How Can Fitness Swimming Help You?
Many people ask me what it is I like about fitness swimming. Is it the cool blue waters, the sensuous feel of water lobbing all around me or the desire to complete the customary miles regardless of biting cold or sweltering heat? The answer is – none of these!
What I like most about my swimming ritual is the happiness it brings me. You see, I am no competitor. I do not swim at competitions and I do not have any medals or trophies to flaunt. But, what I do have is the ability to swim nonstop for a few miles, and a body and mind that has grown infinitely richer because of my swimming routine. I am a fitness swimmer.
In the concrete crazy, money spinning world around me, I am not alone. Actually, less than one-third of swimmers are into the sport for competition. Reports say that there are more than 35 million fitness swimmers in the US alone. Most of us swim because we love it. Of course, it also helps that swimming is such a great fitness activity both for the body and mind.
Fitness swimming is an easy way to keep fighting fit. The inherent nature of swimming makes it a gentle and comfortable activity for any age group. Many fitness swimmers over the age of 50 are people who have come into the sport to get away from high cholesterol levels, increase blood pressure levels, cardiac problems and asthma or muscle injuries. With fitness swimming, it doesn’t matter if you are overweight or obese. This is one exercise where you won’t feel the entire weight of your body bogging you down. In fact, you feel much lighter in water than on land because the density of water is almost similar to the density of the human body. The good part of all this is that your body is not placed under any stress or tension while you are swimming. Unlike other kinds of exercise, you can never sustain an injury while swimming. That explains why swimming is a recommended form of exercise for people who are recouping from an injury or illness.
Since swimming is an excellent form of aerobic workout, it can burn calories efficiently. In fact, it can burn twice as many calories as vigorous running, staircase climbing and treadmill jogging. Even three hours of swimming a week is enough to bring you muscle strength, flexibility and endurance.
Fitness Swimming is a great all round exercise. It works out every muscle of the body gently yet rigorously. The superb physique of competitive swimmers is an indication of how swimming can make you lean and trim – a true treat for the eyes!
But, fitness swimming is not just about your body. Swimming is a fantastic form of meditation too. As you place one arm in front of the other, humming your favorite song to yourself and floating effortlessly in the water, your mind goes into a ‘Zen’ mode. Stress is quickly forgotten. Deadlines don’t matter for a while. The noise of the city leaves you. There is only you and the water. New ideas emerge. Old problems seem less life threatening. Life seems full of possibilities. An incredible sense of well being envelopes you.
Why do I love fitness swimming? There really is no one answer.
gardnerwilkinson
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/how-can-fitness-swimming-help-you-681140.html
March 25th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Help with swimming fitness plan?
For PE, we have to come up with a fitness plan for PE. This fitness plan has to expand over a period of time, so i’m doing mine for 4 weeks…but i need MAJOR HELP!
the points in which the fitness plan is supposed to focus on is:
Cardiovascular Endurance
Muscular Endurance
Muscular Strength
Flexibility
Body Composition
Does anybody have any ideas on what/how i can do this! THANKS!
March 26th, 2011 at 12:44 am
For cardiovascular endurance, you need to do something that will get your heart rate up, i.e, running, jogging, cycling. The list goes on and on. Just be sure that you are doing each cardio exercise for at least 30 mins. As you get further into your plan, you should gradually increase the amount of time you are working out and the intensity of your workout. Example, if you jog for 30 minutes the first week, jog for 40 the next and possibly run the last 10 minutes.
Now for muscular endurance, you need to lift weights. But you have to be able to lift your chosen weights for 3 sets of 12 repetitions or 1 set of 18 repetitions. The goal here is to use your muscles for a long period of time to build up resistance. So start off with light weights, and once you can lift them for the 3 sets of 12 reps or 1 set of 18 reps with ease, you can gradually increase the weight.
Example exercises could be, bicep curls, overhead presses, squats.
Here is a link of how to preform these exercises, as well as many others: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbbellexercises.html
To build up muscular strength, you want to lift the heaviest weight you can for 3 sets of 4-6 reps. Be sure that the weight isn’t too heavy to where you cannot complete the three sets(however this should still be difficult). Once you can lift the weight for 3 sets of 6 reps with ease, you can then increase your weight. You can use the same muscular exercises listed above in muscular endurance for building up your muscular strength.
*Also note that you should not lift weights everyday. Your muscles need at least 2 days a week to rest. If you over work your muscles, you will not improve very quickly, and your muscles will actually become weak.
To improve your flexibility, you need to obviously stretch. You should be stretching before and after every work out as your warm up and cool down. By doing this, you can prevent injury, and also avoid muscle soreness. Stretch often, and be sure that you don’t stretch so far to where you are in pain, reach until you feel slight discomfort and hold there for 10-15 seconds.
A few stretching examples are at the following website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/SM00043/RETURNTOLINK=1&RETURNTOOBJID=B65CF34E-35A3-4045-93DB0750884250C0&slide=11
Body composition is not just how much you weigh, though it does play a role. In order to determine your current body composition you can calculate your BMI(Body Mass Index) but note that this is not the most accurate method, but it is the cheapest. You can do so at this site : http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
There are also other methods to determine your body composition such as, Girth Measures, Skinfold Clappers, Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA), and Hydrostatic Weighing (Underwater Weighing).
Once you have determined where you stand on the charts of being on track, underweight, or overweight, you can then figure what steps you can be taking in your diet to improve or sustain where you are.
Hope I’ve helped :]
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