Swimming usually is better for the body than land exercises. As the natural ability to float on water helps avoid the inevitable bumps that can cause injury. In water, a person’s weight is approximately 10% of their average weight. The range of mobility is much greater, especially for people who need to get in shape the most and have limited mobility since water supports the members’ weight. Thus, it is a good choice for those who want to exercise and may have problems practicing exercises on land. For example, swimming can be perfect for pregnant women, those with arthritis, or back and weight problems.
On the other hand, for persons with lung conditions such as asthma, the pool’s environment usually are very humid and breathes more easily.
We must add to all this the benefits for mental health that it produces. Swimming relaxes daily tensions, decreases the increase in muscle tone produced by stress, generates positive moods, and helps to momentarily “blank” the mind and isolate ourselves from problems.
Other Benefits of Swimming
- Swimming is one of the little physical exercises that benefit the body universally as it boosts strength, endurance, and flexibility at a similar time. It has all of the cardiovascular paybacks of running, laterally with some of the muscular benefits of weight training and some of the endurance-enhancing effects associated with dance or aerobics classes.
- Swimming uses most muscle groups and is a challenging physical exercise that benefits keep your heart and lungs healthy.
- It also helps keep the joints flexible, especially the neck, shoulders, and pelvis. The muscle groups that are mainly used when swimming vary depending on the movement that is chosen.
- Practicing backstroke, crawl, and breaststroke varieties will engage a more significant number of muscles: abs, biceps and triceps, glutes, poplites, and quadriceps.
- By swimming, you upsurge the level of physical activity and, therefore, increase the sum of energy you burn, which marks this sport as an ideal component for any weight control program.
- About the elderly, apart from maintaining physical strength, swimming has the benefits of improving motor coordination and reducing the risk of falling and breaking the hips.
Enhance the benefits of swimming
But those who want to maximize the health benefits of the pool should choose a more vigorous exercise program.
- Take it easy. If you are starting a swim program because you are not very fit, start by swimming a certain length and then taking a 30- to 60-second break. Don’t tire yourself out trying to break speed or endurance records as soon as you put your foot in the water.
- Slow and relaxed. After a few weeks, you can increase the time you spend swimming. When you have developed a certain fitness level, you can adopt a warm-up program of 5 to 10 minutes. Followed by 20 to 40 minutes of swimming with different strokes, and finish with a period of five minutes to cool down with one more swim.
- Doing Swimming 3 to 5 times a week will afford you a tremendous aerobic capability that will support the health of your heart and lungs. However, this exercise will not affect the strength of your bones. Therefore, it is good to walk, run, or do other activities on land due to the pressure that the bones have to endure, helping them maintain or increase their bone mass.
Swimming Styles
Four main styles have become established in competitive swimming. These have been comparatively stable over 30–40 years with minor improvements. They are:
- Butterfly
- Backstroke
- Breaststroke
- Freestyle
The first one of these styles may be used in competition. Except in the case of the individual medley or IM, which consists of all four. In this latter case, swimmers swim equal distances from a butterfly, then backstroke, breaststroke, and finally freestyle. [12] This discipline has swum in two distances – 200 and 400 meters in Olympic competitions. Some short course competitions also include the 100-yard or 100-meter IM. Especially for younger or newer swimmers (usually under 14 years of age) involved in club swimming or championship swimming (over 18).
Instruction and Training
In Britain in the 19th century, the first educational programs were for sport and life-saving. These programs were copied in the rest of Europe. Life-saving swimming lessons began in the United States in 1916 under the auspices of the American Red Cross. The educational work of the various armed forces during WWI and WWII was very effective in promoting swimming. Courses taught by community organizations and schools that ultimately extended to very young infants became common.
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