GUIDE TO OUTDOOR SWIMMING
Get prepped for the open water with our essential guide to swimming in lakes, rivers and seas, plus key sessions, kit and venues
IN UNCERTAIN TIMES, ONE THING REMAINS CLEAR: OPEN-WATER SWIMMING IS GOOD FOR YOUR TRIATHLON FITNESS, YOUR STATE OF MIND AND YOUR SOUL. HERE’S OUR GUIDE TO MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY DIFFERENT BODY OF WATER (ONCE THE CURRENT RESTRICTIONS ON MOVEMENT ARE LIFTED!)…
Apersonal story. Growing up, our parents took my sister and I to weekly swim sessions at Dawlish Leisure Centre in Devon. Sister Lou resembled a pebble. The chlorine wasn’t for her. Then she moved to London and embraced the capital to the max. The hangovers soon outweighed the good times and she adopted a healthier lifestyle. The odd dip at Hampstead Heath Ponds grew to weekly summer swims and now stretches to all-year-round swimming both there and at Parliament Hill Lido.
Lou represents just the tip of the outdoor swimming iceberg. Research from Sport England calculates that 4.1 million of us swam in lakes, lochs, rivers and seas between November 2017 and 2018. And you can see why. “There’s no substitute to seeing the sky and nature around you when you swim, whatever the season,” Lou reasons. “Swimming throughout the year in cold water has the added benefit of relieving aches and pains.
But you also enjoy a rush of adrenaline that lifts your mood. I feel like I’ve really achieved something.”
That lifting of mood is actually down to dopamine, which stimulates a feeling of euphoria and excitement. Studies show that you enjoy a greater surge of the happy hormone when exercising outdoors compared to indoors – even more so when swimming in cold water. In fact, research published in the British
Medical Journal recommends openwater swimming as a treatment for major depressive disorders.
Swimming outdoors is saturated with physiological benefits too, including improving speed, stamina and strength. It also fires up your metabolism to burn more calories, with cooler swims bolstering your immune system as well by increasing white blood-cell count.
Read on as we prepare you for the world of open-water swimming, navigate the maze of wetsuit choices, and open up on all things aquatic…