Looking for a way to get all the benefits of a good work-out without suffering from joint pain? Well, whip out your swimsuits and let’s go swimming! As a low-impact activity, swimming benefits your physical and mental well-being in ways we’re sure you’ve never imagined. A sneak peeks at the different strokes that exist all weave their impacts into relaxing your nerves and helping you achieve cardiovascular fitness.
So, in case you’re wondering, “is swimming good exercise?” short answer? Yes, it is. It is a sure-fire way to get all the blessings of working out without drowning your joints in the ocean of pain. After we take you through the advantages of swimming, you’ll never look at it the same way again. Here’s what you stand to gain when you start taking your swimming classes and swimming seriously.
- Cardiovascular Fitness and Medicinal effects
Aside from running, swimming is another perfect exercise that enhances cardiovascular fitness. But the difference between running and swimming is that the former is fairly a high-impact exercise whereas swimming is low impact. Stay with me.
Here’s what I mean. While high-impact exercises have their advantages, engaging in them too much puts your body at risk of getting sore from ache. Consequently, your joints might start to suffer from aches forcing you to take some days off exercising to recover.
On the flip side, swimming is a low-impact activity, but it still gets you the results you’d otherwise get from some high-impact cardiovascular fitness exercise. In other words, it doesn’t place too much strain on your body while reducing your risk factor of falling victim to any cardiovascular disease.
Furthermore, research shows that swimming plays a role in boosting your heart’s strength. While you might not burn as many calories as when you engage in running, swimming pumps your heart up to a better rate without painfully pinching your muscles and joints.
In women, dedicating 30 minutes daily to swimming works wonders. It reduces, by 40%, the chances of falling prey to stroke, dementia, breast, womb & bowel cancer, obesity, etc. It also helps you boost your HDL cholesterol levels which is the good cholesterol your body needs.
- Stress relief
Although stress seems to have become the norm, it is important to note that it is dangerous to brain cells. Medical research experts have noted that the impacts of stress on the brain are as adverse as resulting in brain cells’ degeneration.
Before you panic, these experts proffer solutions to stress infestation of the body. And guess what’s on their list of solutions for stress? Yup! Swimming. Here’s how it works; to reduce the impacts of stress on your brain, you need to generate a stress-reduction hormone called ANP.
Luckily, when you engage in swimming, your body generates the ANP hormone, which, in turn, reduces the impacts of stress and anxiety on your brain. When it comes to regenerating brain cells, swimming facilitates the hippocampal neurogenesis process aimed at brain cell regeneration. This low-impact activity does this by releasing feelings of calmness into our brain.
Besides, swimming is a great way to get away from the craziness of the world. It offers you a great opportunity to meditate. Experts have compared the impacts of yoga to that of swimming. They claim that both activities produce similar results in terms of relaxing the mind and body.
Now, you do not have to choose between yoga and swimming when you can have both. They’ll make you feel more relaxed and keep stress at bay.
Aside from combating stress, swimming grants you easy exit from a bad or negative mood. This is probably because when you go underwater, the feel-good hormone is released into your brain. In turn, this uplifts your mood, washing away the negativity that latched onto your soul before you hit the water.
- Better and improved sleep patterns.
Improved sleep patterns are another one of the various benefits of swimming. When you engage in swimming and other cardio activities quite often, your sleep patterns would naturally improve. You’ll have better sleep routines and won’t need to deal with the woes of waking up earlier than anticipated or at the wrong time.
Based on research, those who engage in swimming have reported improved and better sleep routines. They also rarely fall victim to insomnia. Instead, their sleep pattern becomes perfect. So, if your sleep pattern isn’t stable, you might want to design a regular swimming routine for yourself. Adding it as a supplement to your recommended medication by your doctor would work wonders.
It works like this; when your body is immersed in a pool, it impacts your breathing by making it similar to the kind you have when meditating. Your body also engages in free-floating movements. These effects on your breathing and body movements contribute to boosting your sleep habits and pattern.
- Great Therapy for those who suffered an injury.
As a low-impact activity, Swimming is great therapy for those recovering from an injury. The reason is quite obvious. When your body is submerged in water, the water’s buoyant nature acts as a masseur that swaps the pain in your joint with ease and relief.
This benefit is probably why swimming is one of the recommended natural remedies for back pain. Some athletes who suffered injuries noted that it drastically improved their injuries when they chose to engage in swimming rather than resting. It is also an amazing exercise substitute to keep them fit while they recuperate.
- Full body workout
With swimming, you put all of your muscles to work, including the muscles that rarely get engaged in workouts. Body parts that you exercise when you engage in swimming include your back, arms & shoulders, hamstrings, legs, etc. As a result, your entire body would be in perfect shape. But your body would only get in shape if you frequently engage in this low-impact activity.
Swimming provides you with a comprehensive routine as it touches every body part. The best part is that you won’t suffer effects like joint or muscle pain every time you swim. Also, if you’d like to exercise specific body parts, you can adopt drills that are specifically carved out to keep your desired body part fit.
Now that you’ve seen that the benefits of swimming transcend mere entertainment and fun, we hope you’ll take your swimming adventures a little seriously. The best part about swimming is that it knows no age limit. Anyone from pregnant women to older adults and kids can reap the benefits of swimming.
Let’s not forget that it doesn’t inflict your joints and muscles with pain. Hence, you can have a daily routine for it. Swimming is just amazing. It blends entertainment, mental and physical benefits.
Leave a Reply