Lifeguard class provide comprehensive training on water safety, rescue techniques, and first aid, equipping individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to prevent and respond to aquatic emergencies
What do you think is the best workout? Strength/resistance training? HIIT? Run? Football? Few of you will say swimming at this point.
Swimming is a perfect combination of cardio and resistance training. In order not to drown, your arms, legs, shoulders, hips and upper body have to give a lot of help. Today we would like to show you the benefits of swimming for your health and how swimming can also help you with other sports.
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Swimming and lifeguard is great for building muscle and losing fat
Resistance training is great for building muscle. Endurance sports are great for burning calories. Swimming is a perfect combination of the two. Swimming at a moderate pace burns around 500 calories an hour.
If you step on the gas, you can even burn around 700 calories per hour. Because water is almost 800 times denser than air, every arm and leg movement is like a mini resistance workout. Swimming therefore promotes muscle building, specifically the building of lean muscles.
These muscles are like a mini firework for your metabolism, which means that you continue to burn calories long after you have dried off.
Swimming is great for your lung function
Face down, oxygen becomes a luxury. Just like you need to learn how to budget your money, your body needs to learn how to use oxygen more effectively. When you swim, your body learns to take in more air with each breath and expel more carbon dioxide with each exhale.
According to a study in the Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, swimmers have better tidal volume compared to runners. This leads to a lower resting heart rate, lower blood pressure, and can improve your endurance. Which brings us to the next point…
Swimming does wonders for your stamina
Your body’s ability to use oxygen more effectively will carry over into your endurance training as well. Among other things, you can expect your run times to improve.
According to a study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports , swimmers who learn a controlled breathing technique (two breaths per pool length) improved their running times by 6 percent.
And that after just 12 swimming sessions. Aside from the breathing benefits, swimming also works the glutes, hamstrings, and core muscles, which provide propulsion in many endurance sports.
Swimming is suitable for everyone
Whether you’re slamming on the brakes from an injury, pregnant, struggling with old bones or knee joints, or preparing for the next Ironman, swimming is incredibly versatile and low-impact, so it’s suitable for everyone (ok, one condition you should fulfill – you should know how to swim).
Swimming is great for stress relief
Any kind of sport promotes the release of endorphin, which has a positive effect on your stress level. The great thing about swimming is that the water reduces the sensory information your body is bombarded with every day.
This causes your body to be overwhelmed by a resting wave. For example, researchers found that regular floatation — a relaxation technique that involves floating in a saltwater tank — can reduce chronic stress by reducing sensory information, similar to swimming. No wonder I feel so relaxed and comfortable in the bath.
Swimming is joint-friendly
There’s almost no better workout than swimming if you’re recovering from an injury and want to slowly get back into training. Swimming is one of the best low-impact workouts and is suitable, for example, after a knee injury or when suffering from arthritis.
Even if you are not injured, you should regularly give your joints a break. If this is difficult for you as a workout addict, it’s worth jumping into the water – your joints will thank you.
Swimming keeps you young
According to Indiana University researchers, swimmers are biologically 20 years younger than what their driver’s license says they are.
Swimming has positive effects on blood pressure, cholesterol levels, heart health, the central nervous system, cognitive ability and blood chemistry. You don’t have to jump into a fountain of youth, a normal pool will do.
Swimming trains otherwise neglected muscles
While men like to work their arms, most women focus on abs, legs and butt. Even in everyday life, the arm and back muscles such as deltoids, lats and traps are not used enough in most cases.
Swimming trains almost all muscles and because swimming requires a good portion of balance, the deep muscles in the torso and lower back area, which are often neglected by the female fraction, are also trained.
Swimming makes you smart
According to a study in the Journal of Physiology, blood flow to the brain increases by 14 percent when you’re underwater up to heart level. Researchers assume that the water pressure on the chest cavity is responsible for this.
However, scientists are still investigating whether water-based workouts actually increase blood flow to the brain more than land-based workouts. Still, there’s no harm in swimming a few laps before a hard day’s work or an exam. The least you can achieve with it is a cool head.
You should consider this when you jump into the water:
Most new swimmers jump into the water expectantly, thinking they can easily swim for half an hour. Four minutes later, they hang gasping at the edge of the pool.
Also Read About: 5 Great Health Benefits Of Having A Swim Spa
That’s because training in water is a whole new challenge for your cardiovascular system and muscles. Your lungs also have to get used to it. The key to an effective pool workout is to break it up into shorter intervals, using different strokes and intensity levels. This not only makes the whole thing more interesting, but also more effective.
