Best Fitness Blog

Swimming ... by Karli Taylor

When we think of cardiovascular exercise, most of us think of running or cycling.  One form of cardio training that has been growing in popularity over the past decade is swimming.  As we age, we need a form of exercise that is a little friendlier to our joints.

Because water basically neutralizes gravity, your joints do not suffer the pounding that ground based exercise inflicts upon them.  This does not, however, make swimming easy!  Water is about 800 times more dense than air, so every single movement is more difficult when performed under water.  If you perform a variety of strokes, you can work practically all of the muscles in the body using water as the resistance.  Swimming can develop a swimmer's general strength, cardiovascular fitness and endurance.

Now before you decide to eliminate all other forms of exercise and swim from here on out, there are a few things that you need to know.  Swimming does not help increase bone density the way that  weight bearing exercise does.  In order to fight osteoporosis, you need to lift some weights and do some higher impact exercise every once in a while.

Finally, although swimming does burn calories at a rate of about 3 calories a mile per pound of bodyweight, it is not the best type of cardio to do for weight loss.  Doing land based exercise like running or cycling may use about the same amount of calorie per hour as swimming, but once you stop exercising the land-based workout usually leads to continued increase in calorie use for as long as 18 hours after the workout and swimming does not.   Why? Because when you are in the pool you don't heat up as much as you do on land, and your body does not have to work to cool you down as much once the exercise session concludes.

Swimming 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 or prevent bone loss.