When it comes to health and fitness there is no question that you should swim. The benefits are numerous, and it is something that is available to everyone. Whether you need to look for London gyms with swimming pools, or your local municipal swimming baths, it’s time you jumped into the deep end of training.
Here we look at why such a bold statement can be made, and why swimming is simply one of the best forms of exercise there is. So whether you’re thinking about dusting off your goggles, or you still need to be convinced, here we’ll back up the assertion and persuade you all to take the plunge.
Full Body Workout
If you’ve heard anything about fitness regimes, then you’ll already understand that a full body workout is the Holy Grail. Rather than isolating individual areas or muscle groups, certain exercises allow you to hit everything at the same time. Swimming is one such exercise.
Working all areas of the body would take forever with a traditional gym based workout, but a pool session can do it all and save you time. From your back to your arms, to your shoulders and even those often forgotten legs, they’ll all be pushed and worked hard.
Soft
Despite hitting the whole body hard, swimming is rather gentle on the joints, due to the buoyancy and supportive nature of the water itself. Running is no doubt a great way to exercise, but it means stresses and strains as your body weight is impacted through the joints. Swimming avoids this heavy impact.
When you think that nothing ruins a fitness regime faster than an injury, then you’ll realize that swimming is a great way of prolonging your workout times and your overall health and fitness. Of course there remain risks of injury, but these are lessened and in this instance less is good!
Muscles
If you’ve seen a professional swimmer, you’ll know they look great. Toned, strong and lean, flexible and healthy. Of course they are professional athletes, but you too can enjoy the benefits of muscle strengthening, toning and lengthening, whilst at the same time working the key muscles such as your heart. In addition to your muscles, there are the other health benefits including to your respiratory system. These can even help those who suffer with pre-existing problems such as asthma.
Returns
There is very little equipment to invest in. Of course you’ll need to find a gym with a pool, but after that all you need is costume/trunks. From a little outlay you’ll get great returns such as a high calorie burning workout and fitness which can benefit other sports in which you may partake – such as cycling etc.
Swimming is a great tool for training across different disciplines or sports and it is also a great source of cardio fitness in itself. So even if you don’t choose to partake in other sports, you’ll still see the many stand-alone benefits that swimming can offer you.
Mind
Health and fitness is no longer considered just a physical issue. You need to also concentrate on your mental health and fitness. There are no benefits in having a healthy body if your mind is struggling with the rigors of day to day life. Again, swimming is a great solution to this problem. Being submerged and buoyant is in itself very relaxing and calming, and of course there will be no opportunity for you to engage with your mobile phone – so often the cause of your stresses in the first place.
Many of you will already consider yourselves to be physically active, and it is certain that a good many more will be thinking of increasing their levels of activity. So often though the best forms are overlooked, either because they don’t immediately come to mind, or they are not as readily available. Of course running can be done anywhere, whereas swimming you do need the pool!
However, it isn’t right to dismiss something because it’s new to you, or less easily accessible. There are many London gyms with swimming pools and indeed swimming pools in general. Not only will using the same be beneficial to your health and fitness, it might one day prove life-saving.
So if you’re thinking of making a change to either your lifestyle in general or to your existing health and fitness regime, you’d be hard pushed to find something that will prove as beneficial as swimming. It isn’t a magic solution to every problem, but it comes close on many levels. It’s time to get wet!