Different Strokes


Growing up in Texas, I swam every  single day.  It was the best way to beat the heat and humidity- plus, everyone has a pool and lakes are everywhere. Swimming was completely recreational for me, so I forget some people use it to exercise and compete.  In fact, swimming is proven to be one of the best forms of exercise- especially for those with injuries and other health issues.

Swimming is a full body exercise- strengthening and stretching every muscle in your body.  The activity focuses on your back and core muscles, helping improve your posture- preventing long term consequences. It does this in a low impact environment, using natural resistance to build muscle.  Low impact means you save your joints, ligaments, tendons, and bones large amounts of stress, decreasing your chance of injury (see my post on stress fractures).  Since humans are naturally buoyant, the body weighs 1/10th of its actual weight when in the water. This allows people of all ages and sizes to be able to work out.  Studies have shown for senior citizens and obese individuals, swimming also increases the moral while working out since they are not as limited in the water as they are on land.

According to Science Daily, water exercises also improve the inner workings. They help strengthen the cardiovascular system; extreme asthma; snoring; and mouth breathing.  Most of these cases are induced by the way the body uses oxygen and the heat and humidity of the pool (mainly for asthma).  Because of the strict breathing regiment swimming enforces, it makes the body concentrate on the amount of air taken in, how that air (mainly oxygen) is used, and when to breath it out.  This concentration relaxes the body, alleviating stress on the heart and maximizes the use of the intake of oxygen.

So whether you take a dip for fun or for exercise- remember that you are doing your body a huge favor.  If you want to learn better techniques of swimming there are websites that teach you proper techniques  or even swimming workouts. Even if you don't like "just swimming", there are alternatives: water aerobics, water polo, or even just a fun game of Marco Polo with friends. Just remember water isn't too bad!

1 comments:

Bre said...

This is interesting that it's considered low impact. It makes sense in some ways, but it seems like I knew a ton of swimmers that ended up with rotator cuff injuries from overuse of their shoulders in swimming.

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