So, is it true that swimming can burn fat, strengthen your muscles, and make you lose weight? Because water provides natural resistance, swimming promotes strength, endurance, and flexibility, boosting your overall fitness.
For this reason, swimming is classified as a total body workout, allowing the upper and lower body to be fully engaged, raising your heart rate, helping to use your energy reserves by burning calories, and strengthening your muscles.
In addition, swimming is a low-impact exercise. Low-impact exercises gradually increase your heart rate and put less stress on your joints than high-impact exercises. The most popular low-impact exercises are swimming, walking, yoga, pilates, cross-country skiing, and golf, which are helpful if you are out of shape.
Dive into fitness and discover the best water workouts for swimming beginners!
How to Start Swimming for Exercise?
Swimming for exercise can undoubtedly be a gratifying experience. However, below are some handy tips to get you started. Discover the right swimming equipment to make your workout sessions the most satisfying!
1. Medical Evaluation
Before beginning any new exercise program, a medical evaluation is advisable to ensure you are fit to swim. A medical evaluation can identify any pre-existing medical conditions affecting your ability to swim safely. Heart, respiratory, or other health problems may be detected during the assessment. The medical evaluation helps determine if swimming is an appropriate exercise based on your overall health.
2. Special Swimsuit
To correctly choose the swimsuit you will use for training, you must focus on comfort and quality. Beach swimsuits are probably not the best choice, as you need a unique swimsuit for diving, turning, and technique drills with total freedom of movement. We recommend looking for swimsuits made of quick-drying compressive fabrics, such as lycra and elastane, and flat seams to reduce friction and prevent chafing.
3. Swim Caps
The swim caps that are most recommended are made primarily of silicone, latex, or polyester/elastane. If you are a beginner, we recommend choosing a polyester/elastane cap because it is easy to put on and remove.
4. Swimming Goggles
Protecting your eyes during your swimming lessons is very important to avoid irritation caused by chlorine in swimming pools and other contaminants in the water. We recommend that you prioritize durability, comfort, leak-free fit, tint, and size options.
5. Swimming Flip-flops
In swimming pools, it is forbidden to walk with external footwear, which forces the swimmer to have exclusive footwear. Pool flip-flops offer safety (to avoid unwanted slips) and foot health (to help prevent infections such as athlete's foot, plantar warts, and fungus). Good pool flip-flops should be comfortable, dry quickly, provide traction on wet surfaces, and have drainage holes to channel water away.
6. Pool Towel
Look for towels that have good absorbency and drying ability; for example, microfiber towels are known for their ability to dry faster than cotton towels. Also, look for a towel large enough to wrap around you comfortably after swimming.
7. Sunscreen application
Sunscreen is of utmost importance as it provides a barrier against ultraviolet (UV) rays, decreasing the risk of sunburn, premature skin aging, and skin cancer. You can also opt to purchase sun-protective clothing.
8. Remember to warm up!
Before diving in, a light warm-up is essential to prepare the body for aquatic activity properly. Raising body temperature and warming up promotes muscle flexibility, blood circulation, and cardiovascular efficiency, reducing the risk of injury and improving motor coordination.
Are you ready to make the most of your swimming session?
Top Three Swimming Exercises for Beginners!
Below, you will find three enjoyable water workouts for beginners, ranging from 300 meters and increasing in intensity up to 1000 meters. To perform them, we recommend you to:
- Concentrate on swimming smoothly with minimal splashing.
- Concentrate on the entry of the toes.
- Concentrate on swimming as far as you can on each stroke.
- Concentrate on keeping your head in a position looking directly at the bottom of the pool.
- Concentrate on swimming silently.
Workout 1: 300 meters
- 6 x 50s; Freestyle with 30-60s rest after each repetition.
For this workout, you will perform six repetitions, swimming a distance of 50 meters for each one. After completing each 50-meter swim, you can rest for 30-60 seconds before starting the next repetition.
Workout 2: 600 meters
This second workout adds a warm-up and warm-down set to prepare your body for the main set better.
- First warm-up: Swim a distance of 100 meters with the stroke of your choice.
