5 Health Benefits of Swimming

Swimming is a great low-impact exercise that has a wide variety of applications no matter your goal. Whether you swim competitively, to stay in shape, or to help you recover from injury, a workout in the pool can leave you with phenomenal gains in many different key health areas, without the annoying joint pain that other workouts such as running or tennis can often cause. 

Here are 5 important health benefits that swimming offers, no matter your fitness level.

1. Swimming Will Make You Lean.

Swimming is a full body workout that engages more muscles in the human body than just about any other activity. The main muscles developed from swimming include your legs, abdominals, arms, shoulders, glutes, and back. Because of this full body engagement, swimming burns much more calories compared to other sports. If your goal is to lose weight, or cut down on body fat, training at your local pool consistently can lead to very tangible gains no matter your fitness level. 

2. Swimming Benefits Heart Health

With swimming being a predominantly aerobic exercise, it has a positive effect on cardiovascular health as a whole. The best swimmers have high levels of cardiovascular endurance. Over time, swimming allows the heart to become stronger and trains the lungs to become more efficient at using oxygen. No matter the intensity or duration of a swimming workout, swimming has been proven to show improvement in hypertension and blood pressure. 

3. Swimming Is Very Low Impact

Swimming is unique in the fact that your entire body is supported by the water. The water keeps you buoyant throughout your workout. This means for people with sensitive joints, or people recovering from an injury; swimming is a great way to remain active and in shape. Many pro athletes use swimming as a way to supplement their training and to prevent injury. 

4. Helps With Mental Health

Like any form of physical exercise, swimming releases feel good hormones called endorphins. Being surrounded by water, you won’t feel yourself sweating because the water will actively cool you down. Add that to the unique feeling of floating in a body of water, and you’ll feel refreshed and reset after a workout in the pool. Whether you’re stressed from work or feeling overwhelmed with things on your plate, a trip to the pool can alleviate some of that stress and help you take a needed mental break. 

5. Swimming Has Variety

The fun part of swimming is that there are tons of different ways you can do it. You can learn freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, or even butterfly. All of these different strokes work different muscles and have their own set of benefits. Aside from the four strokes, you can also work your legs by kicking with a kick board, or ease into it with something less intense such as water aerobics. 

No matter your prior experience or fitness level, swimming has many different benefits which have a positive effect on health. 

Take a trip down to your local pool, your body will thank you.