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Swimming is much better than most other aerobic workouts because of the medium you exert your body through (and unless you’re Cleopatra it’s going to be water). While you’re swimming, because you are moving your body through water which is much more dense than air, every stroke and kick you make has more resistance than, for example, jogging.
Since 90 percent of your body weight is buoyant in water, while you swim you have to bear only 10 percent of it, which makes it a low-impact workout for your body.
Weight-bearing activities, even if it’s just your body weight, such as running, jogging, jumping and sprinting apply greater stress to your lower joints, which increases your risk of injury e g (Knee pain)
Many gym exercises function on isolation of body parts; for example, today might be leg day and tomorrow, core day. Swimming, on the other hand, is a full-body workout: it incorporates a variety of motions which are easy on the joints and muscles, while preventing stiffness of your ligaments.
Swimming strengthens every muscle in your body, including the heart. The aerobic nature of swimming strengthens your heart, and improves its function in pumping blood throughout the body. While swimming, the water surrounding you exerts pressure on your body, which enhances blood circulation to the heart.
If you are at risk of diabetes, good news, studies show that swimming can help with diabetes too (as always check with your doctor first).
Just half an hour of swimming breaststroke three times a week can help you burn about 900 calories, depending on your body weight. This will reduce your risk of diabetes by more than 10 percent. So a rigorous swimming session just once a week may reduce your risk by 16 percent or more.
Swimming breaststroke for just 30 minutes can torch around 360 calories depending on your level of intensity and speed and your overall body weight. With walking, you can only burn around 99 calories in 30 minutes and cycling will burn approximately 240 calories within the same time.
A common misunderstanding amongst many people is that swimming cannot burn as many calories as land exercises because the water is cooler than the average body temperature.
Exercise-induced symptoms are common in asthma sufferers working out in the gym or any dry-air environment. However, swimming allows a person to breathe in warm, moist-air, thus reducing the chances of symptoms while exercising, but not if it’s a chlorine pool since the by-products of chlorine can trigger allergies and asthma).
A worldwide survey by Speedo which included about 4000 swimmers showed that swimming is one of the best ways to reduce emotional stress. The survey indicated that 74 percent of the people chose swimming as a means of unwinding. 60 percent agreed that just being in water feels good and 70 percent stated that swimming refreshes them.
