Summer is here and the weather is heating up, so what better way to cool off than by jumping in the swimming pool? Not only is it a wonderful way to beat the heat, it’s also a fantastic form of exercise that benefits your whole body. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should consider hitting the water this summer.
It Helps Your Heart
Swimming is a brilliant form of exercise to help your cardiovascular health, helping to boost your blood circulation and elevate your heart rate. Not only is it a very effective workout for your heart, but it also puts very little strain and stress on your joints. When compared with cycling or running, both of which are excellent cardio workouts but which can damage weak joints in the knees and ankles, swimming is a perfect choice.
It Increases Your Flexibility
When you’re swimming in a warm pool, your muscles relax and this increases your flexibility while enabling you to stretch effectively. Swimming also help to flush out toxins from the muscles after an endurance workout so you’ll feel less soreness and tightness the next day.
It Strengthens Your Core
When you swim, you’re using all of the muscles in your body at the same time. This helps to improve your core muscle strength – something which is very important in maintaining the correct posture and in strengthening your back.
It Increases Your Endurance
As swimming is a less stressful activity to the joints and muscles, it allows you to train for a longer period of time than you’d be able to spend doing other forms of exercise such as running. This helps you to burn more calories, to shed more weight, to give your muscles an increased workout and increase your overall endurance.
It Helps You Lose Weight
If you have excess weight to lose, swimming is a great way to do it. As long as you swim strenuously, you’ll burn calories more quickly and shed weight more rapidly. Also, thanks to the fact that swimming works all the muscles in your body, you can tone up more quickly.
What Are The Best Swimming Exercises?
There are many different types of swimming workout that you can incorporate into your routine which will help you to achieve your fitness and wellness goals. Here are some of the best:
- Kickboard Kicks – using a kickboard and using only your legs to propel yourself through the water. This helps to strengthen your leg and core muscles.
- Pikes – keeping yourself afloat with your arms, you lift your legs up so your body ends up in a jackknife position. This strengthens the triceps and abdominal muscles.
- Flutter Kicks – these help to strengthen the hip flexors and gluteus muscles. You simply hold onto the side of the pool and carry out rapid scissor kicks with straight legs.
Having Aquatic Physical Therapy is an excellent way to improve your strength, endurance and balance thanks to the fact that you are almost weightless when in the water. If you want to improve your circulation, joint mobility and muscle strength, this type of therapy is perfect for you. Here at RPI Therapy Services, we can help arthritis sufferers, obese and overweight patients, those with joint and muscle problems, knee or hip pain and those who are recovering from surgery to improve their overall well-being thanks to our Aquatic Physical Therapy program.