Swimming is a fun activity for many people in the summer when the weather is warm and swimming pools or beaches are visited. But in addition to being a fun, summer activity, it is also a sport with many benefits and therefore a good sport for everyone.

Full body workout

Swimming trains every muscle in the body. Both your upper and lower body are trained, just like muscles you didn’t even know you had. In addition, it also loosens your back, so that if you swim regularly, you will suffer less from back problems.

Swimming also creates muscle mass. Because water creates resistance, swimming is the perfect strength training. Make sure that you alternate different strokes, otherwise you will not train all your muscles and you will not make optimal use of the opportunity.

Build condition

Another big advantage of swimming is that it increases your lung capacity, which ensures a better condition. Just like with any other sport, swimming increases your fitness, but swimming goes a lot faster than other sports.

In addition, swimming is also better for your heart as the risk of developing cardiovascular disease decreases. This is because regular swimming lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Blood also flows back to your heart more easily since water exerts more pressure than outside air. This ensures that your heart has to work 10% – 15% less hard.

To fall off

Do you want to lose weight? Then swimming is the perfect sport for you. Compared to other sports, swimming burns calories very quickly. With half an hour of swimming you can already lose about 300 calories! This is because swimming is an endurance sport and endurance sports cause fat burning and weight loss. However, the effect only kicks in after about twenty-five minutes, so you need to swim long enough to really lose weight.

In the water you weigh only 10% of your normal body weight (so only eight kilos with a weight of eighty kilos). Because you are so light in the water, you can move better. You can also do other sports to lose weight, such as running, but unlike swimming, your muscles and joints are subjected to much more stress, which increases the risk of overload or injury.

Swimming with lifeguard recertification can really help with weight loss, but to really lose weight, you will also have to pay attention to your diet. If you eat healthy and swim regularly, you will quickly get rid of the excess kilos.

Little chance of injury

Injuring yourself while swimming is very difficult. Of course you can make a wrong move or become overloaded if you swim too much, but the risk of serious injury is much less than with other sports, such as running or playing football.

Because the risk of injury is so low and you only weigh 10% of your body weight in the water, swimming is also the perfect sport if you need to recover from an injury or heavy activity, as many top athletes do. Do you do a sport other than swimming? Then go swimming once or twice a week so that your body can recover from that effort, while you still build up more condition and muscle mass.

Let go of stress

Just like any other sport, swimming also makes you happier and you can release stress because endorphins are released during exercise. With an hour of swimming you will notice that you come out of the pool more relaxed and have extra energy.

People with a lot of stress often sleep less. Swimming helps with that too. By swimming regularly you usually sleep better and deeper. This is due to the soothing effect that allows you to relax completely. So are you feeling a little less well? Then swim a few lengths and you’ll feel a lot better in no time.

By admin