Swim Your Way to a Healthy Body
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Exercise with minimal stress to your body!
Looking for a full-body workout with minimal stress on your joints? Slip on your speedo and dive right in!
The Benefits of Swimming
Swimming is a fantastic choice of exercise for people of all ages. It is a low-impact activity that uses the resistance of water to keep your heart rate up without the stressful impact on your joints. Swimming has many benefits including:
- Strengthening the cardiovascular system, allowing blood to be pumped to all areas of the body
- Toning muscles and building strength
- Improving joint flexibility and mobility
- Helping to maintain a healthy weight
- Relieving stress
Water-based exercise can help people suffering from chronic diseases. It improves the use of affected joints without worsening symptoms in people with arthritis. It has also been shown to decrease anxiety and depression in those with fibromyalgia.
Before you dive in:
- Make sure you know how to swim - for lessons contact your local community pool
- Choose a safe environment
- Use the buddy system - never go swimming alone
- Have plenty of fluids on hand - drink them regularly
- See your doctor if you haven’t exercised for a long time
Try this Beginner’s Workout
-
100 m warm up
- Swim your stroke of choice for 4 lengths of the pool (in a 25 m pool)
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3 x 50 m freestyle
- Swim 2 lengths freestyle (front crawl) and take a 10 second rest. Do this 2 more times.
-
3 x 50 kick with board
- Grab a flutter board and kick 2 lengths. Rest for 10 seconds. Repeat 2 more times.
-
100 m cool down
- Finish with 4 lengths of slow, easy swimming.
Looking for an alternative to lane swimming?
Try water aerobics which is a fun, group fitness setting with all the advantages that water has to offer!
