Fit 4 Life: Swim to stay in shape

There is no better way to work the core and upper body. In a few days you will see results. Abdominals, back, chest and arm muscles will begin to tone and fat will disappear very quickly. Also, lower body muscles work while kicking with energy.

It would be good to do this exercise three times a week, beginning with sessions of 15 to 20 minutes and when performance improves increasing up to 45 minutes or 1 hour.

No matter the time or the style, muscles begin to tone; passing 25 or 30 minutes, the body begins to burn fat. Swimming is a complete sport. With constant practice, results are amazing.

For muscle tone it is better to divide routine in sessions, swimming faster with great intensity for short periods. If you want to burn fat swim slow for a long period with less pauses in between.

Benefits

– Improves blood circulation due to position while swimming, great for hypertension as it promotes venous return.

– Relaxes and reduces stress. Muscle tension decreases when swimming.

– Water is 900 times denser than air, so exercising in the water is excellent and very effective.

– Swimming movements are so complete that almost all muscles work.

– Improves cardiorespiratory systems as it is an aerobic workout.

– It is also excellent to improve anaerobic system if it is done in short and intensive series.

– Water has no impact and tension is very light, so there is very few risks of injury.

– It is great for rehabilitation.

– Excellent for pregnant women, they can exercise with no risk and no tension; the body is lighter inside the water.

For best results combine swimming with endurance, aerobic activities and interval training. Cross training is great. It is good to train all physical abilities.

If you want a great figure and performance, it´s important to surprise the body with different workouts, sports and routines from time to time to avoid falling in a plateau.

Although swimming is almost a complete sport, it is necessary to combine it with other routines if you are looking for the perfect body.

Swimmer´s body has stylized arms and legs, small buttocks and strong back. Women tend to have small breast because during swimming lots of fat is burned, and breast are composed mostly of fat.

While kicking, legs strengthen and lengthen, but you need to work with weights too if you want muscle definition. Swimmer buttocks tend to be small and not high, so once again strength workout is needed to build muscle mass.

For upper body, swimming is perfect, getting strong and toned arms, back, and chest.

For next week we´ll talk about the importance of strength and endurance training in addition to swimming and other sports.