by Maria Teresa L. Ungson
IT’S summertime and we’ve got lots of sunshine! We’re all looking forward to the Holy Week vacation coming up. Well, I hope that getting fit is part of your agenda this week! Remember, for Catholics, we are to practice fasting and abstinence on Good Friday. In a way that will surely help in our dieting for the week. It would be good to do some fun exercises to compliment our “holy dieting” efforts. Since it’s quite hot lately, water workouts like swimming will definitely be a good choice to keep lean and healthy.
Let’s take a look at what swimming has to offer. Exercise physiologist Robert A. Robergs says swimming is a good fitness choice for just about everyone, especially those who have physical limitations or who find other forms of exercise painful. It is a good, whole-body exercise that has low impact for people with arthritis, musculoskeletal, or weight limitations.
Water’s buoyancy accommodates the unfit as well as the fit. Water cushions stiff joints or fragile bones that might be injured by the impact of land exercises. When immersed to the waist, your body bears just 50% of its weight; immersed to the chest, its 25%-35%; and to the neck, 10%.
That being the case, athletes use water to rehabilitate after injury or to cross-train. People with arthritis or other disabilities use water to improve fitness and range of motion and to relieve pain and stiffness.
Swimming is also desirable for people with exercise-induced asthma as the warm, humid air [around the pool] causes less irritation to the airways, according to Robergs.
Not only is swimming easy on the body, it’s a great way to get fit. Swimming recruits all the major muscle groups, including the shoulders, back, abdominals, legs, hips, and glutes. And because water affords 12 times the resistance as air in every direction, it really helps to build strength. It’s cardiovascular and strengthening at the same time, and not many workouts offer that.
But can swimming help you lose weight? There are some questions about how efficiently swimming burns calories. Research done on swimming showed that weight loss seemed more difficult. The theory is that the water submersion initiates a complex [nerve pathway] to lower metabolic rate. And with a lower metabolic rate, the body uses fewer calories to maintain normal function.
For weight loss, interval training is recommended, in which you push yourself hard for short spurts, and then drop back to a less-intense level of exercise.
Sue Nelson, aquatic program specialist for USA Swimming in Colorado Springs, Colo., has many success stories of obese clients who lost weight after they began working out in the water. One man was 500 pounds, had rheumatoid arthritis, and had to quit work because he couldn’t get around. “He went from a wheelchair to a walker to crutches to a cane to nothing by working out in the water,” says Nelson.
You can get a swim coach to guide you. Getting the rhythm of the strokes and the breath can be overwhelming at first. Coaches break it down and take you there slowly, practicing one part at a time.
If you’re a beginner, start slowly. Try to swim for 10 minutes. Build up to a 30-minute workout, three to five times a week. Include a warm-up and a cool-down, and, in the middle, challenge yourself by working on endurance, stroke efficiency, or speed.
There’s more than one way to tackle swimming. Before you feel comfortable putting your face in the water, you can practice drills with a kickboard, or even walk the length of the pool. In fact, Nelson recommends that beginners start with vertical strength-training exercises in the pool. That means things like walking or jogging a length of the pool in waist-deep water, or doing some strengthening by sinking in up to the neck.
One has to build up confidence in the water to be able to enjoy swimming. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a good way to begin to get back into fitness without having such trauma in the body and it can also be very relaxing at the same time. Just imagine, once you get your earplugs in and your swim cap on and you begin to swim, it’s just you and the water…there’s no cell phone, and stress sort of fades away. Just keep in mind that losing weight and keeping fit does not happen overnight. We all have to make some healthy changes to our lifestyle and keep a positive attitude. So start now, put the sun block on, and simply enjoy a blissful vacation at the beach or in the pool. Have a healthy weekend ahead! Enjoy!
