Swimming The Ultimate Workout

Swimming – Total Body Workout

When it comes to total body workouts, there is not a single workout activity that gives more muscle groups an overall workout than swimming. Swimming conditions the muscles, tones them up and provides a continuous strengthening workout as well. Swimming can be the one sport an athlete focuses on or it can be an exercise vehicle for other athletes such as bodybuilders and more casual fitness buffs. While bodybuilders have a different focus overall, the one thing swimming can do for them is the conditioning, the overall shaping and toning of the muscles.

Swimming benefits people of all ages and abilities, from seasoned athletes to children and older people. The fact that the sport is low impact makes it one where participants are not likely to suffer injury. This helps those older folks who want to exercise as well as protects athletes from injury that could inhibit their abilities to perform in the chose sport venue. How much and how often a person should swim depends on the goal. Is the swimming for relaxation? For general exercise and fitness? For training towards an athletic goal?

Swimming for relaxation obviously means just that, relax. Swim anytime and for any length of time, enjoying the experience and exercise. For general exercise and fitness, it is a good idea to swim three to four times a week, adding different routines and durations along the way to build endurance and keep things fresh. Swimming in training towards an athletic goal should be just part of the overall fitness plan that includes biking, running, weight lifting and other such activities that will build stamina and work out muscles as well.

Those who are swimming specifically for swimming as a competitive sport or to improve their swimming should do so from three to six times a week or more. Conditioning the body and building endurance bit by bit as the athlete increases swimming times as well as adding new routines for both variety and the building of longer endurance. Other training such as core training techniques should also take place as well as the regular swimming workouts. Core training techniques will increase the body’s efficiency of movement as well as improve overall balance and stability. By increasing such stamina and overall body balance and power, the overall strength factor is increased in the arms and shoulders as well as the legs. Swimming in such a fashion will bring many benefits and improve overall athletic performance.