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The Great Benefits Of Swimming: Seniors Best Activity

benefits of swimming, calories burned

Last updated on January 6th, 2024 at 06:46 pm

Benefits of Swimming: Swimming provides an excellent workout for anyone who suffers from joint pain or wants to incorporate another form of cardio into their fitness regimen. Swimming is especially good because it reduces the risk of injury due to its low-intensity nature.

For seniors, there are many reasons why water-related activities are the best choices. Swimmers are second only to walkers when it comes to injury rates.

Why Swimming is the Perfect Exercise for Seniors?

Water Aerobics: A Fun Exercise For Older Adults

Water also offers more options for people who lack overall fitness or have an existing condition that makes land-based exercise difficult.

You don’t need any equipment for these workouts. Just use your own body weight.  Swimming uses almost every major group of muscles at once, so it works out all of them. It also builds strength and endurance and improves flexibility.

Swimmers get most of the aerobic benefit from running but offer the additional benefit of strengthening muscles. Therefore, swimmers don’t put the stress on joints that runners, aerobically active people, and some weight-lifting regimens do. Swimmers are an ideal form of exercise for older adults who want to regain or maintain their physical fitness.

swimming water - swim workout

Benefits of Swimming and Water Effects 

This is a sports activity especially beneficial to people who are physically disabled. The buoyancy of the sea makes it an extremely safe form of physical exercise. Thus, it is particularly useful for older citizens, especially those with any kind of joint problem. In the ocean, a person’s body weight is reduced by ninety percent as contrasted to its weight on land, so it can be regarded as one of the safest forms of physical exercise around.

Exercise in the pool can also be done more frequently since there is less chance of injury and it is more effective at exercising the whole body than exercise in the air.

Water Fitness is safe for older people because it helps them maintain their health by increasing their mobility and flexibility. It also provides an alternative form of exercise that doesn’t require any equipment.

  • Low-Impact Stress on Joints

    Swimming is a great exercise for seniors as it causes very little stress to the joints, even better than walking and cycling. This makes swimming a great choice for seniors with arthritis or other joint issues that may result from aging. In addition, the buoyancy of water can support up to 90% of your body weight when immersed in water making it an ideal form of low-impact exercise for seniors.

  • Improved Flexibility and Balance

    During a swimming workout, your range of motion increases making muscles more flexible as well as working various muscle groups at once to improve overall balance. If a senior has difficulties with balance, swimming but not only be beneficial but also enjoyable as they remain upright in the water.

  • It Burns Calories Fast

    When swimming at a moderate pace, you can burn calories at around 250-290 per 30 minutes while still enjoying yourself in the pool! Swimming works all major muscle groups such as arms, legs and back which helps burn calories quickly while having fun too!

  • Whole Body Workout

    Swimming is considered one of the best ‘whole body’ exercises available because its motion targets a variety of muscles throughout your body in one session. Every time you swim your arms pull directly against resistance from the water which works to strengthen shoulder and core muscles too! When you kick against the resistance from rolling waves on top do this activity you will benefit from improved flexibility and strength in your legs which helps reduce pain like knee or hip osteoarthritis which sometimes come with age. The effort you put into pushing through long laps makes cardiovascular workouts feel easy with results appearing quite quickly after consistent sessions.

  • Mental Health Benefits

    Being submerged into cool water creates a sense of calmness allowing reducing stress levels because it diverts attention away anxieties and problems making it a good way to relax after hard day's work or stressful period life event

  • Low-impact Senior Swimming Workouts

    Swimming is not only a fun and refreshing activity, but it also offers numerous health benefits.

Choosing The Right Swim Gear For Seniors

Swimming can provide you an excellent all round workout:

  • Front & Back Crawl workout your arms & shoulders

  • Breast stroke works your chest and thighs

  • Butterfly (if you can manage it) focuses on your chest and abs

Whichever stroke you use, the swimming benefits are:

Low impact exercise  Increased fitness    Extra calorie burn

How long do adults take to learn to swim?

swim workout

For adults who learn at an average pace, and have no fear of water, around 20 hours of lessons over the course of a few months might be enough to gain basic swimming skills.

For adults who need extra time to become comfortable in the water, this process may take many more months

Why Does Swimming Make You So Hungry? Unlock the secret

After a swimming practice, I’m very hungry. I thought that not normally , but I came to the conclusion that is perfectly normal and I don’t need to worry about it. I read an article telling that “Elite swimmers can easily burn through 5,000 calories per day, just on a basic daily level. Olympic record-holder Michael Phelps has been clocked at 13,000 calories per day when training for competitions”.

One of the unique factors of aquatic exercise is the increased energy burn to maintain body temperature. Not only are you exercising heavily, you also have to prevent hypothermia. This causes a large calorie drain. If you’re worried about your weight, just eat what you want (and not more).

The faster a person can swim, the more excess heat his/her body produces and the less extra energy his/her body has to invest into heating . But then, faster swimming also takes more energy. So, swimming is the perfect forced calorie burner, that is, hunger producer .

Bring the gym to the water with Swim workout

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8 thoughts on “The Great Benefits Of Swimming: Seniors Best Activity”

  1. Hello, I liked your article, and especially how you tied in the product photos at the end. I participated in Aqua Zumba locally for several years and I used these wonderful aqua gloves that helped create resistance in the water. They provided extra strengthening in my shoulders and chest. I’ve also used the barbells you mentioned. They are wonderful tools for adults and seniors.
    –Kelly

  2. Swimming is gentle on the joints, making it ideal for seniors. It provides resistance without putting stress on the body, reducing the risk of injuries

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