A perfect exercise as what it was called. The benefits of swimming are almost the same as in aerobic workout and it won’t harm the joints plus, both the young and the old can do this exercise.
Athletes make use of this exercise to keep them fit upon recuperating from their injury as well as to keep them strong. This is the kind of exercise wherein nothing goes between except you and the sea.
There is more to what is just seen when it comes to the health benefits of swimming. It goes more beyond for the betterment of your overall health. Let’s take deep breaths and plunge into the health benefits of this swimming exercise.
1. It increases bone mass.
For several years, researchers dismissed the notion that swimming had an impact on bone mass. First of all, this benefit is achievable through weight-bearing activity, right? But not to a research which was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Due to the ethical reasons to keep clear of human thorough bone examination, they use rats to study and divide it into groups of three: control group without exercise stimulation, running, and swimming. As the running showed the topmost increase in Bone Mineral Density, this swimming group showed also benefits compared to the control group in both the femoral bone weight and BMD. Although there are more studies needed, the new conclusions suggest that the past research that dismisses bone benefits of swimming may perhaps be revisited.
2. It improves strength and muscle definition.
The swimmers increase their muscle strength in every part of their body. The muscle build is seen in a runner’s leg, the swimmer uses more groups of muscle to swim into the water. As the swimmer’s leg kicks, their arms pull. And as its back reaches then rotates, its stomach strengthens to power its legs as well as to boost the core, which makes swimming among the excellent aerobic exercises that give a complete body workout.
3. It reduces inflammation.
It is already known that swimming strengthens the heart muscle, and in the research, it also indicates the aerobic activities, like swimming, it reduces the inflammation that will lead to atherosclerosis accumulation in the heart. Reducing system – broad inflammation links to decreased progression of the disease and other areas, so look forward and hear more about benefits as it progresses.
4. It helps you to be flexible.
It demands you to twist, stretch, reach, and pull yourself across the water in swimming. The ankles come to be your fins and it stretches with every kick just as you move against that liquid pressure. It doesn’t imply that you should not stretch by yourself but repeated stretching in different strokes also helps with flexibility.
5. It enhances exercise-induced asthma.
There is nothing more disappointing than trying to do exercise and unable to breathe. Contrary to exercising in a dry gym atmosphere or enduring seasonal pollen, however, swimming allows you to breathe moist air. Aside from alleviating asthma symptoms, it improves the general condition of your lungs as shown in studies.
In a recent study, a swimming program that lasted for six weeks is participated by groups of children. The results show improvements in symptoms, mouth-breathing, hospitalization, snoring, and ER visits.
Its benefits were noted still after a year that the swimming program has ended. People who do not have asthma benefited because swimming increases the overall lung volume and teaches great breathing techniques.
6. It holds one’s calories burned.
Swimming is the best way to burn calories as everybody knows; however, it is almost as efficient just like using the treadmill. It depends on the intensity and your preferred stroke, it can burn as equal or as higher calories than in running.
Furthermore, no need to be worried about a sweat coming to your eyes. For instance, in swimming using breaststroke for 10 minutes, the calories burn is 60, with backstroke it’s 80 calories, freestyle is 100 calories, and with a butterfly stroke, an astounding 150 calories are burned.
From a viewpoint, approximately it burns 100 calories in 10-minute mile run. So, a solid butterfly speed of 30 minutes can burn more than 150 calories compared to running in a 5k at the same period.
7. You become smarter.
All exercises are excellent for our minds, but does swimming make you smarter?
In Australia, research focused on kids who took swimming lessons compared to the control group of those non-swimmers. Results show that those kids who joined swimming regularly can excel in fine motor skills, confidence, and physical and language development sooner than control groups.
Since they regularly calculate their meters swam per set or in the interval drills, they also help in their math skills because they do their subracting and adding.
8. It lowers depression and stress.
Enjoyed the typical endorphin kick? As many have talked about the runner’s high, in swimming, it can cause those kinds of feel-good emotions also.
Besides those happy hormones, you also can feel the same yoga’s relaxation response. As mentioned earlier, our body constantly stretches in swimming. Integrate this with deep rhythmic breathing and a relaxation rush experience, which is a one-of-a-kind in the sport.
It is also meditative and calming because you can hear your breathing and the water rushing through helps you to focus inward and subdue other distractions. It decreases depression and stress naturally.
The research also shows that it can reverse brain damage from stress through this process known as hippocampal neurogenesis. Therefore, if you are drowning emotionally, leaping into the water may truly be what you need to do for you to find those feel-good feet once again.
9. Saltwater swimming can be a beauty treatment for the skin.
A regular swim in saltwater may help you detoxify to boost a new cell’s growth and retain moisture in the skin. You will be amazed by how healthy and smooth your skin becomes after a refreshing ocean swim.
10. It prolongs your life.
Although different exercises make one’s health greater and longer, it points out in some studies that swimming is among the best choices. In the University of South Carolina, researchers looked at a total of 40,547 men, it ranges from 20-90 years old for the past 32 years. The results uncovered that there is a 50% decrease in the death rate for people who swam compared to the walkers, runners, or those men who never exercised