7 Swimming Benefits on Your Mental and Physical Health

Swimming can be a leisure activity to pass the time. However, swimming is also beneficial to your health, mentally and physically.

Swimming is one of the activities to maintain your fitness. It is also a water sports branch that competed in the Olympics since 1896. Quoted from the book Introduction to Swimming Sport, humans have been able to swim since the pre-historic era, proven by ancient cave paintings.

Below are the compiled benefits of swimming on your body and mind:

1. Training the whole body

Quoting from Healthline, swimming is good to train your body from head to toe. This sport improves your heartbeat, and builds muscle mass, strength, and durability.

2. Maintaining body weight

Swimming for one hour can burn 400 to 700 calories depending on the intensity of the movements, so it's good if you want to maintain your body weight.

3. Maintaining heart and lungs health

Even if swimming is not as heavy as running or aerobics, swimming is also good for cardio. Swimming helps improve oxygen and blood flow, which makes it healthy for your heart and lungs.

4. Handling stress

Not only beneficial to your physical well-being, but swimming can also improve your mental health. Swimming is proven to reduce stress and depression, slow down dementia, and reduce the symptoms of stress. Swimming can also calm people with anxiety disorders and depression

5. Reducing pinched nerves risk

The movement from swimming relaxes the backbone and back muscles which reduces the risk for pinched nerves.

6. Reducing joint pain

Swimming is one of the exercises recommended for joint pain recovery since it reduces pain.

7. Reducing asthma risk

Swimming can increase your lungs' ability and train breathing control. This sport is beneficial to people with a history of asthma.

Tulisan ini merupakan karya Delfi Ana Harahap yang telah dipublikasikan di tempo.co