- Pre-set - 4 x 25m Kick with 20s rest: Before the primary swim set, this preparatory segment looks to warm up specific muscles. Kick with a board or in a straight line on your stomach or back, using your legs to propel you through the water. Perform four kick reps for 25 meters each. After each 25-meter kick segment, you can rest for 20 seconds before beginning the next repetition.
- Main swim series - 6 x 50m Freestyle with 30s rest: You will perform six repetitions swimming a distance of 50 meters each. The swim stroke will be freestyle, where you can use any stroke you prefer, usually front crawl. After completing each 50-meter swim, you may rest for 30 seconds before beginning the next repetition.
- Cool down: To relax your muscles and lower your heart rate, swim 100 meters under the freestyle of your choice.
Workout 3: 1000 meters
- Warm-up - 4 x 50s Freestyle with 20s rest: For this third workout, perform a warm-up of four repetitions, swimming a distance of 50 meters each. Rest and repeat this process a total of four times. The swim stroke is freestyle, meaning you can use any stroke you prefer. After completing each 50-meter swim, you may rest for 20 seconds before beginning the next repetition.
- Pre-set - 4 x 50s Kick with 20s rest: For the pre-set, you will perform four repetitions of kicking for a distance of 50 meters each. After each 50-meter kick segment, you can rest for 20 seconds before beginning the next repetition. The kick consists of using the legs to propel yourself through the water.
- Second pre-set - 4 x 50s Stroke and 30s rest: After the kick sets, perform four swim repetitions for a distance of 50 meters each, but this time using any stroke you want, such as breaststroke, backstroke, or butterfly. After each 50-meter stroke, you can rest for 30 seconds.
- Main set - 6 x 50s Freestyle and 30s rest: Arriving at our main swim series, you will perform six repetitions swimming a distance of 50 meters each. You may use any stroke you prefer. After completing each 50-meter swim, rest for 30 seconds before beginning the next repetition.
- Cool down: To relax your muscles and lower your heart rate, swim 100 meters freestyle.
** For these routines, we base our description on the blog: "3 Swim Workouts For Beginners" from My Swim Pro.
How to Swim to Lose Weight?
If you are interested in swimming for weight loss, you should know that some swimming techniques may contribute to a more significant fat percentage loss than others. For example, the type of stroke you swim will be an essential part of your weight loss. Below are three top swimming strokes that could benefit weight loss.
- Breaststroke: Breaststroke can be an effective form of cardiovascular exercise. Exercise intensity is a critical factor in weight loss, and because breaststroke swimming involves significant exertion, it can be an effective tool in a weight loss approach. The breaststroke can burn 250 calories in 30 minutes.
- Front crawl: Front crawl is a form of cardiovascular exercise that raises heart rate and improves cardiovascular capacity, thus contributing to weight loss. The front crawl involves movements that work various muscle groups, such as the arms, legs, and core muscles. And because of the resistance of the water, you can burn an average of 300 calories in 30 minutes.
- Butterfly: Butterfly is one of the most cardio-intensive swimming strokes, combining arm and leg movements. Due to the intensity and effort required, it promotes the burning of approximately 450 calories in 30 minutes.
Get Started and Dive into Fitness with Swim exercises
We have already seen that swimming is a very beneficial sport that can lead to more significant weight loss as long as a balanced diet complements it. But where can you start? If you're ready to get on the road to fitness and enjoy the water, discover the best private swim coaches in Canada, who will ultimately make a difference in your fitness.
Find precisely the best swimming instruction with Superprof! Our online platform will provide you with the best private swim instructors, no matter where you are in Canada.
In addition, Superprof lets you filter your results by choosing the best price per lesson and your swimming level and finding the best-rated instructors. It has never been easier to get started in fitness than with Superprof!
Discover the best fitness swimming workouts!
Wrap up!
Find the best benefits of swimming exercises for health and weight loss, and get started with swimming lessons. By providing natural resistance, swimming is an excellent exercise as it strengthens muscles, improves endurance and flexibility, and contributes to better utilizing our energy reserves to facilitate weight loss.
Here, you will find everything from tips on how to start swimming and the right choice of equipment to examples of three swimming workouts designed for beginners.
Discover the best private swim instructors through Superprof to maximize the benefits of exercise in the water!
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