Women who have been on
a regular cardio routine for several months may inevitably look for
something new just to keep their workout interesting.
Here’s one cardio training that could yield immense
benefits despite its low-impact feature: Swimming.
Swimming is the cardio exercise of choice especially during hot summer
months.
It’s safe, great for
any age group, and is as beneficial as any other cardio because you’re
in motion the whole time. Fitness expert Eddie Carrington says that
20-60 minutes of repetitious movement in the pool works wonders for the
heart and lungs (Jones, Ebony August 2006).
When
you exercise in a
pool, the routine you usually perform in your usual aerobics class can
still be done, in addition to extra laps you might want to make.
Swimming offers a lot of benefits that we don’t normally get
from our regular cardio training.
Some
of them are:
- Swimming is gentle on your
joints, bones, and muscles.
According to the
Aquatic Exercise Association, our body weights are
reduced by about 90% when submerged in water.
This means that
instead of landing with 100% of our body weight on a
surface, we land on about 10% of our total weight, and that means less stress on
the joints which usually take a hard beating at the gym.
This is the main reason why swimming is highly recommended for those
used to leading a sedentary lifestyle, the elderly, people suffering
from arthritis, and pregnant women.
- Swimming
is a superb alternative to cross-training.
You can alternate your days at the gym with swimming 2-3 times each
week.
- Swimming
improves flexibility and fortifies
muscles. Because
you’re surrounded by water while swimming, you work out with greater
resistance than when you do on land. Each stroke, each kick keeps you
in constant contact with resistance, and in the process, your muscles
are toned and developed.
- Swimming
facilitates an easy workout on muscle pairs.During
regular cardio training, we need to reposition our bodies to be able to
work out each muscle pair adequately (i.e., quads and hamstrings;
biceps and triceps). In swimming, you get to work on both groups that
function as pairs because of the extra resistance created by the water.
What to watch out for:
You
may easily lose track of your cardio intensity while in water because you
won’t feel the “burn”.
In
fact, the heart rate actually slows down while you’re in water.
Thus,
it’s not a good idea to monitor your heart rate while
immersed, as you might unduly overwork yourself if you
find that you haven’t reached your target beats per minute (BPM).
Monitoring the intensity of your exercise while swimming is
best done with the “talk test”
– When you’re out of breath and unable to carry on a conversation,
you’re likely going overboard. On the other hand, if you find you’re a
bit on the talkative end, then you need to work out harder.
