Swimming is an excellent sport for training the upper body: shoulders, delta, back muscles, pectorals and abdominals are the ones that are most stressed and involved in this stimulation process, bath after bath. However, it must be said that swimming involves one of the highest caloric expenditure of all sports activities with Lifeguard Recertification. For this reason, it is suitable for those who need to lose weight (obviously associated with proper nutrition), but the discussion is different from those who start from an already thin body and want to increase the volume and mass of their muscles.
In fact, the athletes of this sport rarely have impressive bodies, being very few those who engage in maximal efforts, managing to combine the activity in the pool with an equally intense workout in the equipment room.
Among the other benefits that swimming can give to those who practice it, all the effects on cardiovascular health are certainly not to be underestimated. It therefore becomes an excellent ally for heart health and in reducing blood pressure. It is also one of the best natural therapies for those suffering from back problems.
Back strokes can really relieve pain relief and improve spinal development. Finally, for all these reasons, swimming is even one of the most recommended activities for the elderly: practicing it correctly and functional to one’s psychophysical health status, it can avoid the occurrence of typical problems related to old age, such as stiffness, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.
Physical activity at any age it is practiced has many health benefits and has a preventive effect for most of the diseases related to the cardiovascular system and skeletal system.
Benefits for Elder
For the elderly it would therefore be desirable to practice an average of 15-20 minutes of physical activity per day. The type of activity is based on the person’s age and physical condition.
Among the activities suitable for an elderly person, swimming it is definitely a viable alternative to choose from. In fact, it is counted that it is practiced by more than 20% of the elderly and the benefits are numerous, immediate and lasting.
First of all, swimming can also be practiced by those with disabilities or joint problems, since the absence of gravity of the water allows avoiding excessive load. Furthermore, being a purely aerobic activity, it induces significant beneficial effects on the cardio-respiratory system, but also on the metabolism of fats and sugars: here is therefore the indication for hypertensive subjects, for those with high triglycerides and cholesterol levels and for diabetics.
As for the aesthetic aspect, the massage and pressure exerted by the water improve the skin tone and produce significant beneficial effects both on the macro-circulation (pathologies of the arteries and veins), and on the micro-circulation and therefore on everyone. The fabrics.
The physical benefits of swimming
1) General well-being
After the first swimming lesson, if you have not overdone it too much, you will experience a feeling of general well – being. You will feel that you have trained but not weighed down or sore, because you have worked on all the muscle groups! You will feel much better and it is difficult for you to feel pain the next day (unlike when you only train legs or arms, every other day, in the weight room).
2) Improve joint mobility
By training consistently, even older people will be more able to stretch their backs or stretch their arms and, if the laps are done correctly, swimming leads to an improvement in posture. To ensure that this happens, you must always be followed by qualified instructors.
The water element helps a lot because it cancels almost all the weight of the body and allows not overloading the joints too much. This is true for those who train on average 2 times a week; a competitive swimmer on the other hand, given the intense workload, risks wears on the joints in the long term.
3) By swimming you train your resistance to fatigue
Swimming is a strenuous sport. An important factor that anyone who decides to start swimming must know is that sports practiced on “dry land” are not enough to learn how to overcome the resistance of water. In fact, in the tank the chest is compressed by the liquid and one cannot breathe normally. In addition, the muscle groups that are used while swimming consume a lot of oxygen and lead to a great expenditure of energy.
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4) Swimming trains coordination
During the workouts, you can practice on the combination of several different technical gestures (e.g. dolphin arms, frog legs) or on the breathing-movement coordination (e.g. in the back, when the arm is out of the water you should inhale and when it is underwater. water exhale).
5) Swimming defines the muscles
If your only goal is to significantly increase muscle mass in your arms or legs, swimming is not the most suitable sport for you. In fact, being a complete sport, it works on the whole body: the muscles stretch and define, the strength increases.