Swimming is a whole body exercise that not only helps to lose weight but also improves your heart and lung workings. It also builds up all your muscles. Due to water buoyancy; swimming in the water completely relaxes your bones. Hence it is good for people looking to increase their height, especially young teenagers.
Actually, swimming consumes a lot of energy. This is because the water resistance while swimming is much more than the air resistance when exercising on land. A simple walk in the water burns lot of energy, so swimming in the water will consume a lot more calories. Also the thermal conductivity of water is 24 times more than the air and the water temperature is lesser than the normal temperature. Hence swimming is great for heat loss and energy consumption. So the energy utilized during swimming is more than the land exercises. So the weight loss is far more.
Swimming can prevent injury due to waist and lower limbs exercises. If you do weight loss exercise on land, it can cause specific part of body (especially the lower extremities and waist) to bear huge gravity load, if your body is heavy. It can easily harm joints and lower limb bones. This in turn, will lower the exercise capacity, tire out easily and slowly make you disinterested in exercise. But in swimming, a part of body weight will be borne by the water buoyancy. This eases the load and danger of injury to the joints and bone is quite reduced.
You also enjoy the natural massage. In swimming, the water buoyancy, resistance and pressure work as an excellent massage on the human body. It also makes the skin look beautiful.
Resistance of movement in the water is 12 times more than on land. So, as you move your limbs in the water, you will experience a strong resistance. This will develop your back, chest, abdomen, hip and leg muscles. Hence the swimming athletes have clear lines of muscles. Swimming also is an enervating exercise and the heat loss in water is quicker as compared to air. This means, the rate of heat loss in water is quite high and plenty of calories are burnt while swimming. So overweight people will tire easily.
For best result, develop a plan for the swimming training. For the beginner: swim continuously for 3 minutes and then rest for 1-2 minutes. Then swim for another 2 times, and 3 minutes. If you think these are easy for you to complete, then move to the next stage. Here you swim continuously for 10 minutes at average pace, followed by a rest for 3 minutes (totally thrice). Even if this fails to exert you, set the time to 20 minutes each up to 30 minutes. If you think the intensity of increment is quite rapid, then switch over to the acceptable level. As the physical exertion caused by swimming is very high, it is advisable to do this training once every 2 days. This gives you a day to restore your energy.
The rate of metabolism will be quite higher while swimming. 30 minutes of swimming can burn 1,100 calories and this metabolic rate will persist for some time after you have finished. Hence swimming is an excellent weight loss method. For slim and slender people, swimming is a great way to gain weight. This is because it builds up each part of muscles by widening their size and resulting in weight gain. To obtain smooth lines of muscles, swimming is good.
From the above information, it is obvious that swimming is actually a great exercise for slimming or weight loss. But proper preparation and safety should be carried out prior to swimming to avoid injuries.