Do you know swimming is among the four most popular sports and exercises? U.S Bureau of Labour Statistics reports that people perform more aquatic exercises than walking and strength training. A swimming workout routine is popular among people as it is enjoyable and low-impact. Integration of aquatic exercises into your workout help reduce body fat, lower blood pressure, improve mental health, and more.
You might be familiar that experts recommend 150 minutes of vigorous activity each week. You can divide this time into 30 minutes segments each day. Despite walking, jogging, and other activities, you can try aquatic activities too.
Swimming is an excellent way to work your entire body and cardiovascular system. A swimming workout routine burns more calories without any impact on joints and bones.
Read on to learn more about the swimming workout routine and its benefits!
Benefits of Swimming Workout Routine
Whether you have tried swimming for recreational purposes or fitness, it is a tough full-body workout. Beginners might not be familiar with the effectiveness of swimming as cross-training or the primary form of exercise.
Here are the top 12 benefits of a swimming workout routine:
You might be wondering about improving your endurance for many reasons. If you have ever tried to tread water, you have probably realized how important endurance is in swimming.
A swimming workout routine can build your endurance in many ways. It is a repetitive exercise. You can increase your swimming distance and intensity gradually. Moreover, it improves physical fitness by increasing cardiovascular endurance.
One of the primary benefits of a swimming workout routine is that it offers an entire body workout. From head to toe, swimming:
- increases your heart rate without stressing your body
- tones muscles
- builds strength
- builds endurance
There are various strokes you can use to add variety to your swimming workout, including:
- breaststroke
- backstroke
- sidestroke
- butterfly
- freestyle
Each focuses on different muscle groups, and the water provides a gentle resistance. No matter what stroke you swim, you’re using most of your muscle groups to move your body through the water.
You know that swimming is an aerobic exercise that provides cardiovascular conditioning. It elevates your heart rate during exercise which is beneficial for cardiovascular health. An increased heart rate from exercise trains your body to deliver oxygen to your muscles and lower cholesterol levels.
Swimming increases your heart rate, and when your heart rate goes up, your heart pumps more blood each time it beats.
No doubt, swimming requires proper breathing techniques and practice. The aerobic elements of a swimming workout routine are beneficial in increasing lung capacity and efficiency. It makes your respiratory system healthy to make your daily life activities sustainable.
Increased lung capacity enhances the body’s ability to absorb oxygen and can contribute to better overall health.
Also, Read – Yoga and Cross-Training
Would you like to burn your calories? There is no other better way to burn calories than swimming. Your swimming workout routine can burn up to 715 calories an hour at a vigorous pace.
Moreover, swimming boosts your heart rate, strengthens and tones your body muscles, and burns calories while remaining a low-impact workout.
Are you struggling to get in-depth and quality sleep? You can try swimming to boost your sleep quality by engaging you in an aerobic workout. When you get old, you experience insomnia and other sleep disorders that can be managed by aerobic activities.
You can try different enjoyable pool activities to improve your sleep, such as walking, jogging, and bicycling in the pool.
Swimming is accessible to a wide range of people who deal with physical issues that make other exercises, like running, less appealing. That can make swimming a good choice for older adults looking to improve their sleep.
Swimming is not only a workout but also a recreational activity that can make you happy. Aside from providing physical benefits, swimming offers psychological advantages to improve your mood.
Whether you are feeling depressed or stressed swimming is beneficial. However, more research in this field is essential to prove the effectiveness of swimming to boost mood.
You may consider that lifting weight is the only way to improve muscle strength. Despite lifting weight, you can swim to target your upper body muscles, core, and lower body.
When you swim laps, you are mainly using your upper body. Some strokes, such as the freestyle stroke and butterfly stroke, are associated with working the arms, chest, shoulders, and back. If you have ever swum laps, you know that your arms will burn as though you just hit the weights.
Moreover, swimming that involves kicking yields better lower body workout. It targets large muscles and glutes in your body. You can also perform backstroke to target the lower body muscles.
Some exercises like strength training, weight lifting, and running put stress on the body joints. Therefore, people look for low-impact exercises to minimize the stress on their joints. Aquatic exercises or swimming workout routine is the best low-stress exercise.
People with multiple sclerosis often experience pain as a symptom of neurological disease. While regular aerobic exercise can improve strength and balance, common symptoms of MS can make it difficult to comfortably and safely exercise without increasing the risk of injury or pain. Aquatic exercise has been shown to significantly improve pain, fatigue, and depression in MS patients.
Pregnant ladies and their fetuses can reap the health benefits of aquatic exercises. The swimming workout routine is advantageous for the brain development of the offspring. Moreover, it is effective to reduce neurological issues in babies.
Though swimming is safe during pregnancy, be sure to consult your healthcare professional. Talk to your doctor before starting any new exercises if you have restrictions and complications regarding swimming.
Final Words
The swimming workout routine is perfect for people of all ages. You can combine this workout routine with cross-training and other activities. It is a low-impact exercise that offers a full-body workout.
If you are looking to incorporate a challenging but rewarding form of exercise into your routine, consider swimming. It helps get your heart rate up, build endurance and strength, and more. While it can sound easy, swimming for exercise is a lot more challenging than playing in the pool.
