Swimming could be your sport! You lie in the warm pool, float weightlessly through the water and use almost every muscle in your body to move forward. Swimming is often referred to as the healthiest sport. This sport has so many benefits for your body and mind! Swimming is a cardio sport where you train your heart and lungs, while also working on your muscle strength. You exert yourself a lot, but at the same time the activity is super relaxing. Swimming with Lifeguard Class for half an hour will burn about 200-300 calories. This is roughly equivalent to an hour of brisk walking; so not bad!
What are the benefits of swimming?
There are many reasons to go swimming: it is the healthiest sport, you can easily lose a few pounds , you work on muscle strength and cardio fitness. Swimming is a great cross-training and it also completely relaxes you.
Swimming: the healthiest sport
Swimming is often referred to as the healthiest sport, but what exactly does it mean? Why is swimming a must for so many people?
Least chance of injuries
Because you move smoothly through the water, there is no impact on your joints. This means you have little chance of injuries and you can still do your laps at a later age. Joints, joint capsules and tendons are spared, while your entire body is still heavily loaded. Swimming is therefore the least injury prone sport there is! This is in contrast to injury-prone sports such as (indoor) football, running or tennis, where due to the short movements and the high pressure on joints, muscles and ligaments, injuries are always lurking. The number of injuries sustained during swimming is ten times lower than during running. Still a good argument to go swimming!
Ideal for getting fit
Swimming is a very accessible sport. Even if you are not really fit at the moment, swimming is a great sport to start with. Due to the weightlessness in the water, you can also dive into the pool if you are overweight or with relatively weak joints. Due to the horizontal, hanging position in the water, your body is loaded in a completely different way for a while. As a result, muscles that are constantly stressed during the day are briefly relieved. This gives considerable relief and is therefore ideal for your body. Swimming is also a great way to lose weight .
Good for body and mind
Yoga, mindfulness , relaxation or breathing techniques. These are all proven methods for dealing with tension and for unwinding. When swimming, you automatically apply some of these techniques, so that you can completely relax mentally. When you swim, you consciously focus on your breathing and you get into a certain rhythm, which has a very calming effect. The silence, the water and the calming blue tiles do the rest. When you get out of the pool after half an hour of swimming, you feel reborn.
Swimming laps to lose weight.
If you want to lose a few pounds responsibly, swimming is a very good option. You burn a lot of calories in a short time. Depending on your swimming speed, you consume 200 to 350 calories with half an hour of breaststroke and even 250 to 400 calories with half an hour of front crawl. If you want to lose weight, it is important that you exercise regularly. Because swimming has a relatively low impact on your body and you burn a lot of calories in a short time, it is easy to go swimming very often per week. You do not suffer from muscle pain and you are always ready quickly. Ideal for losing weight! Swimming for half an hour three to five times a week (and a healthy diet) will guarantee you a toned body.
Do you not have such strong ankles, quickly suffer from knees or (still) a bit overweight? Then swimming is a great alternative to running.
Calorie deficit
Although sports and exercise are certainly an important part in the fight against excess pounds, a healthy diet remains the most important. To lose weight you need a calorie deficit . This means that you burn more calories every day than you take in. You do this on the one hand by burning more calories, for example by exercising. On the other hand, you limit your calorie intake by eating less or healthier. On the other hand, to become more muscular and thus gain muscle mass, you need a calorie surplus . This means that you take in more calories than you burn. In order to gain muscle mass, it is also important that your diet contains enough proteins (protein).
Which muscles do you train with swimming?
The typical swimmer’s body looks athletic. You know the images of broad-shouldered men and women with narrow waists from the Olympics. The proportions of these bodies already reveal which muscles are used most intensively during swimming: the upper back muscles, chest muscles, shoulders and core. In addition, the arms play an important role in locomotion in the water. The leg muscles mainly provide balance, but contribute little to propulsion. The up-and-down movement therefore mainly has the function of keeping your legs high on the surface of the water (and not letting it sink too deep). The broad shoulders and narrow waist that you see in fast swimmers is of course largely in the genes and gives a big advantage over the competition.
Back muscles
The broad back muscles (lats) and the trapezius (monk back muscle) are heavily loaded during the front crawl and the butterfly stroke. These back muscles ensure that the arms move backwards in the ‘pull phase’ of the swimming movement. In addition, these muscles ensure that the shoulders remain in place during the swimming movement. Swimming training will focus on strengthening the back muscles. The best exercise for this is the pull-up .
Are you curious which exercises you can do best to strengthen different muscle groups in your body? Read the article: ‘ The 5 best strength training exercises per muscle group.
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