Swimming to lose weight... This can be great fun!Swimming to lose weight is a great idea. I don't know about you, but I love swimming. It's a great exercise that helps to tone and strengthen a wide range of muscle groups. How else will I benefit from swimming to lose weight?In all honesty swimming has way too many health benefits to mention, but let me tell you a few of the main ones: Swimming is definitely a great exercise. However, if you are not used to swimming or exercising in general, it may be a little too strenuous initially. Be sure to start off very gently. Perhaps even start with just walking around in the water. This can be good fun, and also good exercise, especially if you are with your friends and family. Splashing each other is always good fun too, but be sure not to splash other people. They may not appreciate it :-)
How many calories will you burn swimming?As always, this is a difficult question to give a specific answer to as it will depend on your weight and the type of stroke you are doing. As a general rule ten minutes of swimming the breast stroke, back stroke, fast crawl or slow crawl will burn around 100 calories. The side stroke is typically a little less. This wikipedia page has details of various swimming strokes. Be sure to wear gogglesIf you swim in a public pool, you are probably very familiar with the strong chlorine smell. Chlorine isn't very good for your eyes, it makes mine sting quite a lot. Wearing goggles is a quite way to fix this. You can also go underwater without closing your eyes. |
