Find out why everyone needs to swim regularly and how you can benefit from it. Keeping track of your own health is useful, but also enjoyable. If you decide to lose weight and improve your health, then it is absolutely not necessary to torture yourself in the gym or take morning runs. It is enough to remember our childhood and how we liked to splash in the water.
Pay attention to the fact that all children love water, as it can give a lot of positive emotions. To get them and at the same time improve your health, you do not have to wait for the onset of summer. You can start to visit the pool, which is not difficult to find in any city. Today we will talk about the benefits of swimming in the pool can be obtained.
The benefits of swimming in the pool
Swimming in the pool can solve a lot of health problems and make your figure more attractive. Let's talk in detail about the benefits of swimming in the pool. Doctors are unanimous in the opinion that swimming helps to normalize the functioning of the whole body, which inevitably leads to better health. At the same time, they especially emphasize the benefits of swimming in the pool in terms of body shaping.
Now more and more popular is water aerobics, which turned out to be much more effective in comparison with classical. Exercising in water, you use significantly more muscles, which in turn leads to serious energy expenditure. As you know, a person can get rid of excess weight precisely due to the lack of energy, which is created thanks to the nutrition program and physical activity.
Swimming is also recommended for people with problems with the musculoskeletal system. It should also be said that different types of swimming can take the load off the spinal column, as well as strengthen the muscular corset and thereby improve your posture.
Swimming provides a complex physical activity on the body, which involves the participation in the work of not only muscles, but also many systems. Scientists have found that professional swimmers spend more energy in training compared to strength athletes. However, this is not the only benefit of swimming in the pool, as this sport inhibits the accumulation of body fat. It is enough to remember how much you want to eat after swimming to understand how energy-consuming it is.
All women are very concerned about their appearance and many are unhappy with the presence of excess body fat. Accelerating lipolysis is another benefit of swimming in a pool. While swimming, it is impossible to gain muscle mass, but only to improve muscle tone. This is what girls need, as the muscles become more resilient and tightened. As a result, the body takes on a lean look.
It is also necessary to say that swimming can increase the mobility of the joints, since the load is evenly distributed over the body. Unlike strength training, during swimming, the articular-ligamentous apparatus is reliably protected from injury. Not every person can train in the gym, as there are some contraindications.
But absolutely everyone can visit the pool. Swimming is not contraindicated even for women during pregnancy. The situation is similar with people who have problems with joints or the spinal column. Water supports our body and, as a result, it is easier for a person to endure stress. It should be noted that swimming, like water aerobics, is the safest sport for those looking to improve their health.
But that's not all, as the benefits of swimming in the pool are multifaceted. Exercising in water has a positive effect on the functioning of the circulatory system and blood pressure is normalized. In addition, blood flow increases, and the indicators of vascular elasticity also increase. All this leads to an improvement in the nutrition of body tissues. Due to the participation in the work of a large area of the lungs, the body's resistance to oxygen deficiency increases.
Another positive aspect of visiting the pool is the relaxation effect. During swimming, water has a massage effect on the body, which helps relieve stress from the nervous system. Scientists have proven that swimming is one of the most effective ways to combat insomnia. After completing the lesson, you feel light and pleasant fatigue, and your emotional state improves.
The benefits of swimming in the pool: how to lose weight
We have already said above that thanks to swimming, you can effectively fight excess weight and now more attention should be paid to this issue. To achieve this goal, you need not only to be in the water, but to swim under certain conditions. First of all, this concerns energy expenditures and you need to burn as many calories as possible during each visit to the pool.
At the same time, there is one nuance - the more muscle mass you have, the more actively the body burns energy during swimming. Basically, you can just swim at the pace that is most comfortable for you. In this situation, you will also lose weight, but the speed of this process will be relatively low. If you just keep yourself on the water and not swim, then within an hour you will lose about 300 calories. However, for the fastest possible results, you should follow our recommendations and follow simple rules.
- Rule # 1. You must be afloat all the time, because only in this case you can achieve maximum energy consumption. At the same time, if you are very tired, then it is worth taking a break.
- Rule # 2. You must be constantly active and move all the time. The processes of reduction of adipose tissues can be activated only when the heart rate (pulse) is 130–160 beats per minute. As a result, in 60 minutes of such active swimming, you can burn 600-1300 calories. For constant activity, you should choose a swimming style. It should be noted right away that the butterfly is the most energy-consuming and, therefore, effective. If this is difficult for you, then use a crawl. This style is somewhat inferior to the previous one in terms of the amount of energy expended, but it is also considered very effective.
- Rule # 3. Change swimming styles, say, use a crawl for about five minutes, and then use the butterfly for the same amount of time or a little more. If you feel tired, you can switch to breaststroke, or backstroke, after which the circle must be repeated.
- Rule # 4. The duration of each lesson should be at least half an hour, and during the week you should visit the pool two or three times.
Aqua aerobics in the pool
Aqua aerobics resembles a classic form of fitness with the only difference that classes are held in water. You need to perform dance moves to rhythmic music. There are cases when women managed to lose about fifteen kilos using water aerobics.
It should also be said that practicing this type of fitness has no contraindications. For those people who are obese, water aerobics can be, in fact, the only sport that does not harm the body. With a large body weight, the loads on the bones and ligamentous-articular apparatus are high and even jogging can lead to injury. Since aqua aerobics involves exercising in water, there is no load on the joints and the spinal column. For many women with a large body mass, it is much more comfortable from a psychological point of view to train in the water than in the gym. In addition, after exercise, you will not experience a burning sensation in the muscles, since water prevents the accumulation of lactic acid.
Slimming Swimming Styles
Let's take a closer look at the technique of the most effective swimming styles in terms of weight loss. We have already talked about this briefly, mentioning also the need to change styles during the lesson.
- Crawl. One hour of swimming with this style can get rid of 520 calories. You should alternate strokes with your right and left hand, and alternately work with your legs. There is one important point in crawl swimming technique - the face should always be in the water. At the time of the stroke, the head turns to inhale. The crawl is the fastest swimming style. All the muscles of the upper body are involved in the work, as well as the muscles of the thigh.
- Butterfly. This is the most technically difficult type of swimming, but at the same time the most energy-intensive. An hour of swimming in this style will save you 570 calories. The arms should move synchronously, making a powerful stroke, and at this moment the body rises above the water. In addition to the muscles of the upper half of the body, the muscles of the abdomen, quadriceps and calf muscles are also involved in the work.
- Breaststroke. Compared to crawl, the limbs should move parallel to the surface of the water. This is the slowest swimming style and will burn 500 calories in an hour. The legs take the most active part in the work here, which will allow you to tighten the buttocks, making them more elastic. From a technical point of view, this is also a rather difficult type of swimming.
- On the back. It resembles a crawl in technique, but you are on the water with your back, not your chest. The same muscles are involved in the work as when using the crawl, but the calf in this case do it somewhat more actively.
As you may have guessed, periodically changing swimming styles during the session will not only burn the maximum amount of energy, but also tighten all the muscles in the body.
For more on the benefits of swimming in the pool, see the following video:
