The benefits of swimming will have you in the water every time you do cardio. Harvard University recommends this sport as one of the best you can do at any age, and science has proven that it does great things for your physical and mental health with Lifeguard Recertification.
Any type of exercise is good , but there are a few types that are much better for heart health, muscle health, stress reduction and even weight loss, and swimming falls into that category. The advantage is that it is a sport that can be light or intense, in the water you can do all kinds of movements and, in addition, it does not cause impact on your joints (which is something that you will appreciate with age).
“swimming gets the heart and lungs working. This trains the body to use oxygen more efficiently, which is usually reflected in decreased resting heart rate and respiratory rate. It uses the arms, legs, and other muscle groups in between. This improves the strength and flexibility of the muscles.”
This is also an exercise that has minimal risk of injury , plus it’s relaxing and helps you develop good breathing technique. “Best of all, swimming is the kind of activity you can do throughout your life and shouldn’t give up late in life.
What are the benefits of swimming?
First of all, swimming is a full-body exercise.
It is an exercise that works on strengthening, stretching and aerobic conditioning , activating the arms, legs and even the core during a session, depending on how you do it. It is a great sport to lose weight, work on your condition and endurance, and all this without damaging your joints and bones.
The more you practice it, you may notice that you have more strength, better flexibility, less joint pain, or a slimmer waist . According to Harvard, swimming can also lower blood pressure, improve balance, and even reduce joint pain related to arthritis.
You can even target different muscles . The butterfly movement, for example, works the deltoids and trapezius, while the backstroke style (backstroke) targets the latissimus dorsi, plus you use muscle groups like the hamstrings and glutes with the movement of the legs .
It’s an exercise for your brain
Sure it’s an exercise to activate the muscles, but there are also psychological benefits. It has been shown to help control anxiety and stress, reduce symptoms of depression, can improve your mood and even help you get a better quality of sleep, this because, among other things, repetitive movements lead to the release of endorphins, and this happens with just a few minutes of daily exercise.
All the advantages of swimming:
• Greater resistance
• increased energy
• Improves mood
• reduce anxiety
• Control blood pressure
• Reduces symptoms of depression
• Reduces insomnia and improves sleep quality
• Reduced joint pain
• Less stress
• Strengthens muscles
• Weightloss
The most important recommendation is that while swimming is great for your heart, lungs, blood vessels, and muscles, it really isn’t very effective for your bones, so it’s important to supplement it with weight-bearing exercises like weight training. strength training, walking, climbing stairs, or activities such as gardening.
The 3 years are adequate to learn to swim
Lloret Riera has always been in the water, he learned to swim when he was 8 years old. He considers that taking babies to the pool from the age of 3 months helps their psychomotor development: “It is an important stimulus, and up to 2 years, accompanied by the father or mother, it means strengthening ties.” In his opinion, 3 years are adequate to start learning “according to each boy or girl. It is a good age for the technician to teach them to love water. And I say this because what we cannot do is cause him trauma. You have to want to go to the water, live the water: you are in another dimension, you weigh much less…».
But some resist going to the course, break down in tears when separated from their mother, and find themselves alone, in a pool that is generally larger, colder… What to do, insist, abandon? «Sometimes it is difficult for them because it involves entering an unknown environment, and they may have an emotional brake, but if the technician is experienced, the child must be left alone with him, we tend to overprotect him. The first day he won’t get in, the second neither, the third maybe not yet, but the fourth he will be inside because the previous days he has been watching how the others have fun, even if it’s through tears. I have taught many to swim, you see them coming and you know what each one is like, but if I have had 500, all 500 have learned. I also know that there are monitors that generate trauma, I’ve seen it, that of throwing the child into the water by force, but… What are you doing? You have to force the discipline, but force him to enter an environment that may seem inhospitable, no. Animate yes, never throw it or submerge it.
In addition to avoiding drowning, this sport helps kids to correct posture, backs turned, shoulders forward… And discipline promotes a change in values and attitude. The symmetrical development that it promotes in the body is remarkable, both sides equally, as opposed to tennis, for example, which strengthens only one arm. «And you exercise everything, trunk, legs, arms…».