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Friday 3 August 2012

Swimming for Health


Swimming

This blog entry is going to look into swimming for fitness, exercise and weight loss. Swimming is, without a doubt, one of the most amazing forms of exercise there is. There are a number of benefits associated with swimming, so let’s take a look.

Benefits of Swimming

As mentioned before, there are numerous benefits to swimming as a form of exercise.

1)      It is a low impact form of exercise. This is probably my favourite thing about swimming. This means that swimming puts very little strain on our body. This means that our knees and hips, for example, do not get the same stress as with other exercises such as running. This also means that swimming is a great exercise for fitness when recovering from an injury.

2)      Swimming is an excellent cardio-vascular exercise. This basically means that we work our hearts and lungs while exercising (as well as our body), and is as good as any exercise for that.

3)      Swimming can work most muscles in the body. This relies on doing a variety of different strokes, however, but any exercise where we are working more than one muscle is great. Swimming works the upper and lower body, and gives a great workout to each part of us.

4)      Swimming can be used for weight loss as well as fitness. Whilst swimming is a great exercise for developing our fitness levels, it is also a fantastic calorie burner, meaning it can be used, alongside a healthy diet, to promote healthy weight loss.

5)      Finally, swimming can be considered an excellent exercise for developing strength as well as flexibility. Alongside endurance and cardio-vascular benefits, swimming can help with our strength in our upper and lower body and contributes towards flexibility in these areas too.