Swimming is a form of aerobic exercise that helps improve strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, swimming of Lifeguard pretest has been found to be especially effective when it comes to promoting improvements in the cardiovascular system.
In fact, regular swimming can improve the contractility of the heart, lower blood pressure, reduce heart rate, and improve lung efficiency. To achieve these results, swimmers must train for 150 minutes of exercise each week.
Improved Contractility of the Heart:
As its name suggests, contractility of the heart refers to the ability of the heart muscle to contract and relax, thus pumping blood and oxygen from the heart to other parts of the body.
Because swimming is a non-weight-bearing exercise, people with joint problems can tolerate higher-intensity water-based forms of activity and can promote greater improvements in contractility.
Low blood pressure:
When the body is in a perpendicular position, such as when walking or cycling, the heart must work hard to pump blood and oxygen to and from the lower extremities. This increased demand on the heart causes spikes in blood pressure, some of which can be worrisome.
The College of Sports Medicine states that swimming is an effective exercise as it stresses the cardiovascular system without causing significant increases in blood pressure. Since the body is in a horizontal position during a bath, the heart does not have to work as hard, which helps keep blood pressure under control.
Benefits of Swimming for Bones
Even though the benefits of swimming come with weight-bearing exercise, it still has positive effects on bone quality. We can confidently state that it is based on facts in a comprehensive systematic review of 64 scientific studies on the impact of swimming
The studies the researchers reviewed tended to make two types of comparisons: between swimmers and people who play high-impact sports, and between swimmers and sedentary control groups. When they looked at bone density, the results were pretty consistent.
Subjects who participated in weight-bearing exercises had higher bone mineral density (BMD) than swimmers, which shouldn’t be surprising given what you’ve just learned about how weight-bearing exercises stimulate bone mass creation additional.
To further underscore this point:
ssedentary control groups were consistently found to have bone mass comparable to swimmers. In fact, a study from the University of New Mexico found that some elite swimmers actually had lower bone mass than subjects who don’t exercise regularly.
If you spend a lot of your time in the water, which creates a hypo gravity environment, your bone mass will naturally suffer. Similarly, when astronauts spend time in the microgravitational environment of space, their bone density drops dramatically.
Swimming as a regular form of exercise would not have this effect, and this review notes that swimming does not have a negative impact on bone density. Reporting these results, without additional information about what strengthens bones, gives a false impression.
The prejudice of exclusively considering bone mineral density as a measure of bone health could be said to be the result of a laboratory’s attempt to sell its products, whose main objective is to increase bone mineral density.
The proven fact that osteoporosis drugs like bisphosphonates actually cause fractures is clear evidence that density is not the only measure of bone health. In fact, other measures, including tensile strength and the quality of the bone matrix, are equally important.
Benefits of Swimming in Adults
A dip in the pool provides many health benefits, and some that are unique to this particular form of exercise. Swimming is great for people of all ages, but it also has some additional benefits for older adults.
Older adults often suffer from joint stiffness and joint pain, especially in the hips and knees. However, swimming eliminates much of this discomfort. While land-based activities are full weight-bearing, meaning you feel the full weight of your body, swimming is not.
Water makes your body buoyant:
taking pressure and stress off your joints. This type of exercise is even popular with people living with arthritis, a common condition in older adults.
Swimming is a great cardiovascular exercise. Your blood flows faster and your heart beats faster. This in turn can improve circulation, lower blood pressure, and reduce the risk of a heart attack.
A healthier heart and cardiovascular system reduce the effort required to perform everyday tasks, such as climbing stairs and moving around the house. Because mobility can decrease with age, it’s important to make sure you can keep up with the daily activities you love.
You can even specifically target different muscle groups by using different styles. Alternatively, water aerobics and water resistance exercises also take advantage of water’s ability to reduce joint pain, but allow older adults to enjoy the benefit of increased muscle strength.
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