Health Fitness

Get fit with a swim plan to lose weight

Swimming to lose weight and tone up is a wonderful activity because it allows you to minimize stress on your body while still getting the necessary exercise. Because a swimming plan for weight loss involves low-impact exercise, your knees, hips, and back don’t have the added stress caused by other forms of exercise.

Unlike running, biking, and many other forms of cardio, swimming provides a full-body workout. The muscles of the lower body, upper body, core, and back will be worked and strengthened during a good swim workout. In addition to these muscles, swimming also helps strengthen both the heart and the lungs.

The key to burning fat while swimming is doing high intensity workouts, distance training, or both. A review in “The Ochsner Journal” reports that after 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise your body begins to burn fat for fuel. So when swimming to burn fat, try to complete more than 30 minutes of low to moderate intensity swimming to help burn excess body fat. High intensity workouts are a bit more complex. You should swim as hard as you can for a set short period of time (usually two minutes or less), then go back for a predetermined rest interval (usually three minutes or less) and repeat the cycle four or more times.

According to the American Heart Association, 30 to 60 minutes of swimming 4 to 6 days a week can help people lose weight and reduce health risks, such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Even if you are not a serious swimmer, spending time in the pool doing other exercises like water yoga, leg swings, or arm circles will be beneficial to your overall health and well-being. You can even use the swim ladder or pool steps to create simple workouts.

Whatever technical training you use, make sure you have fun. Yes, even hard workouts can have fun to keep you motivated. People almost always lose interest in swimming workouts because they get bored and not having fun.

Learn several different swimming styles. In this way you will have a repertoire of strokes that you can perform depending on your mood during training. Backstroke is a wonderful swimming exercise to observe the sky and play the game of “name that cloud” as you complete your laps.

Find a swim buddy who is also interested in swimming for fitness. If you go to a particular pool regularly, you are likely to form friendships with like-minded swimmers, making your workouts more enjoyable and challenging.

If you can’t find a swim partner, let your dog join in the fun. Many dogs love to swim and would happily cheer on you while swimming alongside you. Just remember to keep things safe by having a set of dog steps that allow him to get in and out of the pool without your intervention while he concentrates on his training.

In general, the benefits of swimming for weight loss are limitless; Swimming workouts are a great option because they exercise the heart, lungs, and muscles of the entire body. So, stop procrastinating, get yourself some doggy ladders for your canine swimming buddy, and start swimming today!

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