Is Swimming Good for Weight Loss

Looking for a low-impact, high-results workout to stay in optimal health? When it comes to losing weight, exercise in swimming pool water offers a great alternative to other cardio exercises, both in effectiveness and enjoyment. Pool exercises are some of the best workouts you can commit to when trying to strengthen your core, build stamina and work on cardiovascular or muscular strength. That’s because aquatic exercise offers a free-flowing environment that lets you focus on each individual movement of your body with the benefit of natural resistance.

Top 3 Benefits of Swimming Exercise

1.    Burning Calories

When it comes to the basics of weight loss, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Pool exercises provide the perfect platform for burning calories because, unlike your local gym, space, every move you make is met with the resistance of water. Simply jogging in water can help a 150-pound person up to 500 calories per hour! Not into jogging? Treading water for the same amount of time can burn up to 700!

 2.   Full-Body Workout

Exercise in swimming pool water does more for weight loss than burn calories, It’s also a great way to tone your body and minimize fat. Aquatic exercise requires a great deal of balance, stamina and strength in your core, as well as your arms and legs. Because these movements require more effort in a pool and utilize more muscles at one time, you’ll actually end up with a more productive workout than doing the same actions in the gym.

3.    Killer Cardio

Not only is swimming good for weight loss, it’s excellent for your overall cardio health – You can also try turmeric for weight loss. You may think pool exercises are only good for toning and muscle building, but swimming pool exercise is one killer cardiovascular workout. Performing water aerobics exercises is a great way to get your heart pumping and focus on breath control, two important factors in cardio health.

Swimming Pool Exercise Basics

• Mind your time and intensity. The more time you spend with your pool exercises and the more intense you make them, the more calories you’ll burn. Some people can swim at a fast pace for 30  minutes without getting fatigued while others will find 15 minutes of slow swimming challenging. Set a reasonable goal, and add time and intensity after a couple weeks.

• Swim Laps. One of the most obvious ways to burn calories during aquatic exercise is to swim laps. Whether it’s the backstroke, the dog paddle or breaststroke, just moving your body through the water has been proven to burn calories. If the deep-end intimidates you, hold onto a kickboard and swim your laps with only your leg power and focus on your arms in the shallow end.

• Walking in water. Just walking in the pool is a great way to build muscle strength and burn calories. Shake things up by holding onto the side of the pool and “cycling” your legs for a while. Do some leg lifts, kick each leg forward, and then kick each leg to the side. Simple pool exercises like these can burn about 11 calories per minute!

If don’t own your own pool, consider joining a local pool club visiting a public pool. There’s a good chance they offer some type of group fitness class that can inspire you to build your fitness level. Even if you only go to one class, you might get ideas for exercises to do later, on your own time. With all the benefits involved with swimming pool exercise, you’ll want to dive right in when the temperatures start rising!