Swimming is very good for your physical and mental health. This is because water is a low-impact sport that offers more resistance than dryland sports. Moreover, water has a cooling effect on the body and it also offers many benefits.
Actually, swimming is very good for health and fitness, and now, in this article, Healthy Guide will show you some of the amazing benefits of swimming that you should try to reap these benefits.
Swimming can be a great exercise to help burn calories. According to a study, an hour of swimming can burn about 715 calories. Actually, if compared nonswimmers with fitness swimmers, researchers found that swimmers had more lean muscles.
During an intense 30-minute swimming, you can burn about 350 calories. Addition to this, water can give more resistance to the body, which has influence over calories. Therefore, swimming can be a great option if you want to lose weight.
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Swimming is a great way to increase muscle tone and strength if compared to some other aerobic exercises. For example, when you run, you only move your body through the air. And when you swim, you are propelling yourself through water that is about 12 times as dense as air. So, every kick and arm stroke will become a resistance exercise and you should know that resistance exercises are one of the best ways to build muscle tone and muscular strength. Plus, swimming has also been found to improve bone health, especially in post-menopausal women.
Apart from toning visible muscles such as triceps, pectorals, and quads, swimming is also effective in improving the muscles in our heart. It is well- known that swimming is an aerobic exercise, so it works to improve the heart health, and then you will have better blood flow throughout the body. Besides, aerobic exercise can help fight the body’s inflammatory response that can contribute to heart diseases. According to a study, just 30 minutes of swimming per day can reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease in women by 30- 40%.
Unlike working out in the often dry air, swimming gives you a chance to exercise in moist air, and this can be helpful for reducing asthma symptoms. Pool workouts can help you avoid asthma attacks, they can also help improve your overall condition. According to a study, a group of children who finished a six-week swimming program reported to have improvements in symptom severity, mouth-breathing, snoring and emergency room visits. Eventually, the health benefits still remain up to a year. For people without asthma, they can benefit from swimming because this exercise can help increase lung volume.
When it comes to benefits of swimming, you should not forget the fact that swimming can help reduce the risk of diabetes. According to a study, men lowered their risk of diabetes by about 6% for every 500 calories they burned per week in aerobic exercise. If you swim for 30 minutes three times a week, you can burn about 900 calories, hence lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 10%. And, if you are suffering from type 1 diabetes, swimming can be helpful by increasing insulin sensitivity. Diabetics should have 150 minutes of swimming per week, at least 3 times per week in order to aid glycemic control.
When it comes to learning benefits of swimming for health, you should not forget the fact that swimming can help you improve cholesterol. Swimming can help increase the levels of “good” cholesterol and reduce the levels of “bad” cholesterol. And, for every 1% increase in “good” cholesterol, the risk of developing heart disease reduces by 3.5%.
Swimming puts the body through many motions to help ligaments and joints stay loose and flexible. Also, with every stroke, when you reach forward, you are lengthening your body, which can give you a great stretch from head to toe. In order to improve the flexibility when swimming, you may want to do some gentle stretches. Swimming is known as one of the best sports to improve flexibility because it tones the body’s areas including the back, hips, and hamstrings.
Swimming can help in relieving aches and pains. So, if you have a bad knee or back pain, you can go swimming to take the pressure off. The water can give you a support as you relax, stretch, and heal. Actually, speeding up recovery is one of the best benefits of swimming for health that you should not forget.
Reducing stress is known as one of the best benefits of swimming that you should not look down, yet try to include this kind of exercise in your workout regime for good. Some people believe that swimming offers greater stress relief than watching a TV show. Swimming releases the mood-boosting hormones called endorphins, and it also gives you a chance to clear your mind.
If you are suffering from depression and anxiety, swimming can help reduce muscle pain. Besides, swimming is a perfect workout for individuals who are self-conscious about their look because it tones and strengthens the whole body, hence leaving you feeling good. As a result, if you are looking for a kind of exercise that can help reduce anxiety and depression naturally, you can try swimming.
On average, we breathe about 12-20 breaths a minute. When we feel anxious or stressed, our muscles may start to tighten up, making breathing harder and causing a shortness of breath and even panic attacks. Swimming aids to regulate your breathing, reduce blood pressure, help with weight loss and remove toxins from the body.
Regular exercise helps improve memory function as well as thinking skills. Regular exercise helps reduce inflammation as well as insulin resistance in the brain, which stimulates new brain cell growth. And, swimming also helps you think more efficiently. Actually, when you swim, you can increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain, which means that you will have more alertness, better cognitive function and memory.
Regular swimming can slow down the effects of aging by increasing muscle mass, reducing blood pressure, improving blood flow and oxygen to the brain, as well as increasing cardiovascular health. Besides, swimming can also help improve physical strength, increase flexibility as well as reduce joint inflammation.
It may sound strange when it comes to learning benefits of swimming, but swimming can help improve your skin health. Swimming regularly in salt water can help retain moisture in the skin and promote new cell growth. Besides, when you swim, your heartbeat rate will increase, hence increasing blood flow to the body and simultaneously nourish the skin cells. It also opens the skin pores, giving a natural glow to the skin. So, get an invigorating swim if you want to enjoy a smooth and healthy skin.
Sulphur found in ocean works as an antiseptic agent that is necessary for treating acne, lessening scars and reducing the breakouts. As you know that acne is a chronic skin disease. Although it is not dangerous, it can lead to skin scars. Addition to this, sodium chloride is helpful for clearing mild acne and cleansing the skin. It contains antibacterial properties that can be effective in reducing the size of acne. Although chlorine is bad for the skin, it helps treat acne by drying it out.
This is the last but very important one among benefits of swimming that we want to mention in this article. If you are suffering from sleep disorders, you should try doing regular swimming exercise. Actually, swimming can help relax your nerve and reduce stress which is one of the common causes of insomnia.
For beginners, there are some swimming tips that you should follow:
After reading this interesting article, we hope that you can be aware of the amazing of swimming for health and fitness and then do this kind of exercise more regularly. Actually, swimming offers many health benefits, so you should not forget it when you want to have a healthy body. One more thing, if you know other benefits of swimming for human health, feel free to share your ideas with us by leaving your comments in the comment box below.
Author Bio Lucy Alvet – Writer and Blogger, who has more than 6 years of experience in the industry of Health and Skincare. I work for Healthy Guide – reliable resources that help readers solve all their health, beauty concerning, and many other issues in life. I also focus on nutrition, relationship, fitness, lifestyle, men and women’s issues. Find more of my articles on Facebook.