When looking for a way to spend your free time actively, swimming should be taken into account as it can quickly improve your condition, health and the appearance of your whole silhouette. See what are the advantages of swimming, whether and how much you can lose weight while swimming and how to swim to get the most benefit from this activity.
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Benefits of swimming for your health
Swimming has a very beneficial effect on our respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Swimming forces the airways to work harder. Our lungs gradually increase their capacity and become more efficient, the level of oxygenation of all cells and tissues improves. Swimming improves the heart rate and blood circulation. Water activity also lowers blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels. Swimming reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and strokes.
Regular visits to a swimming pool will benefit those who suffer from ailments related to the spine. Swimming is the best exercise for our back, it reduces pain and muscle tension in the spine, relaxes, increases motor skills, improves motor coordination. If you have a sedentary job or for other reasons often complain about your back, swimming can bring you great relief and significantly improve the comfort of your life. This form of activity will also be a good solution for people struggling with joint overload and accompanying pains.
It is also worth mentioning another pro-health benefit of swimming, which is undoubtedly the improvement of the immunity of the body and a general improvement in physical condition and endurance. However, the benefits of swimming do not only concern the physical sphere, but also the psyche. As any form of activity, swimming also prevents depression and instead helps you to relax, de-stress and gain distance to your problems.
Swimming and muscles
As it turns out, not only the gym but also the swimming pool helps to build and sculpt muscles. By swimming with the right technique and over long distances, we force particular muscle groups to work intensively. Moreover, this form of activity eliminates the risk of injury – free movement in water engages muscles, but does not strain joints, which are unfortunately often injured during strength training. Due to the increased work of muscles during swimming, regular visits to the pool may result in a modelled, slim, athletic silhouette.
Swimming and weight loss
Swimming is highly recommended for people struggling with excess weight. It leads to increased metabolic rate and increased calorie burning (by swimming for an hour we burn about 500 calories). It is also worth mentioning that with a high level of fat tissue and low physical fitness, swimming is a much safer way to lose weight than, for example, running, which puts a strain on the joints and carries the risk of injury.
If we swim regularly and accompany it with a low-calorie diet, our body weight will be gradually reduced. However, the slimming effects of swimming are an individual matter – how much we lose and how fast we lose it depends on, among other things, the level of our excess weight, the diet we have been following and the intensity of water training.
How to swim to lose weight and shape your body?
Let’s remember that if we care about losing weight and shaping our figure, our swimming sessions should take place regularly, about 3 times a week and last about one hour. For people who want to lose excess weight but are not very good at any swimming technique, a good option is to take advantage of group classes. Aqua aerobics has become very popular recently and has a very positive effect on slimming the figure and reducing body weight.
However, if you prefer standard swimming styles, choose the one which suits you best and gradually increase the distances covered. As far as muscle development and sculpting is concerned, it’s worth creating a training plan which includes different swimming techniques (frog, kraul, backstroke, butterfly). However, it is not necessary, you can swim only one, your favourite style.
Each swimming style engages particular muscles in a slightly different way. Swimming frog, we put the greatest emphasis on the development of the muscles of the legs and chest. While swimming in crawl, the most intensively work the muscles of the arms and shoulders. Backstroke will help us strengthen and model the muscles of our arms, back and buttocks. Whereas butterfly swimming is a great workout for shoulder and back muscles.
