8 Benefits of Swimming

Swimming is a great exercise for you, with young and old being able to take part. It's not only a good exercise for your whole body, but can be quite a lot of fun as-well. 

You don't need to be an Olympic athlete to reap the benefits that swimming can bring.

1. Good for your joints

If you're a person who has a problem with their weight and/or are arthritic, then swimming is a great exercise to take up. If you are arthritic, just doing laps of the pool is great for you, as it incorporates stretching muscles, strengthening muscles, and an aerobic workout.

When up to your waist in water your body bears only 50% of its total weight. When at your chest, your body will only bear 25-35% of its total body weight. And when the water level is around your neck, your body will only bear a mere 10% of its total body weight. You can see why it's good for your joints and bones.

2. Keeps joints flexible

As discussed in point #1, swimming doesn't put pressure on you joints, so it is great at maintaining flexibility in the joints as it promotes joint looseness. Swimming doesn't just work one part of your body, but your whole body. You use your arms, legs, feet, neck, and body (as it turns from side-to-side). This is good at keeping your muscles in form, giving them some nice stretches.

You can also do some actual flexibility stretches in the water as well, just to finish off your swim.

3. Less likely to drown

It might sound silly, but for those of us that can swim, we are obviously less likely to drown than someone who can't swim. For instance; if a non-swimmer was to fall into a river or a lake for whatever reason, they would be in a much worse situation than someone who can swim.

Learning how to swim is like riding a bike, once you've learnt it - you'll never forget it.

4. Healthy heart

Swimming is great for circulation and helps the heart tremendously with its job of pumping blood. Your heart will become larger and stronger, in turn creating a better blood flow throughout your body.

If done for only 30 minutes a day, you can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and blood pressure.

5. Weight loss

Swimming is one of the best calorie-burning exercises a person can do, and was once considered a bit of a pointless activity for weight loss. Of course since modern technologies and advances in science, we can see that swimming is great for weight loss.

Your exact calorie loss will depend on how much you weigh and how intense your swimming session is.

Some approximations are; for a 150lb person, swimming for 30 minutes a day can burn 215-285 calories. For a 400lb person however, swimming for 30 minutes a day can burn 575-765 calories.

6. Increased strength

Like any other exercise that uses muscle power for propulsion, there is going to be muscle tone and increased strength. Swimming though is better than the majority of other aerobic exercises simply for the fact that water is denser than air. This means you have to use more muscle power and strength to keep it up. If you have ever look at a professional swimmer, they always seem to look well-toned and muscular.

7. Improved cholesterol 

As an aerobic exercise, swimming has been proven to raise HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) levels, which is good cholesterol. and also to lower LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) levels, which is bad cholesterol. This is what your recommended cholesterol ratio levels should be; higher levels of HDL and lower levels of LDL.

Having a good cholesterol ratio can help with lowering the risk of heart diseases.

8. Reduce stress

Stress is a horrible thing to be plagued with and there are different things you can do to reduce the levels of stress you have. Swimming is one of these methods.

A process can occur whilst swimming called hippocampal neurogenesis, which allows the body to replace cells that were lost through stress. Not only that, but like most exercises, swimming has the capability of helping you to relax and take your mind off of things that might be causing the stress and anxiety.