Swimming. Summer. Fun time. Maybe even get a tan while we’re at it! So, you know to know the benefits of swimming? Awesome. Let us understand some of the ways/health benefits of swimming which can undoubtedly have a positive effect on our body.
Whole Body Workout
As we know, there are different types of strokes involved in swimming that utilizes the muscles from different parts of the body and thus strengthens them. One can say that swimming is a workout for whole body.
Strokes like butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle or sidestroke concentrate and emphasize muscles from particular body area and a combination of these different strokes while swimming lends a perfect balanced exercise to entire body. Furthermore, it assists in building endurance.
Helps in Weight Loss
Swimming is a rigorous exercise. The water in the pool is constantly offering resistance to the swimmer. So, what now? Well, you need great strength and stamina to overcome the resistance and swim ahead. This struggle of the body to fight the tide of water utilizes lot of muscle power and energy. Therefore, the swimmer burns many calories while swimming and gives ample exercise to the abdominal and body muscles and tones them well.
Managing Stress
Ever experienced tension or stress? There is no better solution to ease it out than to have a cool dip and relax. After a long, stressful and tiring day at work, if you take a dip in a cool pool, it will amaze you to know how refreshed you feel and get totally relaxed. The tingling sensation of water helps to relax and soothe the body and makes you forget the stress.
Cardiovascular strength
As per medical studies, swimming is an excellent source of keeping the heart and lungs healthy. The underwater stint trains the lungs to take deep breath and hold it in for long time, thus providing ample oxygen to the body. The strength and force needed to fight the resistance of water while swimming ensures that the heart pumps blood rapidly to give more oxygen and strength to muscles and body. Thus swimmers develop a stronger heart than normal people.
Good for asthma
It may sound surprising, but swimming is indeed good for people suffering from asthma. Asthma is the condition of difficulty to breathe normally in open dry atmosphere. Nonetheless, while swimming, as mentioned earlier, the swimmer trains to take in maximum amount of air in the lungs to facilitate remaining underwater for a long time. This aids in expanding the lungs capacity to take in and hold more air and oxygen. Since the swimmer is breathing in moist condition, he does not experience the dryness and that permits proper and healthy breathing. Besides, swimming promotes rhythmic breathing that gives you control over the lungs.
Reduces inflammation
Water acts as a cushion and prevents the swimmer from injury or harmful impact. Thus, swimming is a good exercise for people suffering from arthritis, disability or injury. Other than this, the exercise also helps strengthen cardiovascular muscles and enhances pumping of heart. It reduces the risk of inflammation that directs to atherosclerosis build-up in the heart. Hence, we can see that not only the heart, but entire body benefits from swimming.
Helps to lengthen life span
The studies conducted by British Journal of Sports Medicine and a university in the USA, state that amongst various exercises like running, cycling and swimming, it is swimming that is considered more beneficial for longevity. This could stem from the fact that during swimming, the heart, lungs, muscles and entire body gets full exercise and thus assists in maintaining a healthy body and mind.
The lungs are seasoned to retain oxygen for a longer time and heart is trained to pump more blood. All this leads to adequate supply of oxygen to the body that keeps us healthy and fit. While running did not show any significant change, cycling was shown to reduce the risk of mortality rate by 15%. However, swimming showed the reduction by 28%
CONCLUSION
A healthy body and a healthy mind is the most desired attribute. Nonetheless, instead of going through strenuous or tough routine to achieve this, if one can opt for an enjoyable solution then why not grab it? No doubt that gym, jogging, running, cycling and others can give your body the necessary exercise to burn fat and lose weight, but swimming gives you added advantages and immense pleasure. So think no further, just go out for it and take a cool dip.
Currently, I am a student of Fatima Jinnah Women University. With a burning passion for psychology, words, and dreams, I decided to abandon medical studies for humanities. These days, when I’m not listening to ballads, watching movies, or sitting down with a good novel, I am rigorously studying Hangul (Korean language) to satisfy my obsession for BTS and K dramas. I’m a thinking introvert and INFJ personality. Therefore, I like ‘me time’. My articles typically resonate with psychological well-being advice.