help tone your upper body as you move your arms through the water.
• Water barbells provide strong resistance in the pool.
• Kickboards help you stay afloat while you tone your legs.