Swimming Advantages We Should All Know
Swimming is an enjoyable way to stay fit while having fun. Its low impact nature helps build muscle, relieve joint pain and enhance overall fitness levels. Swimming also promotes good hygiene!
Swimming not only helps you turn back time, but it can also release endorphins that reduce stress and lift your mood quicker than taking a dip on the beach! Here are 13 of its numerous benefits.
Improves Cardiovascular Health
Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular exercise for your heart health. It improves heart contractility, lowers blood pressure and strengthens the lungs.
Swimming puts the heart to work harder and faster, as it must pump more blood while taking in more oxygen. Furthermore, it improves lung efficiency so your body can utilize more oxygen during daily activities.
Swimming has another advantage for people with arthritis or joint problems; additionally, it is safer for those with heart conditions since swimming puts less strain on the heart than running or cycling does.
Strengthens Muscles
Swimming is an effective way to build muscle because it’s a total-body workout. Not only does it cover an upper and lower body area in one session, but swimming also takes less strain on your joints than running or other types of high-impact cardio exercises.
While swimming, your core, abdominal and hamstrings muscles work to keep you buoyant in the water. These muscles also stabilize you and keep your body moving smoothly – helping prevent injury.
No matter if you’re swimming front crawl, breaststroke or backstroke, each stroke targets major muscle groups in your body. All strokes work your abs and back; while forearm, shoulder, gluteal and hamstring muscles receive specific attention with each style of swimming.
Tracy suggests mixing up your strokes when swimming for strength training purposes. “Front crawl provides a great workout to your abs, back and triceps muscles; breaststroke works the chest and arm muscles; backstroke works the hamstrings and glutes,” she advises.
Improves Flexibility
Swimming is a low-impact exercise that doesn’t put any strain on your joints, making it ideal for anyone suffering from chronic pain. The buoyancy of the water reduces impact to knees, hips and spine due to its buoyancy.
According to a 2016 study, the weight of water provides your muscles with resistance as they produce synovial fluid, helping reduce friction between your joints. This may reduce the risk of joint problems for people with arthritis or fibromyalgia.
Flexibility helps enhance the length-tension relationship in your muscles, which is essential for optimizing force output from each stroke. It also helps elongate and center your limbs close to the hole created in the water as you swim, decreasing drag and improving performance.
For optimal flexibility and mobility, try following a stretching routine. Check out my 7 Stretching Tips below and start improving your flexibility and mobility today!
Improves Sleep
Sleep is essential for health and wellbeing, yet it often takes a backseat to schoolwork, training, social commitments or other commitments that prevent us from sleeping. Unfortunately, lack of shut-eye has been linked to several chronic illnesses like obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
Swimming, in particular, has been proven to improve sleep for those suffering from insomnia. Exercise stimulates our parasympathetic nervous system which relaxes the body and lowers stress levels that may interrupt our sleeping patterns.
Meditation and yoga both work on the same principle to relax your brain. Swimming’s gentle stretching of skeletal muscles, repeated strokes, and deep breathing create a meditative effect similar to that experienced during meditation.
