Ella
Do you like to swim? Sadly, fewer of us are going swimming these days. Maybe we need a gentle reminder of all the health benefits of swimming.
A few years ago, swimming was a very popular sport, but it seems to have gone into decline since the Olympics. The fact is that more of us should be going swimming. After walking, it is one of the healthiest activities that we can do.
We have no excuse. Swimming pools are available at most leisure centers, and it is actually one of the cheapest sports activities that we can do. Most kids learn how to swim, but the skill is often put by the wayside when parents don’t take their kids swimming.
Meanwhile, we should be taking our kids swimming, and we should be taking ourselves swimming as well. It is one of the healthiest and best ways to keep fit.
Top Health Benefits of Swimming
1. Gentle Cardio
Swimming gives us a gentle cardio exercise. We can push ourselves harder if we want to, but there is really no need.
Recent research shows that if you swim 250 meters, take a break, and then swim another 250 meters. It is just as good for you as swimming 500 meters in one hit. It might even be better for you.
When you take a rest, so does your heart. To get going again, your heart will have to speed up again, and this is what makes the difference. So, swimming four times 1000 meters with a couple of breaks is better for you than doing the complete stretch all at once.
There is no longer a need to stress in the swimming pool. Ignore the other fast swimmers and swim at your own pace.
2. Co-ordination
There are different styles of swimming. You can choose to do the breaststroke, backstroke, or crawl at your local leisure center swimming pool. This is truly one of the real gifts of swimming. All three strokes require cor-ordination, and you will find that you have to think about what you are doing.
Exercises which make you work on your co-ordination are vitally important as not only do you use different muscle groups, but you also ask your brain to remember some rather complicated tasks.
All swimming exercises are about co-ordination when you stop and analyze them. This is certainly one of the top reasons that we should add swimming to our keep fit routine.
3. Muscles
Stop and think about your muscles for a moment. How many exercise formats are there that will exercise almost every tendon and muscle you have in your body? The simple answer is very few, but swimming is one of them.
When you swim, you will use your legs, arms, stomach, and back muscles. If you are good at swimming, you may even give your neck muscles a workout as well. And all of this while being supported by water. Swimming is truly an amazing exercise.
4. Calories
Going for a swim workout can see you burn a lot of calories. Most of us still like to think about our exercise as burning calories.
Most regular swimmers burn about eight calories per minute, and that means that if you swim for 20 minutes, you would have burned 160 calories. That is rather a lot of calories for an exercise, which is a pleasure at the same time.
5. No Joint Pain
Another health benefit that we often forget about when it comes to swimming is the simple fact that this cardio exercise puts no strain on our joints at all. The water lifts your body to not work against a hard surface, like when going for a run.
All you are doing is working at the pressure of the water itself. After all, water does put a certain amount of pressure on your body, which you are working against. If you didn’t, you would not make any progress through the water at all.
Conclusion
Should we swim more? Of course, we should, and we should appreciate the health benefits of swimming much more than we do. It is an exercise for the entire family, and you can swim at any stage in your life. Regular swimmers suffer less from infections and other health problems.
Arthritis and rheumatism are both two health conditions that are less common in regular swimmers. Isn’t it about time you bought a new swimsuit?
