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Lap swimming is often overlooked as a great aerobic exercise – but ORA Orthopedic’s J.C. Clark suggests folks over thirty seriously consider it as an option to putting more wear and tear on stressed-out knees and ankles.
Swimming is great fun … it’s just that most people don’t consider it an exercise option.
by Dr. J. C. Clark, ORA Orthopedics
Dr. J.C. Clark, ORA Orthopedics
Let’s be honest, lap swimming isn’t the most popular activity that people choose for exercise. When was the last time you asked one of your friends, “Hey, did you have a great swim this morning?”
Let me answer that for you, never.
More than likely, you asked them, “How was your run?” Or, “How was your spin class? Did you lift weights today?”
Lap swimming gets no respect
Lap swimming for exercise is not very common. Some of it is the lack of exposure to lap swimming or the lack of access to a pool, and some could be not knowing how to swim. In fact, there isn’t a single country in the world that values swimming over all other sports.
There are countries that encourage swimming and individuals who are passionate about it, but swimming always takes a nose dive on the popularity list when faced with football and basketball, not to mention hockey, cricket, and other sports which are immensely popular in different areas of the world. And, when compared to running and bicycling for aerobic exercise, swimming lags behind.
Luckily for me, I was forced, heavily encouraged in a strict parental manner, to lap swim as a child.
Since my father was a collegiate long-distance swimmer and local swimming coach, my sister and I were “given the generous opportunity” to competitively swim at a young age. As legend has it, my father was so eager to get me in the pool that he tested the theory that “babies can swim” by throwing me into the deep end of the local pool when I was 3 months old.
Witnesses say I floated back up to the surface and floated on my back. What followed were numerous paternally-driven, drown-proofing experiments that forced me to develop advanced aquatic skills at a young age just to survive early childhood.
At 5 years old, I entered competitive swimming and its controlled environment of laminated workout sheets, spaghetti dinners, and all-day Saturday swimming meets.
Most swimmers move on to other sports
Eventually, competitive swimming gave way to basketball and baseball in high school for my sister and me. I had to hang up my treasured Speedo, knowing that the only time I could appropriately wear it in public again if I wasn’t competitively swimming would be at a beach in Europe or on my personal yacht outside Barbados when I became a mafia kingpin. Neither of which have nor will ever happen.
What I didn’t realize back then, and only started to grasp in my early 30’s, was that my parents gave me a wonderful skill to possess and utilize later in life for aerobic exercise. (Darn it, they were right again!)
Nowadays, I find myself gravitating toward hitting the pool for some aerobic exercise versus pounding my knees and ankles on hard surfaces with jogging.
Four important things to remember about the health benefits of swimming
Here are some great reasons why lap swimming may just be that aerobic exercise you have been looking for:
1. Swimming has less impact on your joints, especially if you have arthritis.
Water-based exercise allows you to move and use your arthritic joints without worsening symptoms due to the buoyancy property of water. This buoyancy decreases your body weight forces on your joints by up to 90%.
Especially if you are looking for aerobic exercise to lose weight, swimming may be your best bet. Too many times people come into my clinic saying their knees are flared up because they recently tried to start walking or jogging for exercise. However, those impact activities may be too much for an arthritic knee or hip, especially if you are starting an exercise regimen.
Progressing from a water-based program to a land-based one may be the better way to go.
Furthermore, people with arthritis report being able to exercise longer in water than on land without increased effort or joint or muscle pain. All of this is due to those decreased joint reaction forces while swimming.
2. Swimming is a part-cardio, part-strength training, full-body exercise in one.
Swimming is just one of a few types of exercise that engages almost every muscle group in your body. While the lower body provides propulsion through kicking, the upper body provides pull through arm movement.
The core is constantly engaged while connecting these two parts of your body. The water provides the resistance to strengthen all of the muscles utilized during these activities.
Meanwhile, your heart and lungs are getting an aerobic stress test because our hearts actually have to work harder during exercises that engage both our arms and legs.
3. Swimming has been proven to reduce heart disease risk and lower risk of death from all causes (something called all-cause mortality).
In a 2016 study of 80,306 individuals in England and Scotland, swimming demonstrated a significantly reduced risk of death from any cause by 28% and a significantly reduced risk of death from cardiovascular diseases by 41% (Oja et al). Cycling showed a 15% significant reduction in all-cause mortality but no significant reduction in cardiovascular mortality.
Interestingly, running showed no significant risk reduction in all-cause mortality or cardiovascular mortality in this study. In another study of 40,547 men aged 20-90 years old, those who swim were found to have a 53% lower all-cause mortality risk than those who were sedentary, 50% lower risk than those who were walkers, and 49% lower risk than those who were runners.
These results were found even after adjusting for other factors like age, body-mass index, smoking status, alcohol intake, and family history of heart disease. If the conclusions from just these two studies don’t convince you to try swimming, I am not sure what else can.
4. Swimming can improve your mental health.
Although this can be said of any exercise or fitness program, swimming has been shown to improve mood quality for both men and women and decrease anxiety and depression in patients with chronic health conditions. In one study, people who swam reduced their anger and fatigue scores by 34% and 28%, respectively.
