Overview
There are a lot of benefits you will gain from swimming regularly and that is why swimming is the fourth most popular activity In the United States. Today, you will learn the top 6 benefits of swimming regularly.
It is a well-known fact that getting 150 minutes of moderate workout or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise every week is very important and excellent for our overall health. Swimming is a low-impact exercise that burns as many calories as running without damaging your bones or joints. Apart from being a low-impact exercise, swimming is also a full-body workout that affects your entire body and cardiovascular system.
Benefits
1: Swimming is a Full Body Workout
One of the top benefits of swimming is that it works your entire body which makes swimming the best total body exercise. Because swimming is a low-impact exercise that doesn’t damage your bones or joints, it is widely recommended for recovery from injuries.
- Swimming daily will tone your muscles
- It is best for your endurance and helps you increase your stamina for various other activities
- Regular swimming will help you strengthen your body
- Best for increasing your heart rate without hurting your joints or bones
Following are the top five swimming strokes you can add to your regular workout schedule.
- Freestyle
- Breaststroke
- Backstroke
- Butterfly
- Sidestroke
Each of these strokes works on different muscle groups to move you forward or backward in the water. Water provides enough resistance for you to activate all the different muscles to strengthen your whole body.
2: Swimming burns a lot of calories
A lot of people run or jog to burn calories but they are also prone to joint injuries and long-term bone issues. It should be known that swimming will burn almost as many calories as you burn after running or jogging. Not only swimming is an efficient way to burn calories but also it will not hurt your joints or injure your bones. Studies suggest that a 160-pound (72 kg) person will burn almost 430 Calories an hour with moderate swimming speed and the same person can burn up to 720 calories an hour swimming at a more vigorous speed.
That same 160-pound (72 kg) person will burn just 320 calories walking for 60 minutes.
3: Swimming helps boost your mood and relax your body
Swimming will not only help with physical benefits but also with psychological benefits. Swimming at a slow pace or just floating on your back will make you relaxed and help boost your mood. Relaxing in water after a hectic day will help relieve your stress and make you fall asleep faster.
Studies suggest that people who swim regularly will sleep early and will get deep sleep without frequent wake-ups at night. This will help you wake up fresh and early in the morning making you feel energetic and productive the entire day.
4: Swimming regularly helps people with dementia
There was research done on a small group of people with dementia and after a 12-week swimming program, tremendous improvement was seen in the mood. The study suggests that swimming helps with the behavior and psychological well-being of people with moderate to severe dementia.
5: Regular Swimming helps strengthen the insides of your body
As we all know that swimming is a total body workout and helps tone and build your muscles but it’s also important to know that swimming will strengthen your internal organs and increase their lifespan. Swimming regularly will improve your cardiovascular system tremendously, making your heart and lungs very strong. Because of the positive effects on your cardiovascular system swimming is known to reduce the risk of death because of heart failure. Swimmers have half the risk of death compared to inactive people. Swimming regularly at a moderate to vigorous pace will help lower your blood pressure and control your blood sugar.
6: Swimming helps you burn fat compared to most of the other exercises
People do a lot of exercise to lose fat and get in shape. Some of these exercises require expensive equipment or gym memberships and are not as effective or convenient as swimming to burn body fat. Swimming is a very effective fat-burning exercise because it gets your heart rate up very quickly and helps maintain the intensity because it is almost impossible to rest in a deep pool without moving at least a single part of your body. This helps keep you active all the time in the water and constantly burns your fat.
It is also known that a person can burn calories just by standing or floating in the water. That means you can burn fat just by relaxing in a pool with cold water. Your body will constantly try to maintain your body temperature to keep you warm in the cold water which is achieved by burning calories, the body uses stored or excess fat as the primary source of energy.
Now that you have learned about the top 6 benefits of swimming, it’s time to include a swim session in your daily or weekly schedule. Getting fit and toning your body with low impact and relaxing workouts like swimming is always a good idea.
If you live in Austin, Texas, and need private coaching to learn swimming for yourself or your kids, you should contact Rocket Swimming. We offer world-class Private Swim training.
