As it gets colder and darker earlier at this time of year, people start to look for indoor exercise options. People should use the occasion of the change of seasons to start swimming and get into the single best exercise that there is.
Swimming is a great form of cardiovascular exercise and is a perfect complement to a strength-training regimen.
When the weather is great, it’s warm and the sun is out until 8PM or later there are plenty of options for people who like to get their exercise outdoors. However, when the autumnal equinox approaches, many people have a hard time finding the time and place to work out outdoors.
Swimming is a challenging form of cardiovascular exercise that virtually eliminates impact on the body and requires that every muscle of the body work to produce movement. There really is no better form of exercise than swimming. Not only will swimming improve your cardiovascular fitness, but fits in perfectly in the context of an overall exercise program.
Getting to the pool twice per week for 20-30 minutes a pop combined with a day of calisthenics and two days of strength training is pretty much the perfect training program. This kind of schedule can be handled by even the busiest of folks, as this regimen can be done in 3 or 4 days per week, leaving people plenty of time to pursue other activities.
Because of the demands that swimming puts on the body, it is an effective and time-efficient way for people to exercise, and certainly a superior cardiovascular option to the treadmill, stair climber or other cardio machine-based activities.
So don’t let the cold and dark of the fall and winter get you down. Consider swimming and take your fitness to the next level.
Swimming is great! If anyone is just getting started on swimming, I have a small bit of advice: get some GOOD goggles. Cheap goggles will leak and drive you up the wall. If you must, you can order online, e.g., trisports.com, but it is better to try them on. Also, swimming indoors gives me terrible allergic symptoms — maybe it’s the chlorine, or maybe there is more mold growing around indoor pools. My solution is to pop an antihistamine, e.g., Loratadine, before I go.
great point…i use the goggles that resemble a scuba mask rather than the traditional style. they give you so much better vision. and it’s funny how i used to be terribly allergic to chlorine – nosebleeds and rashes – but now don’t seem to be…i guess after 40 years of allergies i grew out of them!
Swimming is simply the best. I would do it far more often and effectively if I didn’t have such a weak right ear.