These 9 Benefits Of Swimming Will Make You Miss Summer Already

These 9 Benefits Of Swimming Will Make You Miss Summer Already

Swimming is the most complete aerobic exercise that has an immense impact on our health. But if you’re not into it yet, maybe these nine amazing health benefits of swimming will change your mind.

Different forms of exercise help us develop our body and stay healthy in different ways. But for a 360-degree workout, no pastime ticks as many boxes as swimming.

Swimming regularly can help with almost all areas of physical development. It helps with strength development, endurance, and weight loss.

Plus, there are further attendant boosts to other aspects of our well being that make it an essential exercise, whatever your fitness level.

So, if you’re an exercise nut looking to add a new routine to your cross-training rota, count on swimming.

Or if you’re someone looking for a gentle workout to help them lose a couple of extra pounds, swimming can help you achieve your goals.

These 9 Benefits Of Swimming Will Make You Miss Summer Already

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Benefits Of Swimming

Check out below nine of the most incredible health benefits of swimming, and try to incorporate this full-body exercise into your weekly routine.

1. Great For Weight Loss

For most of us taking a dip, swimming is an aerobic exercise. This means our heart rate stays between 60% to 80% of our maximum capacity.

Depending on the intensity of our swimming, it can burn incredibly high amounts of our fat reserves for fuel.

When our heart rates rise above 80%, our bodies start operating at an anaerobic level. Now we start burning carbohydrates in our bloodstreams.

This is why swimming is such a good option for people looking to lose weight.

Just remember:

Swimming, in particular, is an exercise that can leave you feeling hungry afterward. So be mindful of keeping your weight loss gains intact.

2. Helps Develop Lung Capacity

No exercise is as effective for improving respiratory capacity as swimming is.

Since many swimming strokes require you to spend time with your head underwater, swimming encourages the development of deep, regulated breathing.

It has been shown that swimming helps develop respiratory muscles such as the diaphragm.

3. Aids Muscle Growth

Water is 800 times denser than air. So any and every movement you make in the pool will expose your muscles to some kind of resistance.

Different swimming strokes target almost all your major muscle groups, particularly your middle back muscles, lats, triceps, core, and leg muscles.

Compared to other low impact aerobic exercises like yoga, cycling or power walking, swimming gives you a far superior boost to strength.

Benefits Of Swimming - Muscle Growth

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4. Boosts Flexibility And Balance

Like yoga, swimming can help lengthen your muscles, making it a great supplementary exercise to a weight lifting routine.

It also helps develop better flexibility.

Swimming regularly can mean you’ll be enjoying a lower risk of injury in other physical activities you pursue.

Finally, every swimming stroke is a completely symmetrical movement that helps improve balance, alignment, and coordination. This makes it much less likely to overdevelop or underdevelop one side of your body.

5. Lower Risk Of Injury

Swimming is a sport that anyone of any fitness level can achieve.

Even if you’re suffering from joint ailments such as osteoarthritis, the reduced gravitational pressure on your joints in water makes it a great and safe form of exercise for people who find weight-bearing activities too painful.

In addition, if swimming is helping you develop flexibility, then you’re lessening the risk of injury in other physical activities you engage in.

Furthermore, water pressure is uniformly distributed across your body, whereas other activities might concentrate pressure on your hips, knees or back.

So if an injury is a concern, swimming can still be a very safe activity to pursue.

6. Boosts Mood And Helps With Stress

Studies have shown that swimming can even provide psychological benefits to those who practice it regularly.

Other studies show that aerobic exercise makes it easier for people to fall asleep and helps fight against insomnia.

Swimming helps provide a boost to your endorphin levels that you can enjoy throughout the day. It also helps relieve any pent up stress you might be bringing into the pool with you.

For improving all-round quality of life, it’s hard to find a single exercise more beneficial than swimming.

Benefits Of Swimming - Mood Boost

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7. Helps With Heart Health

Swimming tackles lots of your body’s criteria for health that can help you live longer and stop the clock on aging. It helps with key physical factors like lowering blood pressure and helping regulate blood sugar levels.

Swimming has also been shown to decrease arterial stiffness, which can be one of the key risk factors when it comes to developing heart problems in the future.

While it might not provide the kind of rigorous cardiovascular workout of an anaerobic activity like jogging or mountain biking, it’s still a great way to ensure that you’re helping to keep your heart healthy.

8. Provides Low Impact Exercise

Compared to other forms of exercise, swimming is extremely easy going on your joints. This makes it an activity that you can pursue frequently without worrying about whether you’ll be wearing parts of your body out.

High impact exercises like running, weightlifting, or sports like football and basketball tend to be noticeably more strenuous on muscles and joints. And they also demand more rest time for your body to regenerate itself.

Swimming, on the other hand, is something you could do every day without having to worry about overexerting yourself or concentrating strain on a particular muscle group.

9. Strengthens Your Back

If you’re sat at a desk at work all day, swimming is a great way to ensure that your back enjoys some corrective treatment.

Swimming is one of the few exercises where you remain horizontal throughout. This helps you stretch out, and your back tends to be arched slightly, unlike exercises like cycling and running where participants tend to have slightly bent postures.

All this together can help you cultivate a healthy posture and lessen the risk of back pain and injury that can result from sustained periods of physical inactivity.

These are some of the main benefits of swimming. Together, they make a very convincing argument for why everyone should incorporate it into their fitness routine to one degree or another.

Not only does it promotes great heart and lung health, it also builds strength and endurance whilst providing a cognitive and metabolic boost to be enjoyed hours after we leave the pool.

Swimming can be enjoyed whatever your fitness level. So head to your nearest pool today and start enjoying the benefits of swimming immediately.

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