The long awaited summer is finally here and with it most of us are looking forward to a day in the pool. Make the most of the summer heat and change your workout routine to include swimming as an exercise and not just a way to spend your weekend splashing around for fun. This change may finally make you stop dreading working out as much as you do now.
The Week talked to Amish Maharjan, swimming instructor at Nirvana Wellness Center, to find out how swimming can benefit your body and how incorporating it in your workout routine could help you become healthier.
Swimming as cardio
Swimming is one of the few exercises that give you a whole body workout. Adapting to swim is harder than adapting to any other forms of exercise because of the fact that it is not done on land. “Everything you have learned, including breathing techniques need to be relearned when you swim,” says Maharjan. He was a football player who switched to swimming in order to lead a healthier life.
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When you first begin your swimming workout, do the laps in small bursts. If you don’t have enough stamina, don’t push yourself from the get go. As with other forms of exercise, it is important to warm up before swimming as well. Take a leisurely lap around the pool before you begin your burst exercise. A burst exercise means that you should swim as far as you can, as fast as you can and rest for 30 seconds before you push yourself again. Do this for at least 20 minutes when you are just beginning.
If you aren’t alone in the pool, don’t start comparing yourself to someone else. As you keep swimming, your stamina will increase and in a month’s time, you will be able to do a lap at a go even if you stop three times before you finish it in the beginning. If you are a beginner and aren’t opting to go for a coach then ask the reception if they have kickboards available. They are a great way to rest your upper body and work your legs.
“When you swim, you use your entire body. This increases your heart rate and makes it work extra hard to supply oxygen to all of your cells which is why it is such an effective cardio,” says Maharjan. In water you also feel a weightlessness that you cannot in land.
As intense as swimming is for a cardio exercise, it is also one of the best. The reason most injured athletes are told to swim to strengthen their muscles and recover is because it is one exercise that doesn’t have any impact on your joints. “We have a lot of old people who used to complain of joint pain come to swim, and most of them claim that swimming has helped them get rid of the aches,” he says.
Muscles that swimming targets
Being a whole body exercise, swimming requires a combination of cardio and strength training. It targets your legs, arms, hips and torso and gets your heart running as well. Although the different strokes in swimming target different muscle groups, all strokes target a few of the same muscles. The core muscles and the lower back muscles keep your body steady while you swim forward. The shoulder muscles and the forearms are targeted when you move your hands to propel yourself forward.
While swimming, the upper back muscles help keep the shoulder muscle in position and the hamstring and the glutes help balance the body. The constant repetition of the strokes helps improve the muscles endurance as well. “As water is obviously denser than air, the higher resistance against the body’s movements strengthens and tones the muscles,” says Maharjan. He compares it to resistance training in the gym, but instead of using weights you are using the natural density of water. Swimming also improves your posture and stops you from slouching as it works on both the upper and lower back muscles in the body.
Eating healthier
As with all the exercises, you should eat a healthy diet when you have been swimming. Although you hear a lot of people saying they have lost weight due to the sport, there are many others who claim that they have put on weight instead.
If you have spent a few hours in the pool, you will have realized that swimming does make you very hungry. The whole body exercise as well as ingestion of small amount of chlorine water does that to people. Some, however, have not burned the amount of calories they eat right after doing the exercise. The body has a 45 minute window after every exercise where it absorbs more nutrition than other times. During this time it is important to supply it with good nutritious food. Carry fruits and nuts with you to the pool to snack on after your workout. Don’t feast on bigger portions of food just because you are exercising. Eat a balanced meal instead.
