Swimming offers a number of different health benefits. If you rarely jump into the pool, you may not realize how fun it can be or how it can help you remain healthy. Even if you’re an avid swimmer who visits swimming pools often, you may not know of all of the different ways that swimming can improve your body. Here are some of the ways swimming can benefit your health.
It’s Exercise for Your Entire Body
Swimming involves kicking your legs out, pushing forward with your arms, taking deep breaths, and working your abs. In short, swimming is a workout for pretty much your entire body. You’ll build up muscles from your legs to your shoulders. It’s also a good workout for the core. After just a few swimming sessions, you’ll start to notice that your muscles are beginning to tone up and that you actually have more strength.
It Builds Up Your Endurance
Swimming helps improve your lung capacity and endurance. This means you’ll be able to run, walk, and in general, be more active for longer periods of time without feeling winded. It helps to improve your cardiovascular system, too, so your entire body functions more effectively. You’ll notice this improved endurance while swimming, too. You’ll be able to swim more laps or swim faster without getting tired as quickly.
It’s Great for Your Weight
If you want to lose weight or maintain your current weight, swimming is a great exercise. While various factors such as the type of stroke you’re doing, your weight, and how fast you’re swimming do impact how many calories you burn, on average a person burns around 500 calories an hour while swimming. While it’s true other exercises can burn more calories, those exercises are also often more strenuous and can cause injury if done incorrectly. Others require specialized equipment or a gym membership.
It’s Low-Impact
Hopping into one of the best pools in your area instead of running will help reduce the impact on your joints. That’s why many rehab experts recommend people swim instead of doing other exercises while recovering from injuries or if suffering from arthritis. The buoyancy helps take the stress off of your body while moving against the force of the water helps to build up your strength. While running may burn more calories, it’s much harder on the body than swimming and can cause more harm than benefit in some cases.
It’s Fun and Helps Reduce Stress
There’s a reason many swimming pools are filled with kids during the summer months—swimming is fun! Doing anything fun will help reduce your stress levels, which in turn has a number of physical health benefits. It can help with your blood pressure, the tension in your muscles, and can even improve your dental health if you tend to grind your teeth when you’re stressed! Whether you’re simply swimming laps or playing around with various pool accessories like games or giant inflatables, swimming will help you reduce the amount of stress you’re feeling and relax for a bit.
Pool Tech
With all of these health benefits and more, it’s no wonder so many people jump in the pool. Whether you swim in order to lose weight, build up your body after an accident, or simply for fun, there’s no denying that it’s a great form of exercise. To learn more about the health benefits of swimming or to start your very own custom pool renovation, get in touch with our experts at Pool Tech in Salisbury today.