Swimming Workouts

Submitted by Stella Morgan on June 24, 2010

Benefits of Swimming: Swimming is the act of moving one’s body through water. It is a particularly relaxing form of exercise as the cool effect of the water on one’s body tends to negate the exertion required for the act. Swimming is also a whole body workout technique. This means that muscles around the whole body get exercised in some way or the other using this method. The human body tends to be fairly buoyant which aids the process of swimming.

The hands and legs are used as devices for propulsion whereas the rest of the body, particularly the joints and the back tend to twist and stretch as the motion of a swimming stroke is performed. There are many different stroke styles that are used for swimming. The breast stroke is a more relaxed style of swimming whereas the butterfly stroke is an extremely energy intensive stroke.

Swimming does not necessarily work any single part of the body but is more effective at providing a wholesome workout for the body. Regular swimmers tend to have an improved physique and an improved posture as well because of the beneficial effects of swimming on the back muscles.

Triathlon Swimming Workouts: There are some types of swimming work outs that may be targeted at a specific part of the body.

Fast swimming using the breast stroke is likely to improve the tone of the muscles around the arms while the freestyle method of swimming has a positive effect on the thigh muscles. They key to a successful swimming based workout is to ensure a long period of activity. Swimming for a few minutes is unlikely to have a major impact on your physique or health.

The other thing about a swimming workout, and this is true of all types of physical exercise, is that one should workout based on a schedule. This should be over a period of weeks rather than days. When you first begin working out using swimming as the form of exercise, you should be gradual in the amount of effort you put in. Gradual effort will help your body burn some of the fat without developing too much muscle. Once you have gotten rid of most of the fat, particularly around your stomach, you should increase the pace of your workout. This method of gradual increase is useful in developing stamina because it gives you a slightly harder workout every few days allowing your body to step up its condition slowly.