Photo by Israel Gil
Today most people are positively spoiled for choice when it comes to picking out an exercise routine. There are countless different workouts, sports and fitness programs available to you both at your local gym and in your own home. Although you can pursue many different avenues to improving your fitness and general health, one of the best ones to explore is swimming. Here are a few of the things that make swimming one of the best workouts you can do.
Superb Cardiovascular Fitness
As you are probably already aware, one of the primary goals of any exercise routine is strengthening your cardiovascular system. Swimming is an outstanding workout for this as it always affords you the opportunity to push yourself and build up your endurance.
Swimming is also a highly efficient form of exercise. Working your muscles hard in an environment where you have to maintain constant awareness of your breathing is effectively subjecting your lungs and circulatory system to a form a strength training. You will burn up energy faster and force your systems to work better.
Excellent For Weight Loss
As noted above, swimming is a very demanding activity. If you are exercising to lose weight, hitting the pool is one of the smartest moves you can make.
Because the water provides all-around resistance to your every movement, you burn off surplus calories at a furious rate when you swim.
It is not a fluke of biology that makes world-class swimmers consume huge meals when they are in training. Swimming simply demands so much energy that they are struggling to keep up. Don't worry if you are not aiming at Olympic performance levels, you will still notice a definite positive effect if you swim regularly to lose weight.
A Safe Full-Body Workout
High-intensity training is a particularly popular form of exercise right now. While it produces great results, it also demands a great amount of care and skill to do properly. The risk of injury is always present, especially with the most aggressive high-intensity programs like Crossfit.
Swimming is an alternative to these injury-prone forms of training that does not require you to sacrifice any intensity in exchange for a safer workout. The water around you cushions your joints and significantly reduces your chances of accidentally hurting yourself.
Relative Accessibility
Obviously, swimming requires a pool and swimming in an effective manner to work out requires one much larger than a simple backyard lounging pool. That means you will need to join a gym to get access to the facilities you need. You may even be able to take advantage of more affordable swimming venues, like your local YMCA or a nearby college. Beyond that, though, swimming has virtually no other equipment needs or special requirements. This makes it an eminently affordable way to stay in shape.
Swimming is ideal for people of all ages. It's important to teach your children to swim by enrolling them in a kids swimming lesson so that they can enjoy this exercise activity throughout their life.
The Limitations Of Swimming
Of course, even though it presents you with a great number of advantages, swimming is not the universal panacea for all your exercise needs. There are a few fitness goals you simply cannot reach in the pool. Building muscle mass is one of them, although swimming is good for toning and strengthening the muscles you already have. Another is strengthening your skeletal system. Both of these goals require resistance training and weightlifting, so swimming is best used as one part of a more comprehensive workout regimen.
Thanks to its many benefits, swimming can play a role in virtually any exercise routine. If you are ready to hop in the water and start getting fit, just remember to combine a challenging water workout with a little resistance training on dry land to ensure that all of your fitness needs are being met.
Jim Sanders is a health enthusiast and enjoys working out. Visit his site OutdoorExerciseIdeas.com for the latest outdoor exercise tips and advice.
