If you are anti-gymming like me, the best thing you can start with is swimming. If we consider the range of aerobic exercise throughout the world, swimming can probably be considered as the best one from the list.
This exercise is recommended by experts, thanks to its countless health benefits notwithstanding your skill and age. This activity can be enjoyed with friends, family, pets or even by yourself. Let us check out the top 13 reasons you need to start swimming for good health today!
Promotes Bone Strength
It is natural to see a decrease in bone mass with an increase in age, particularly in women. Embracing swimming can assist you in preventing bone loss that is triggered by age in addition to other types of aerobic exercises.
If you have been suffering from arthritis and joint pain, swimming can prove to be really beneficial for you.
According to a study conducted by scientists, swimming on a regular basis even helps in ameliorating osteoporosis. In addition to that, this physical activity also helps in strengthening the bones and improving the bone mass (1).
Helps in Weight Loss
If you wish to burn calories the easy way and without sweating, swimming can be an excellent option. It is a known fact that the higher the number of calories that you burn, the more fat in your body gets mobilized. This helps you in losing all the extra flab present in your body.
An experiment conducted by Korean scientists on obese children resulted in knowledge that aquatic exercises such as swimming can work wonders for reducing the fat mass in a body (2).
Enhances the Health of Your Heart
The number of people worldwide suffering from different kinds of heart diseases has been known to skyrocket in recent years. If your lifestyle is largely sedentary and the thought of working out at a gym seems borderline dreadful to you, think about having some fun in the expanse of cool blue waters.
Swimming is one aerobic exercise that has the potential to enhance the health of your heart and protect your body from all kinds of prospective cardiovascular diseases. Not just this, but studies show that swimming can be considered as one of the best exercises to ensure that your stays in good condition (3).
Helps in Treating Cerebral Palsy in Children
We all know that cerebral palsy is a disability syndrome that affects children of all ages. If statistics are to be believed, this condition affects newborns in a ratio of about 4:1000. Exercising has been proven to help children who suffer from cerebral palsy.
The reason is that it helps in enhancing the motor functions of the kids. In addition to that, exercising also provides a positive experience for these children. According to studies done by Australian scientists, swimming is largely enjoyed by children who suffer from cerebral palsy. In fact, they don’t even feel tired by it (4).
Improves Your Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the ability to be able to move your joints properly and to their maximum range. During swimming, you naturally use your core and limbs so that you can propel your body into the forward direction to stay afloat. If you swim every day, it can help in enhancing the flexibility of your entire body and also, it can help reduce joint pain (5).
Improves Your Body Coordination
In order to swim, you require a certain amount of coordination between your arms, legs, chest, eyes, and head. It is practically a no-brainer that without coordination, you cannot really swim.
Regardless of whether you are doing it in a competition, therapeutic or recreational purposes, swimming can improve your body movement in its entirety and can also go a long way in improving the coordination between your bore and your limbs (6).
Lowers the Triglyceride Levels in Elderly
The risk of suffering from heart diseases and possibly early death is considerably increased with the increase in the levels of levels in your body.
There was a study conducted by scientists which revealed that all those women who made it a point to swim for at least an hour daily for three consecutive weeks lost weight, experienced a better body composition and also improved the blood lipid profiles in their body.
It was also recorded that they saw a significant drop in the levels of triglyceride in their blood (7).
Increases Neurogenesis
Swimming is also known to increase neurogenesis in humans, which can come as a lifesaver in case of neurological diseases such as temporal lobe epilepsy where anti-seizure drugs prove to be useless.
Several studies have proved that swimming can be a good substitute for drugs to prevent neurological diseases (8).
Treats Asthma
Asthma is a grave condition that is responsible for causing inflammation in the airways. This leads to the blockage in the airways and patients experience difficulty in breathing.
However, several studies have shown that you might be able to reduce asthma attacks by regular swimming.
It has also been observed that swimming can prove to be much more beneficial as compared to other kinds of land exercises (9).
Improves the Quality of Your Sleep
If you have been experiencing sleepless nights for the last few days or weeks, start swimming! This is one exercise that can be called as a full-body aerobic workout.
If you are a swimming enthusiast, you would know that swimming is an extremely exhausting activity and spending just a few hours in the water can tire you out.
The reason for this is that when you swim, not just your body but your brain is also extremely and continuously active. This exhaustion is precisely what helps you to get a good night sleep every single day (10).
Promotes Mental Health
Mental health is as important as your physical health and let nobody tell you otherwise. Depression, stress, and anxiety are some grave mental health issues that should never be ignored.
As discussed above, swimming significantly aids in helping us deal with some physical conditions while avoiding the others.
Talking about mental health, swimming can also prove to be your best friend to treat acute psychological issues as it uplifts your mood and makes you feel calm and centered (11).
Slows Down the Process of Aging
As much as you would like, it is impossible for you to go back in time. That said, we might have found the trick to slow down the process of aging.
Start swimming and it can go a long way to making you not just look but feel younger. The reason for this lies in the fact that swimming helps in uplifting your mood which results in alleviating the levels of oxidative stress from your body.
Thanks to this, the functioning of your body continues normally without any kind of slowing down (12).
Strengthens and Tones Your Muscles
It is no secret that swimming regularly can help you lose the excess fat from your body. However, how would you feel if we told you that you could also strengthen and tone your muscles at the same time?
When you make repeated movements with your chest, legs, head, hands, neck, and abs, it aids in building slender muscles in your body instead of bulky muscles.
In addition to that, the strength and power of your muscles are also enhanced the more you practice swimming. When you do it regularly, you are required to constantly push your body in the forward direction by displacing the water that surrounds you, resulting in strong muscles (13).
These were some of the top reasons why you must start swimming today itself. However, as you know, there are several different kinds of swimming exercises.
All these exercises work in different ways and help in exercising different parts of your body. You can choose to freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, dog paddle, sidestroke, etc.
Regardless of the kind of exercise you practice, there are a few swimming tips that you must always follow to help you in becoming a good swimmer.
- Swim in a safe environment where there are lifeguards on duty.
- Don’t just jump into the water without giving your body prior warning. Do not forget to indulge your body in some useful warmup exercises and also stretch your muscles and joints prior to entering the water.
- Stay well hydrated and always keep plenty of fluids around you so that you don’t get dehydrated while swimming.
- If you are merely a beginner and are not a very good swimmer, don’t overdo it. Take it slow and let your body get accustomed to being in the water and to the strain that is being put on it. You can increase the pace when you feel your stamina rising.
- If you lead a sedentary lifestyle and have never swum in your life, see your doctor before you start.
Swimming can definitely be considered an extremely low-impact exercise. There is a very low chance of suffering an injury, but you must always follow the correct techniques and avoid demanding workouts.
Overall, swim every day and see the change!