Try Swimming!

Swimming is a great way to include a different kind of work out in your cardiovascular exercise routine. If you’re a runner or like aerobics but it’s the dead of summer then you would probably like an exercise that you don’t have to sweat as much. Or maybe you would like to try and take a load off your joints and hit the pool. Swimming has long been known for its therapeutic and claiming atmosphere.

Swimming is a great overall exercise. It works every major muscle group in one constant motion that is easy on your joints (knee, hips, and shoulders). Swimming has many health benefits as well such as lowering blood pressure, increasing your cardio vascular endurance, and strengthening muscles.

Swimming can also be used as either a warm up or a cool down after an exercise. As a warm up, swim vigorously to increase heart rate and get blood moving throughout the body. As a cool down swimming laps in a very slow pace will help to lower your heart rate, bring oxygen to every part of your body, and help bring nutrients to begin to repair your torn muscles.

Swimming does burn calories at a rate of about 3 calories a mile per pound of bodyweight. If you weigh 150 lbs. and it takes you 30 minutes to swim one mile (1,760 yards or 1,609 meters), then you will be using about 900 calories in one hour. However, many swimmers do not swim that quickly, and many cannot swim for that distance or duration. So try to split the workout into a bunch of small increments in order to reach your calories burn rate.

Swimming is a great exercise but doesn’t give you the same payback that land exercise does only because you can’t increase your body temperature. Which is less work for the body because it doesn’t have to lower the body’s temperature, on land however sweating exercise increases calorie use for up to 18 hours after the workout has been completed. This is a major benefit of sweating is the amount of calories the body has to use in order to sweat. Swimming though does exercise almost the entire body - heart, lungs, and muscles - with very little joint strain. It is great for general fitness, just not a great way to drop excess pounds.