Blood sugar control
Swimming can be an excellent hobby - and workout - for people of all ages and fitness levels. It’s low-impact, builds strength and fitness, and is fun. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), swimming is the fourth most popular sport in the United States.
Swimming is an activity that involves coordinating arm and leg motions to propel your body through water. Those motions demand a lot of effort to overcome water’s natural resistance, meaning you’ll certainly strengthen your muscles when you swim.
Swimming, however, is primarily a form of cardiovascular exercise, says Kristopher Gagne, regional head swim coach at the Houston-area Life Time Swim facilities, in a recent article in
Many groups of people, including beginners, kids, older adults, pregnant women, people with chronic conditions, and those with joint pain or injuries, can all potentially benefit from swimming. However, it’s a good idea to consult with your physician if you have any medical condition or injury that may make exercise and swimming, in particular, unsafe.
Simply splashing around in a pool, lake, or ocean doesn’t au
According to the American Diabetes Association, exercise improves insulin sensitivity, so your body is better able to use insulin to take up glucose (sugar) for energy during and after your workout.
Research supports these claims - Swimming at a high intensity three times a week improved insulin sensitivity and balanced blood glucose in a group of inactive women. These findings suggest that swimming could potentially reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes. And for people with diabetes, swimming may help keep blood sugar in check, a main goal of disease management. tomatically mean you’re swimming for exercise. “What separates a swimming workout from a leisurely swim is the structure and goal behind the swim,” says Todd Buckingham, PhD, a competitive triathlete and chief exercise physiologist at
a holistic fitness, nutrition, and mental health coaching programme in East Lansing, Michigan.
When you swim for exercise, you get a total-body workout, which means that most of your muscles are involved. According to Dr Buckingham, the primary muscles used are the large muscles in your back (latissimus dorsi and trapezius), chest (pectoralis major), shoulders (deltoids), hips (glutes), legs (quadriceps and hamstrings), and midsection (abdominals).
There are four main strokes used in swimming - backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, and freestyle. Each style requires different muscles to work to varying degrees. “The backstroke, as the name implies, will require more muscles in the back to be used than in other strokes, but for the most part, all stroke styles use similar muscle groups,” Buckingham says.