When it comes to staying healthy, regular exercise is the key. Of course, during the past year, many of us have been inside, far away from the gym. Fortunately, folks who are lucky enough to have pools have been able to swim. That’s good news since swimming is a terrific exercise, even
during COVID-19. That said, can swimming prevent heart disease? As it turns out, the answer is yes!
How Can Swimming Prevent Heart Disease
We’ve written about the health benefits of swimming before, but let’s focus on the heart today. Overall,
swimming is a terrific full body workout. It works multiple muscles at once while also burning calories. Even better, swimming is significantly easier on your joints than jogging. It even helps to improve your overall cardiovascular health, which can lead to a lower risk of heart disease.
Swimming on a routine basis can help to maintain an active lifestyle. In turn, this helps to decrease the risk of all kinds of cardiovascular disease. Beyond coronary heart disease, this includes strokes and high blood pressure. In fact, swimming for 30 minutes a few times each week can help to significantly lower blood pressure levels. The benefit of improved circulation means the blood is better able to deliver oxygen and remove waste throughout your body. This significantly reduces the risk of embolisms and stroke.
Additionally, regular swimming offers other long-term heart-healthy results. One of the best of these benefits is a lowered heart rate. Remember that the heart is a powerful muscle. Just like the muscles in your arms and legs, the heart can be strengthened and built up. Through repeated and regular cardio exercise, in this case swimming, the size and strength of your heart muscle will increase.
Over time, a strong heart won’t need to work as hard to handle basic natural activities. Therefore, your heart rate will slow. In turn, this will reduce the stress on your heart during your daily life.
Heart Health and Beyond
Of course, there are even more benefits to regular swimming. The capacity of the lungs will improve over time. It can improve your body’s ability to process oxygen and can even boost your metabolism. This allows the body to break down food and burn calories and fat more quickly. Swimming for 30 minutes a day can also help to control cholesterol levels. In general, it can greatly improve your overall health. Plus, there’s another great benefit of choosing swimming over jogging or biking: you won’t get sweat in your eyes!
Of course, that doesn’t mean you won’t still sweat. You’ll stay cool, but you’re still sweating into the water. Sure, there won’t be as much body odor or sweaty clothes, but that doesn’t mean you’re squeaky clean after a long exhausting swim workout. Many of us don’t realize how much oil, sweat and bodily fluids can transfer from our bodies to the water.
That said, it’s also important to
bathe before swimming. This can help keep the water clean and help prevent the spread of bacteria to other swimmers.
In conclusion can swimming prevent heart disease? Absolutely. It can do that and a whole lot more. To learn more about heart disease,
visit the NHS website here.
