There are numerous sports that help us keep our body in shape. Running, walking, swimming, cycling, yoga… All of them provide numerous and different benefits to our physical and mental health, but which is the most complete?
When we practice sports, we aim to improve our physical health, acquire more muscles, flexibility, strength, or lose fat. Many sports can achieve this if we focus on it, but perhaps we do not choose the one that provides us with the most benefits. For example, running is one of the most practiced sports, it improves our cardiovascular capacity and strengthens the muscles of the legs, especially, but it is an activity with great impact, especially for the knees. On the other hand, running is not always a suitable practice for everyone.
If we stop to think, there is an exercise that can be practiced at any age, and that is always recommended for its benefits. You’re right! It’s about swimming. It is, without a doubt, the sport for everyone. Since the babies, who must learn to swim from a very young age to those older people who want to energize and exercise their bodies with low risk of injury, swimming is the most complete and healthy sport for them. If you still don’t know all the benefits of swimming, keep reading!
Read: 10 MOST PRACTICED SPORTS IN THE WORLD
Swimming: the most complete sport for everyone
Swimming is one of the first sports activities that we learn to practice, and with good reason. Swimming helps develop a correct development of the muscles, strengthening them without impact, since we are floating in the water while giving them dynamism and enhancing their flexibility. Swimming, as long as it is done with the appropriate technique, helps us develop the body symmetrically since all the muscles are used in this sport. For this reason, having a coach who teaches us to swim with the right technique and to breathe correctly is highly recommended to get the most out of this sport.
Another of the great benefits of swimming is that it is a non-impact sport. This means that it is suitable for anyone, regardless of their physical shape. An older person, who has more affected knees, ankles, or hips, will be able to strengthen the whole body without causing them to suffer. You can improve your muscles and work their flexibility without risk. In the same way, an overweight person will be able to mobilize the whole body in a single sport, significantly improving their caloric expenditure and training each muscle group.
Swimming is one of the fullest activities because it helps burn calories, strengthens muscles, increases our endurance, and enhances our cardiorespiratory ability.
This sport has all the benefits of running at a cardiorespiratory level and other activities such as dance or aerobics, without suffering their own impact. It improves our flexibility in the same way as yoga or Pilates and enhances our muscles as when we practice toning exercises, either with weights or with the weight of our own body.In addition, swimming, given its rhythm and the whole body’s involvement, improves coordination and memory, directly involving the brain in the whole process. Concentration on the technique and the variation of breathing (you have to put your head on both sides alternately or cease to be a sport that develops us symmetrically) can have very positive benefits the smallest and the smallest.
