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FACT –   30 minutes of steady swimming can burn 200-300 calories Swimming is a valuable activity for physical therapy and exercise. It works with most of the muscles in the body and provides both aerobic benefits and resistance benefits. Swimming is generally considered one of the most complete forms of exercise. Swimming is integral to several sports, including body boarding, surfing, synchronized swimming, triathlon, underwater diving, and water polo. Swimming does not strain joints and connective tissue, swimming is a healthy activity that can be continued for a lifetime. A high percentage of people swim for the fun and the pleasure that comes with, but swimming come with a lot of health benefits as shown below. Health Benefits of Swimming 1) Swimming is a great calorie burner Swimming can help you lose weight; combined with a good balance diet you are sure to get your desired result. Swimming laps in the pool from time to time may help you achieve a healthy work out routine.. Before you know it you will have burnt loads of calories. Even just getting in the water helps, the body will work harder to stay warm and so burn calories. Swimming does burn calories at a rate of about 3 calories a mile per pound of bodyweight. If you weigh 150 lbs. and it takes you 30 minutes to swim one mile (1,760 yards or 1,609 meters), then you will be using about 900 calories in one hour. Swimming does exercise almost the entire body – heart, lungs, and muscles – with very little joint strain. It is great for general fitness, just not a great way to drop excess pounds.   2) Swimming is a great low-impact exercise. Swimming is exercise which puts very little stress on your joints, for example, knees, hips and ankles. Swimming produces 90% less stress on your joints than most other forms of exercise. Maybe you are a runner, training on a regular basis, and want to find an activity that keeps your heart rate up but takes some of the impact stress off of your body. Perhaps you have been doing some other form of land exercise, and now an injury prevents you from putting weight on a knee or ankle. Swimming can help you. Kicking workouts, water aerobics, pool running, or a regular swimming workout can all give you a great exercise session without the weight of your body pounding you with each move. Example: Arthritic patients can engage in swimming as an exercise, to land aerobics because water buoyancy helps reduce pressure on joints. Asthmatic people can also engage in swimming as moist air swimming helps improve their condition and breathing technique.   3) Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular workout Cardiovascular, swimming is excellent for working both our hearts and lungs, and it does this better than any other exercise. Because we can’t breathe under water, which means learning to control our breathing is essential. The control over our breathing and the physical effort of swimming makes it an excellent cardiovascular sport. Regular swimming builds endurance, muscle strength and cardio-vascular fitness. It can serve as a cross-training element to your regular workouts. Swimming with increasing effort to gradually increase your heart rate and stimulate your muscle activity is easily accomplished in the water. After a land workout, swimming a few laps can help you cool-down, move blood through your muscles to help them recover, and help you relax as you glide through the water.   4-Psychological benefit There are other psychological benefits to swimming, if you allow it to occur. Relax and swim with a very low effort. Let your mind wander, focusing on nothing but the rhythm of your stroke. This form of meditation can help you gain a feeling of well-being, leaving your water session refreshed and ready to go on with the rest of your day. Many swimmers find an indirect benefit from swimming. They develop life skills such as sportsmanship, time-management, self-discipline, goal-setting, and an increased sense of self-worth through their participation in the sport. Swimmers seem to do better in school, in general terms, than non-swimmers as a group. The health benefits swimming offers are worth the effort it takes to get to the swimming pool, get into your swimsuit, and then get into the pool and swim. If you do not know how to swim, taking swimming lessons or teaching yourself how to swim better are great ways to help you to enjoy fitness swimming. Swimming for Leisure gives you the most fun and enjoyable fitness activity available. What is certain is that swimming is excellent for your health and best of all its open to everyone.    
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This article was first published on 11th September 2012

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