What Are The Health Benefits Of Swimming?

When you move around in the water, you use almost two-thirds of the muscles in your body, making it a complete form of exercise. In today’s article, we take a look at some of the health benefits of swimming.

Since swimming is an exercise that can be adapted in many different ways, it is great for people who want to lose weight, improve their resilience, get stronger, overcome injuries or recover from accidents. Keep reading to learn about some of the benefits of this full body exercise.

Health benefits of swimming

For people who have no injuries and who are not disabled, swimming is great because you can change the intensity of the activity. That way, you do not have to worry about fatigue or pushing yourself too hard.

We recommend swimming 3 times a week for about 15-45 minutes each time. Let’s look at the health benefits of swimming.

Improves agility

By engaging most of the muscles in your upper and lower body, many of your joints will also be used. As a result, you develop a greater range of motion while strengthening your muscles. So you improve your flexibility and reduce the risk of injury (mainly in the back).

Burns calories

Swimming for an hour at a moderate pace can burn up to 500 calories. Therefore, it is the ideal exercise for people with a goal of losing weight.

Increases lung capacity

Swimming improves your breathing mechanism, which improves your lung capacity. This will help your stomach organs to function better, regulate your blood pressure and improve oxygenation.

Relieves stress: One of the health benefits of swimming

Getting into the water and focusing all your attention on your body movements and your breathing will help you feel more relaxed.

One of the best health benefits of swimming is that it fights stress, depressive disorders and anxiety attacks. In addition, you release endorphins when you exercise. Endorphins stimulate the areas of the brain that promote positive emotions.

Controls chronic diseases

Another of the major health benefits of sleeping has to do with chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma and hypercholesterolemia. Aerobic exercises, such as swimming, increase insulin sensitivity, improve airways, and regulate cholesterol levels.

Improves motor skills

Swimming has a positive effect on our coordination, balance and reaction time. Therefore, it improves our motor skills. This is especially important during the growth and development process.

Health benefits of swimming for people with injuries

Now that you know the general health benefits of swimming, we must note that it is also one of the best exercises for people with injuries. This is because it is an activity with minimal strain on bones and joints, which helps your joints and bones to rehabilitate.

We recommend that you start with analytical exercises underwater if you train after fractures, torn ligaments and sprains. Then you can work towards incorporating different swimming styles in the final stages of rehabilitation.

Swimming activities for injuries

Here are some swimming activities and therapeutic options in water that will help you recover from an injury:

• Walking underwater: Although swimming is not exactly when you get up, many physiotherapists recommend it for tendonitis and restoration of mobility. The depth of the water you walk in depends on the area of ​​the damage.

• Analytical exercises underwater: These exercises are targeted at specific muscles to help with rehabilitation.
• Front crawl: Since it does not put much pressure on your spine, it is great for low back pain and osteoarthritis. This trains the back muscles, chest muscles, shoulders, triceps and biceps.
• Breaststroke: It requires moderate intensity, so you should only use it during the last phase of the rehabilitation process for complex injuries. It mainly trains the chest, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, teres major, trapezius, buttocks and thigh muscle.

Precautions

People suffering from physical injuries should take certain precautions to avoid risks. Here are some recommendations:

• Make sure your injury heals properly before starting activities.
• Choose swimming pools that have a ramp or stairs with handrails.
• Avoid excessive intensity increase when you retrain.
• Master the correct swimming technique so that you can avoid other injuries.
• Stop exercising if your pain increases.

Conclusion on the health benefits of swimming

As you can see, there are so many health benefits to swimming. However, if you are dealing with an injury, talk to a specialist before starting this activity. They tell you the possibility of performing the activity as well as the risks.