Benefits of Incorporating Swimming Into Your Exercise Routine
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As a newbie triathlete, I never imagined how difficult swimming would be when I first jumped into a pool. Despite doing numerous marathons and cycle racing, struggling to get from one end of a 25 meter pool to the other seemed a Herculean task! However, the benefits of swimming and how it improved my overall cardiovascular endurance was made very apparent as I honed my skills in the pool.
The health benefits of any exercise that gets your heart rate up are obvious, but introduce the element of water and it almost becomes a super-human form of exercise if you didn't grow up swimming. Unlike walking or running, water provides a tremendous amount of resistance - over 800 times more than what you'd overcome while walking or running through air - and because you can't simply stop to sit on the curb to catch your breath, swimming REALLY elevates your heart rate.
Blood circulation increases tremendously while swimming since you are incorporating so many different muscle groups. At the same time, your lung capacity is taxed since you can't take a breath under water and coordination and technique become a key factor in swimming efficiently. Anybody can naturally run, but not everybody can swim!
This obviously isn't meant to scare you into trying to incorporate swimming into your exercise routine if you aren't a strong swimmer, and as triathlete who couldn't swim to someone who recently completed Ironman, I can guarantee you that I became a lot more fit by spending those hours in the pool.
Swimming introduces way less stress on the joints and muscles, yet provides a fantastic overall workout which enhances muscle tone and increases cardiovascular fitness. I felt like swimming for 30 minutes was equivalent to jogging for an hour in terms of perceived exertion - so if you're tight on time and have access to a pool, doing a few laps will provide you with an amazing workout in less time.
Spending a few hours a week in the pool helped me raise my overall level of energy and by incorporating swimming into my routine (which was a necessity since I was training for a triathlon), it broke the monotony of running or biking or doing weights.
Another great thing about swimming is you can change your stroke and activity from session to session. Unlike running, you pretty much can only run one way - one foot in front of the other. With swimming, you can try different strokes like backstroke or breast-stroke as opposed to just the front crawl (freestyle) and this works different sets of muscles.
Having said that, swimming can be anything but routine so using swimming as an additional means of exercise is a great way to stimulate both body and mind.
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