Swimming
Swimming is excellent physical activity – it activates more than 40 muscles simultaneously! Swimming also has a beneficial effect on weight loss. Depending on the style and technique, swimming has many health benefits. Check out how to learn to swim, what muscles work during this physical activity, and learn about the most important swimming styles. You can hire reliable pool builder in order to get swimming pool in your backyard.
Swimming is one of the natural physical activities of humans and has been with us since the very beginning – we have already swum in our mothers’ bellies!
Swimming can be practice all year, in summer in natural water reservoirs, and in winter in swimming pools and thermal baths. While learning to swim, we learn effective swimming styles and perform proper training to improve our figure and sculpt muscles.
Swimming is great for weight loss, well-being, physical condition, and health, and these are just some of the advantages and benefits of swimming.
Swimming – what is it?
Swimming is a well-known physical activity and a popular sport. Swimming is more often practiced in the summer when there is more access to water. However, this does not prevent you from enjoying the benefits of swimming all year round, as you can also do it in indoor pools or hot springs.
The most popular swimming styles are crawl, breaststroke (breaststroke), backstroke, and side swimming. But the first widely practiced style of swimming was doggy style.
Swimming – the muscles that works while swimming
While swimming, the muscles of almost the entire bodywork. During physical activity in the water, it may seem as if it costs us no effort, but nothing could be further from the truth! Water allows us to make movements that we would never do without its help, but it is also a natural burden and resists our muscles. Thanks to this, we can carve them without burdening the joints and bones.
The muscles that are involved in working during swimming include:
- deep neck muscles
- back muscles
- arm muscles: muscles of the shoulder girdle, flexors and extensors of the arm
- chest muscles
- abdominal muscles: rectus and oblique muscles
- the muscle of the lower spine
- gluteus muscles: the gluteus great and medium muscles
- thigh muscles: quadriceps muscle of the thigh, biceps muscle of the thigh; abductors and adductors
- calf triceps muscle
- the muscles of the feet and hands
Swimming and slimming
Swimming as a physical activity has a variable exercise character. Depending on the speed, water resistance, and swimming style, we can burn many calories. The tables show 400 to 800 calories per hour, but the energy expenditure depends on many different factors.
One thing is certain – swimming is excellent training for our body. It not only sculpts the muscles but also deals with excess body fat. As an aerobic and anaerobic effort, swimming will boost your metabolism and burn excess body fat. If we practice water activity regularly, swimming can positively affect weight loss.
Swimming Perfectly
Swimming perfectly shapes the body, increases muscle flexibility, and improves the body’s overall appearance, e.g., firms and smooth the epidermis. Swimming is a physical activity that comprehensively affects the muscles and joints.
During swimming, the whole body works: from the hand muscles to the foot muscles, and the water resistance is conducive to energy expenditure without overloading our joints. The impact of swimming on the figure is invaluable, and it is worth adding this form of sports activity to our everyday life. People of all ages can use it!
Swimming – swimming styles
Butterfly Style (Butterfly, Dolphin) – The butterfly style is the most difficult of the four basic swimming styles. Its name comes from the way the dolphin moves in the water. It was created in 1935 and was invented by Volney Wilson – a physicist who studies fish movements while swimming.
Backstroke – This is the only swimming style you swim on your back. It is considered to be the simplest and least demanding style of swimming. The work here is mainly done with the hands, wide backward swinging and vigorous foot movements to keep us afloat.
Swimming
Classic style (frog) – this is a swimming style that takes its name from the movements of a swimming frog. It is based on symmetrical body movements of both arms and legs while swimming on the stomach. It would help if you swam with a covered frog – with your head submerged under the water, leaning every second or third movement to draw air, and not with a frog with the head raised above the water, which places a load on the cervical and lumbar spine.
Freestyle – This is the term used to describe any style that is not backstroke, butterfly or breaststroke. It is used in swimming competitions in events that allow medley style. The most common is the crab. Other freestyles include swimming on the side and a little dog.
Crawl is the fastest way to move around in the water. This style of swimming comes from South America. In Europe, it was first presented in 1844 at a swimming competition in London. The technique of moving is a bit like the backstroke, but with the difference that in the crawl, you float on your stomach.
Swimming on the side consists of pushing against the water with your hands and alternating movements of the legs while lying sideways. One arm should be extended along with the head and the other arm bent and positioned against the chest. This style is a combination of crawl and doggy swimming. It is considered the least exhaustive swimming technique of all swimming styles.
Of course, the dog-its name comes from the swimming technique of our four-legged pets. This swimming style is mainly associated with young children learning to swim. It teaches basic movements in the water, but is not the most effective swimming technique. Contrary to appearances, you have to be pretty naked while swimming. The doggie relies on the alternating movements of the arms and legs while lying on the stomach without significantly pushing off the water, and the dynamics while swimming is small.
Swimming – learning
Swimming lessons take place in the indoor pool and lasts approximately 1 hour. Usually, it starts with a warm-up in the paddling pool and then moves to a track in a deep pool. The instructor conducts classes while being in the water with the student, but he often does it at the edge of the pool.
The first lesson begins with the swimming pool regulations and basic health and safety rules. Then you move on to the warm-up and swimming on the track. The first lessons are carried out with the help of sleeves – for small children and for the remaining students – boards and other devices helping to stay afloat.
Thanks to the foam boards, it is much easier to train the correct leg work when learning to swim, which is the driving force behind almost every swimming style and allows you to keep the body in a straight line.
Once we have mastered the work of the legs, we move on to learning the technique of working the arms and torso. The swimming styles that we can learn in swimming lessons are mainly backstroke, breaststroke (breaststroke) and crawl.
Swimming and health
The advantages of swimming are not only in the physical but also in the mental sphere.
- Swimming sculpts the figure – affects body contouring by sculpting muscles and burning excess fat.
- Swimming improves the condition – swimming increases the capacity of the lungs, which has a positive effect on the efficiency of the entire body.
- Swimming is slimming – water exercise stimulates the metabolism to work more and increases the body’s expenditure.
- Swimming minimizes the risk of injury – while swimming, water is a dressing for the joints and absorbs our body against any fall or bruise.
- Swimming improves your well-being – activity in the water is a great way to improve your well-being. It has been proven that contact with water has a positive effect on the nervous system and eliminates tension, stress, and anxiety.
- Swimming corrects posture defects – swimming is a sport that teaches our body correct posture and develops it evenly.
- Swimming eliminates pain – water has a beneficial effect on our muscles and joints. In addition, swimming has a health-promoting effect on the fascia that creates protective interarticular membranes. It can also be a great form of rehabilitation.
- Swimming also reduces other ailments – it can reduce respiratory ailments such as asthma and chronic cough. What’s more, it will perfectly improve blood circulation.
- Swimming is irreplaceable health prophylaxis – swimming is invaluable prevention against many diseases and health ailments. There is no better way to protect yourself against heart disease, osteoporosis, overweight, diabetes, or even hypertension.
