Swim Your Way To Fitness

It’s spring time, and I thought it might be time to write a post about swimming.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that swimming is no longer a warm weather only exercise.  Just about every gym I know has a pool that is heated year round allowing swimmers to work out regardless of the weather.  So I may write this in the spring, but feel free to read this at any season.

Why Not Swim?

When you ask most people about exercise, very few of them think about swimming.  Why is that?  Well, I think it has a few reasons.

• Equipment – Swimming needs a lot of specialized equipment.  For example, you need a pool.
• Temperature – Most people have the same mindset I do, which says that pools and water are a summer only activity.
• Cardio – Swimming doesn’t seem to be as strenuous as jogging or biking so most people don’t think of it as good cardio.
• Shyness – If you’re out of shape, it’s going to take a lot of courage to strip down to a swim suit and get in that pool.
• Skill – Everyone knows how to run, but not everyone knows how to swim.

I’m here to tell you that all of these reasons are completely wrong.

• Equipment – Yes, you do need a pool, but those are available at most gyms, colleges, hotels and apartment complexes.  In fact, access to a pool is more common than access to a gym.
• Temperature – Many pools are heated year round.  The only exceptions are some apartment complex pools.  So with the right gym membership or access to a college, you can swim year round.
• Cardio – Swimming is excellent cardio and a whole lot more.  I’ll talk a bit more about that in a second.
• Shyness – Yep, it’s a little awkward sometimes to take clothes off, but hey, you’re doing this to get in shape, right?  Believe me, no one is judging you.
• Skill – Swimming classes are available at many colleges, gyms and community centers for relatively low prices.  You’ll get coaching in a skill that’s not just good for exercise, it’s also something I would consider a vital life skill.

So Why Swim?

Swimming is one of the most incredible exercises you can perform.

• Full body workout – Unlike many cardio exercises, swimming works out your entire body.  Now this depends a bit on the stroke you pick, but even simpler strokes like freestyle will work your upper body better than most other cardio.  Try something like the breast stroke and you’ll get an amazing full body workout.
• Low impact – Again, unlike most other cardio exercises, swimming is zero impact.  What does that mean?  It means that you get a great workout while doing zero damage to your body.  Yes, some exercises do in fact damage your body.  For example, jogging places a lot of strain on legs and biking can be hard on your back. By comparison, swimming has zero impact and zero strain.

Honestly, I can’t think of a better cardio exercise than swimming from a physical perspective.

The Downside

While swimming is rather perfect on the physical side, it does have some real issues on the motivational side.

• Hard to gauge performance – Unlike running or jogging, it’s relatively hard to gauge how hard you’re working out while swimming.  You have to be very motivated in order to keep up a fast swimming pace.
• Boring – You can’t read, watch TV or talk to your friend while swimming.  All you can do is swim.  Many people find that boring and could cut their workout short because of it.

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If you can motivate yourself, I highly recommend that you try swimming as an exercise.  It’s quite literally the best cardio workout I have found.  However, it does get a bit monotonous so, unless you really love swimming, I recommend mixing it up and not swimming more than once a week.