Exercise Of The Week: Swimming

photo credit: Telegraph UK

Swimming is a great physical activity with numerous health benefits. Swimming for fitness is a great form of all-round exercise, awesome cardio, completely no-impact on your joints, and a calorie-torching total-body workout. It also stretches and lengthens your body.


Swimming is kinder to the body than land-based exercise because your natural buoyancy in water helps you avoid the jarring knocks that can cause injuries. Our body is about one-tenth of its weight in the water as on land and in the water, you will have a larger range of motion. So it might be time to get into the pool if you're looking to exercise and might have difficulties with weight-bearing, land-based workouts. It's a great option for people who have arthritis, back problems, extreme weight problems or are pregnant. To mix moves up to target different muscles, vary your strokes between breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke and freestyle.

If you don't  know how to swim, get into the pool at the shallow end and tread water. This is what I did and practically taught myself swimming (well I was taught once or twice by my friends)  was watching what good swimmers did. This might work for someone who scared o! better still, there are classes at community pools and gyms to register with. It's good to know how to swim, for safety's sake, even if you aren't planning to make or add swimming to your workout.

Suggested further readings: 

 Women's Health 

Shape Mag