Swimming is one of the best exercises you can do for your body. It is great for fitness beginners because you can swim at your own pace; it is low-impact, and it works a variety of muscle groups.
Swimming also has some amazing physical and mental health benefits.
This article will run through all the major benefits of swimming, before providing some useful links to help you get started by incorporating it into your own fitness routine!
Swimming is an amazing full-body workout
Swimming is an excellent all-over-body workout and exercises all the major muscle groups across your body.
Regardless of which stroke you choose to swim, one of the major benefits of swimming is that it is likely to help you train muscles across your whole body simultaneously.
However, different strokes can be slightly more effective at training certain muscle groups in your swimming workout. For example, breaststroke is great for toning your thigh and chest muscles, whereas butterfly works more on your upper back arms and shoulders.
Swimming is a great cardio workout
Swimming is a great form of cardiovascular exercise. Swimming regularly can help improve your overall cardiovascular fitness levels, and improve your lung capacity.
One benefit of swimming workouts is that they are a perfect complementary exercise to alternate against run or cycling training days, as it allows you to train with little or no impact on your joints.
Swimming is accessible for people of all ages and ability levels
You’re able to enjoy the health benefits of swimming regardless of your age or ability level. There are often tailored classes based on your confidence and experience level at your local swimming pool.
Swimming is one of the few forms of exercise that is regularly recommended for pregnant women.
So whether you’re an experienced swimmer interested in swimming laps each morning before work, or someone that is interested in more leisurely water-based exercise twice each week, your local swimming pool is likely to have a class that is suitable for you.
Swimming is easier on the joints than other exercises
It’s estimated that the buoyancy of the water whilst swimming can reduce your body weight by up to 90 percent.
In broad terms, this means that means your joints only have to deal with 10 percent of their usual weight load during aquatic exercise, which can drastically reduce your chance of suffering from joint and muscle pain after exercise.
Swimming is good for your mental health
It’s widely accepted that any regular form of exercise can help relieve stress and promote improvements in mental health. However, swimming can be more effective than other sports for a variety of reasons.
Similar to yoga, the deep breathing and extended muscle movements required in swimming can release endorphins and other stress-reducing hormones.
Anxiety UK also claims that simply having contact with the water can be helpful in loosening up your body and mind, and that being immersed in water and concentrating on your strokes can have a meditative effect.
Swimming helps you stay flexible.
Swimming helps your body move through an extensive range of motion, which can increase the flexibility in your joints, hips, back, ankles, and knees.
This increased flexibility can help increase your range of motion, reduce the risk of injury and ultimately improve your posture.
Swimming burns calories
Swimming is an amazing aerobic exercise that is brilliant for burning calories.
As with all forms of exercise, the number of calories burned by swimming will depend on several factors, including how hard you swim and your body weight.
As a broad generalisation, it is estimated that swimming breaststroke can help you burn between 300-560 calories per hour, whereas swimming a more vigorous butterfly stroke can help you burn up to 700 calories per hour.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how many calories can be burned from swimming, and how you can use swimming to help you lose weight, look at our article on the calories burned through swimming for more information.
Swimming can help improve your sleep
One of the other major benefits of swimming, as with all other aerobic activity, is the ability to improve your sleep.
A 2010 study in the Sleep Med Journal, found that aerobic exercise improves self-reported sleep and quality of life in older adults with insomnia. The outcome of the study was that regular aerobic activity, such as regular swimming, could help improve sleep quality, mood and quality of life.
How do I get started?
If you’re excited about the benefits of swimming and want to get started, we’ve got some useful resources for you below:
Find swimming pools close to you
If you want to find a local pool close to you, the directory at Swimming.org is really useful, and includes most of the indoor pools in Canada.
If open water swimming is more your thing, Swim England also has a list of open water swimming venues across Canada
Swimming clubs
If you’re interested in taking up swimming more seriously as a form of exercise, there is also a useful list of competitive clubs across Canada.
Swimming lessons
If you’re at the start of your swimming journey, and want to take swimming lessons, there are a variety of options open to you. Most local councils in Canada offer group swimming lessons for adults, and for younger swimmers, franchises such as Puddleducks are available across Canada.