Swimming can provide a great exercise workout. Swimming is a particularly great workout if you suffering from impact-related joint pain or are looking to add some cross-training into your workout routine, as you can continue with swimming, burning calories with reduced stress and impact on your body.
Why Swimming is the Perfect Exercise for Seniors?
There are many reasons why swimming and water-based exercise may be the best choice for seniors. Water-based exercises are second only to walking at the lowest rates for injuries. They are commonly used for physical therapy modes for those recovering from major surgery.
Water also provides more options for those who are lacking in general fitness or have a prior injury that makes land-based activity difficult.
Finally, water-based activities work the entire body, serving as a form of strength training even as aerobic training takes place.
Swimming utilizes nearly all major muscle groups simultaneously, imparting a total body workout. Due to the inherent resistance of the water, swimming develops both muscle strength and endurance, as well as helps flexibility.
Because of its horde of effects, swimming provides almost all of the aerobic benefits of running even as it yields many of the benefits of resistance training thrown in. Therefore swimming does not put the strain on connective tissues that running, aerobics, and some weight-training regimens do, swimming is the kind of low-impact workout that is perfect for seniors seeking to regain or maintain their fitness.
Water effects and swim workout for beginners
This is a sport especially gentle to those who are physically challenged. The buoyancy factor of water makes swimming the most injury-free exercise available. So it is specifically interesting to seniors, especially those with any type of joint issues. In water, a person’s body weight is reduced by 90% as compared to its weight on land.
Exercises in water can also be done more often because of the low incidence of injuries and it is more effective for exercising the entire body as any movement in water is 12 times greater resistant than movement in the air.
For the elderly, water fitness is safe, fills the need for exercise, increases a body’s range of motion, and is a low-impact exercise.s
Why Does swimming make you so hungry?
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 .
Swim workout for beginners
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 benefits of swimming are:
Low impact exercise
Increased fitness
Increased lung capacity
Extra calorie burn
How long do adults take to learn to swim?
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 becoming comfortable in the water, this process may take many more months
What is the best age to start swimming lessons?
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends swimming lessons for all children age 4 or older. They used to recommend that you not begin formal swimming lessons until kids are at least 4 years old, the age that children are thought to be “developmentally ready” for swim lessons
Swim workout fitness equipment for water exercise
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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
Thanks Kelly,
I have been using the barbells to strength my shoulders