Swimming is more than just a great way to beat the heat. Swimming is a great form of exercise that hits so many health and wellness bases:

Cardio

Swimming is cardiovascular exercises. It gets your heart pumping.

Respiratory

Swimming enhances our lung capacity. In research comparing amateur but regular swimmers with amateur but regular runners, the swimmers had better lung capacity on all counts. Running is certainly good for lung capacity, but researchers think perhaps the pressure and resistance of the of the water helps build lung capacity even more in swimmers.

Resistance Training

The water itself creates resistance and not just for the muscles around our lungs and ribs, but every part of the body, so it helps build muscle tone and increase overall strength.

Full Body Workout

Pick pretty much any swim stroke and you are going to get a full body workout. Your core, glutes (part of your core), arms, and legs all get involved in the workout.

Calorie Burn

If you are into the workout to burn calories, there isn’t much you can do that burns more than swimming (maybe running). Of course, your intensity and choice of stroke matter.

Low Impact

The ability to be buoyant in the water takes the weight off our own body of all our joints. You can relieve a lot of pain when swimming or simply floating. Often people with low back pain feel relief in the water. But many strokes can be tough on the shoulder joint, so be mindful if you have shoulder problems.

Meditative

This point has more anecdotal evidence that actual research behind it, but a lot of swimmers talk about how the feel of the water or the sound of their own breath feels meditative and keeps them very focused in the present. I know I’ve felt this when I swim. You’d think it would be a bore just kicking back and forth down a lane, but the water almost lulls you into a meditative state and you find a rhythm to the moves, the breath, and the brain.

Can’t Swim?

Of course you can swim in the water and get a fantastic workout, but what if you don’t know how to swim? There are still options and ways the water can benefit you. Walking or doing leg exercises in the water can be a great way to reduce joint pain and heal from injuries. Water therapy is really useful when recovering from an injury because it pairs the low impact with the resistance training. If you are in pain, water can be a very useful tool. It’s not just for exercises. It literally helps take a load off.

Brrr. It’s Cold!

In Connecticut some people won’t stick so much as a toe in the water even in the peak of summer, convinced it’s just too cold. But that might be something to reconsider as very early research indicates that cold water might play a role in reducing depression and boosting mood. Many studies on happiness show that being near water boosts our spirits, but the shock to the system that comes with a cold water splash might actually help relieve symptoms of depression.

So whether you need exercise, pain relief, a pick me up, or simply to cool off. Consider taking a dip in a pool, lake, pond, or the ocean. We have them all in Connecticut!

And it’s never too late. While I took swim lessons as a child, I often had to watch from the sidelines due to chronic ear infections. But watching isn’t really a helpful way to learn to swim. So I took swim lessons as an adult a few years ago. It started out pretty rough. It was embarrassing and I was awful, but in six weeks, the instructor had me swimming and now it is one of my favorite ways to exercise.

Keep Reading

Swimming is a great workout, but so is getting outside for a walk.  Click here for more info.

Need some home officer ergonomics tips?  Click here.

The story about me learning how to swim as an adult is the blog right before today’s!

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