Check out the Harvard Health Letter piece, “Swimming: A Sport for All Seasons” which the Tribune carried on December 9th. It’s an extended article with a lot of great information including the following:
Swimming for 30 minutes to an hour three times a week does the following:
-Lowers blood pressure. Swimming, like other forms of moderate exercise, can also improve the heart’s pumping function.
-Improves mood. Not only does swimming ward off the blues, water activities are on a par with yoga in quelling anxiety.
-Relieves arthritic symptoms. Swimming relieves pain and increases flexibility for people with arthritis and fibromyalgia.
-May promote weight loss. In studies, swimming hasn’t fared well as a way to lose weight. But an hour of swimming burns 350 to 500 calories. That’s less than the 420 to 590 calories you’d use up jogging for an hour, but it’s still significant.
-Tones large muscle groups. Swimming strengthens not just the arms and legs, but also the back and abdominal muscles.
But then again, we already knew this stuff!