Get in the swim

Whether you take a dip in the sea or visit the local pool, swimming is a great way to boost your fitness levels. Regular swimming provides a good all round workout, building endurance, cardiovascular health, and muscle strength. With leisure centres and pools all over the country it’s easily accessible, and relatively cheap. You don’t need lots of equipment, just a swimming costume, and away you go.

If you’ve never learnt to swim then it’s never too late to learn, swimming pools all over the country run swimming classes for adults as well as children.

Reasons to choose swimming:

Swimming is an activity which families and friends can do together. Research suggests you are more likely to keep up an activity if you do it with others.

Swimming offers exercise in a low impact environment. Waters natural buoyancy ensures there is no jarring of the joints, and you’re unlikely to get post workout soreness. This makes swimming a good choice of exercise for people who have mobility problems, or are recovering from minor injuries.

Swimming is good for your lungs, as it regulates breathing, and swimming lengths encourages deep and rhythmic breathing.

Swimming benefits your mental health. Being in the water can take you away from it all; you can let your mind wander focusing on nothing but the rhythmic strokes. Research has shown that regular exercise releases ‘feel good’ endorphins, which boost your mood and contributes to an overall sense of well being.

Swimming can strengthen your heart and help circulation. When you swim you are using your whole body, so the heart has to work hard to pump blood to your arms and legs. However the heart is able to do all this work, with the heart rate remaining lower than with other more high impact exercises. Therefore swimming is a good exercise to help regulate blood pressure.

Swimming can build muscle tone. While the muscles used vary from stroke to stroke; strokes like breast stroke, backstroke, and freestyle work all the major muscle groups.

Swimming could help with losing or controlling body weight. Experts disagree about whether swimming is a good exercise for weight loss. The main reason for the disagreement seems to be the effort put in by swimmers. While some people like to have fun and mess about in the water, others constantly swim up and down for the entire time they’re in the pool. If you go for a swim for some fun, its still going to help you keep fit, but if you want to lose weight and increase stamina and muscle tone then try pushing yourself a bit. By trying to swim faster, further, and for longer periods of time, swimming can be an extremely effective exercise to burn calories and improve fitness.

Other considerations when swimming:

The chlorine used in swimming pools can play havoc with your hair and strip it of moisture. If you’re not worried about how you look then investing in a swimming cap may be a good idea. Otherwise there are a range of very good shampoos and conditioners designed especially for swimmers.

If you’ve recently had a body piercing, then it is advisable not to go swimming in a local pool, until it has healed properly as the chlorine can dry it out and possibly make it tear more easily.

Wearing ear plugs can reduce the possibility of ear infections.

A good pair of goggles can help prevent the eyes stinging due to the chlorine in pools.