Need a New Hobby? Try Swimming

Swimming offers several physical, mental, and social benefits, and can enhance your life in many ways. If you’re looking for a new hobby, incorporating this aquatic activity into your life can be the perfect addition. Here are some of the main reasons why swimming should be your next hobby.

An Easy Way to Burn Calories

If you’re trying to lose weight, swimming can burn some calories, and help you trim your waistline. According to Healthline.com, a person who weighs 160 pounds is able to burn 423 calories an hour while swimming at a moderate pace. Swimming can sometimes burn more calories than other fitness activities, such as walking, yoga, and exercising on an elliptical trainer.

Improved Muscle Tone

Swimming can work the arms, legs, glutes, and back, and make the muscles in these areas stronger, and more toned. Going for a swim is also a great workout for the core muscles. If you want to work these muscles even harder, try using a kickboard, handheld paddles, or foam noodles, to create more resistance in the water.

A Low-Impact Workout

Running, jumping and other high-impact exercises often put undue stress on the bones, joints, and tendons, and may lead to injuries. Since you’ll be floating and moving through the water while swimming, you’ll save your body the extra impact as you exercise. Going for regular swims can be especially helpful if you have arthritis, or another medical condition that may be exacerbated by high-impact workouts.

Stress Relief

All forms of exercise can lower stress by increasing the body’s natural endorphin levels, but feeling the soothing water on your skin while swimming can put you even more at ease. Taking a dip in the pool is one of the quickest ways to ease stress, and put you into a better state of mind. If you want a private pool on your property so that you can go for a swim whenever you feel stressed, you can hire a company that specializes in designing custom pools Houston residents want, and they will create the perfect layout for you.

Inflammation Reduction

Even if you don’t have an injury, inflammation can still occur in other parts of your body without you realizing it. Lifehack points to evidence showing how swimming is able to reduce inflammation throughout your entire body, which can slow or stop disease progression. Swimming may even be an effective way to treat inflammation that causes hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis).

The Perfect Mood Booster

Your mental health can improve while swimming, since this physical activity is known to balance moods. Many people with depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders have turned to swimming for natural relief. The effects of dementia may also be lessened when swimming is a regular part of a workout routine.

Improved Mental Capacity

Swimming can even make you smarter. Your memory and thinking skills can be sharpened by going for regular laps in the pool. Since swimming reduces the brain’s inflammation and insulin resistance, your brain can become healthier and make you a smarter person.

Improved Mental Capacity

Swimming can even make you smarter. Your memory and thinking skills can be sharpened by going for regular laps in the pool. Since swimming reduces the brain’s inflammation and insulin resistance, your brain can become healthier, and make you a smarter person.

A Great Social Activity

You’ll have the chance to meet people, and make new friends when you go for regular swims at local public pools, waterparks, or other places where swimming conditions are ideal. Many public pools organize swim clubs that offer the perfect way to interact with other like-minded folks. If swimming is seen as more of a social event, you’ll likely be inclined to take part in this physical activity more often.

You’ll enhance your life in more ways than you’ve probably imagined when you take up swimming as a hobby. Going for frequent swims can improve the way that you live, and help you adopt a healthier perspective.