Mental and Physical Benefits of Swimming - Profile Swimming Pools Phone: (02) 6622 1148

Swimming is a fitness activity whose benefits are recognized by millions of practitioner all over the world.
Exercising in the water, whether it is swimming or water aerobics is an excellent physical training for everybody, teenager and elderly citizens, pregnant women and well fit men, overweight people and people recovering from an injury. If you are thinking about starting any fitness activity do not look anywhere else than at your local swimming pool. Keep reading to know why I am advocating so much in favor of the benefits of swimming.

Swimming is Easy on the Joints and Effective on the Muscles

Because of the support the water gives to your body, training in the swimming pool is like training in a weightless environment. Your joints and ligaments are not stressed as much as in other dry-land fitness activities such as jogging or tennis. Swimming is therefore a sport virtually free from injuries. Nevertheless, all the muscles of your body are trained very effectively. Because all the swimming movements are gentle and performed with stretched muscles, while you train your strengths and endurance you also train the muscles flexibility. If you start swimming now, you will find yourself stronger and more flexible in a matter of few weeks.

Swimming Offers Numerous Cardiovascular Fitness Benefits

Swimming activates all the major muscle groups in your body, but the benefits of swimming go further than just muscle strength. Regular swimmers get an overall conditioning which includes a great improvement on their cardiovascular system. Even just training twice or three times a week you will increase your lactate threshold. This means, your lungs and your heart will be able to support your body during the training effort with more oxygen and a more efficient use of it to fuel your muscles. You will then be able to train harder and improve further or simply to last longer doing any physical exercise. A better fitness level in your body will bring great benefits to your life balance. You will lower your sugar levels, burn calories, and feel mentally stronger to face the challenges of your daily life.

Swimming Help You Burn Calories

Because swimming activates all the major muscle groups in your body it burns more calories than jogging. Not only that, but being easy on your ligaments you won't get injured as much as going jogging and you will be able to keep up your training throughout the year because you will keep being healthy. To lose weight however, common sense needs to be applied. Training is essential, and the benefits of swimming for losing weight are clear, but you need to keep in mind that you will lose weight only if you burn more calories than you take in. So watch your diet and distribute the meals wisely during the day. A good advice is to try to wait a couple of hours before and after the training session for having something to eat, eat only healthy food and do not forget to drink plenty of water also during your training.

Swimming is the Perfect Exercise During Pregnancy

All Doctors would recommend you to do some mild physical exercise during pregnancy. Walking, practicing yoga, or participating to some soft aerobics class for pregnant women are usually considered activities pregnant women can benefit from. Because of the peculiarities swimming has, pregnant women can benefits greatly by including a soft but regular swimming fitness routine in their life. Swimming trains very effectively the upper part of the body including your back. Your back needs to be strong to sustain the weight of your prominent belly. The best stroke to swim while you are pregnant is breaststroke. Breaststroke does not require rotation of the torso and thus it is more comfortable to do with a big belly. Even if a light training is generally advisable for all pregnant women, you should always ask your Doctor before starting exercising. Your main target with the training should be to maintain your level of fitness and not improving your swimming performance.

How to Get Started

There is nothing quite like owning your own swimming pool/ would also advice you to just get to a local swimming pool and plan your own training. There is plenty of information on the Internet and plenty of nice swimming training programs available for you to follow.