The Best Swimming Exercises To Lose Weight
Swimming is one of the most complete exercises that exist, not only to burn fat but also to develop cardiovascular and respiratory capacities.
Furthermore, it is a sport or activity that can be performed at any age and no previous experience is required. It doesn’t require any special equipment, just a bathing suit. If you swim in a public pool, you can include a swimming cap and goggles.
Read on and find out why swimming can help you lose weight.
First tips before starting
If you’ve been thinking about swimming as an alternative to losing weight, but you’ve never been in a pool, there’s nothing to worry about! As you practice you will feel more comfortable in the water and start to lose weight without realizing it. So consider these three tips:
- The initial objective will be to lose the fear of water or try to stay in the pool without leaning on the edges, even with the help of a vest. At first, you may not be able to move well. The focus should not be on doing the exercises perfectly, but on getting comfortable.
- The moves will be simple at first, because what is expected is weight loss, not style development, even easier ones like freestyle or backstroke. You can use arm buoys or small boards to learn how to kick your legs and take off in the water.
- The third step will be to master the breath. Start at the shallowest part of the pool. Dip your face in and exhale through your nose, then lift your face out of the water and breathe. Repeat this operation several times. This increases our breathing capacity. After several days of training, build up progressively until you reach 20 reps daily.
Why does swimming help you lose weight?
Basically because it is an aerobic exercise, but unlike others, such as running, cycling or spinning, swimming can be practiced in a more relaxed way, according to the age and needs of each person.
Furthermore, it is a sport suitable for everyone, regardless of whether the person is healthy or has diseases of some kind.
The good thing about swimming is that we don’t realize how much we exercised at that moment, because our arms and legs are in the water, which reduces the fatigue.
On the other hand, the body is worked harder than in any other sport, because the muscles must exert pressure against the watery environment.
Exercises to lose weight by swimming
To burn calories from the whole body when swimming, some specific exercises are recommended:
- 200 meters: the first 50 meters (common pool or half an Olympic pool) crawl swimming, another 50 meters backstroke, the other 50 meters crawling faster and the last ones doing arm strokes and breathing laterally.
- 400 meters: 100 meters (round-trip pool or full Olympic-size pool) backstroke, 100 meters stroke, 100 meters freestyle and 100 meters crawl.