Moreover, in the 2014 book by Wallace J. Nichols entitled, “Blue Mind: How Water Makes You Happier, More Connected and Better at What You Do” the author details the psychological, cognitive, and emotional benefits of being in or near water.
This doesn’t just apply to large bodies of water like oceans and lakes but also pools. I can attest to this phenomenon of a certain calm that comes over me when I hit the water for some laps.
I fully realize that a lot of people can’t just suit up and go to the local fitness center and start lap swimming. If you are one of those people who don’t know how to swim, there are numerous swimming coaches in the area that can help you get started. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
Otherwise, if you just want to dip your toe in the water (sorry, I had to say it), a water aerobics class is an excellent chance to get used to the water, build confidence, and burn some calories. If you don’t think that you can burn a lot of calories this way, just ask one of the Augustana cross-country runners who gets relegated to the pool for some aqua-jogging when they have a stress fracture in their foot and can’t run outside.
No matter what avenue you decide to try in order to get some water-based aerobic exercise, I promise you that having this option will pay dividends in the future.
Swimming is great fun … it’s just that most people don’t consider it an exercise option.
by Dr. J. C. Clark, ORA Orthopedics
Dr. J.C. Clark, ORA Orthopedics
The CDC lists swimming as the fourth most popular recreational sport in the United States. I said “recreational swimming,” not lap swimming.
Let’s be honest, lap swimming isn’t the most popular activity that people choose for exercise. When was the last time you asked one of your friends, “Hey, did you have a great swim this morning?”
Let me answer that for you, never.
More than likely, you asked them, “How was your run?” Or, “How was your spin class? Did you lift weights today?”
Lap swimming gets no respect
Lap swimming for exercise is not very common. Some of it is the lack of exposure to lap swimming or the lack of access to a pool, and some could be not knowing how to swim. In fact, there isn’t a single country in the world that values swimming over all other sports.
There are countries that encourage swimming and individuals who are passionate about it, but swimming always takes a nose dive on the popularity list when faced with football and basketball, not to mention hockey, cricket, and other sports which are immensely popular in different areas of the world. And, when compared to running and bicycling for aerobic exercise, swimming lags behind.
Luckily for me, I was forced, heavily encouraged in a strict parental manner, to lap swim as a child.
Since my father was a collegiate long-distance swimmer and local swimming coach, my sister and I were “given the generous opportunity” to competitively swim at a young age. As legend has it, my father was so eager to get me in the pool that he tested the theory that “babies can swim” by throwing me into the deep end of the local pool when I was 3 months old.
Witnesses say I floated back up to the surface and floated on my back. What followed were numerous paternally-driven, drown-proofing experiments that forced me to develop advanced aquatic skills at a young age just to survive early childhood.
At 5 years old, I entered competitive swimming and its controlled environment of laminated workout sheets, spaghetti dinners, and all-day Saturday swimming meets.
Most swimmers move on to other sports
Eventually, competitive swimming gave way to basketball and baseball in high school for my sister and me. I had to hang up my treasured Speedo, knowing that the only time I could appropriately wear it in public again if I wasn’t competitively swimming would be at a beach in Europe or on my personal yacht outside Barbados when I became a mafia kingpin. Neither of which have nor will ever happen.
What I didn’t realize back then, and only started to grasp in my early 30’s, was that my parents gave me a wonderful skill to possess and utilize later in life for aerobic exercise. (Darn it, they were right again!)
Nowadays, I find myself gravitating toward hitting the pool for some aerobic exercise versus pounding my knees and ankles on hard surfaces with jogging.
Four important things to remember about the health benefits of swimming
Here are some great reasons why lap swimming may just be that aerobic exercise you have been looking for:
1. Swimming has less impact on your joints, especially if you have arthritis.
Water-based exercise allows you to move and use your arthritic joints without worsening symptoms due to the buoyancy property of water. This buoyancy decreases your body weight forces on your joints by up to 90%.
Especially if you are looking for aerobic exercise to lose weight, swimming may be your best bet. Too many times people come into my clinic saying their knees are flared up because they recently tried to start walking or jogging for exercise. However, those impact activities may be too much for an arthritic knee or hip, especially if you are starting an exercise regimen.
Progressing from a water-based program to a land-based one may be the better way to go.
Furthermore, people with arthritis report being able to exercise longer in water than on land without increased effort or joint or muscle pain. All of this is due to those decreased joint reaction forces while swimming.
2. Swimming is a part-cardio, part-strength training, full-body exercise in one.
Swimming is just one of a few types of exercise that engages almost every muscle group in your body. While the lower body provides propulsion through kicking, the upper body provides pull through arm movement.
The core is constantly engaged while connecting these two parts of your body. The water provides the resistance to strengthen all of the muscles utilized during these activities.
Meanwhile, your heart and lungs are getting an aerobic stress test because our hearts actually have to work harder during exercises that engage both our arms and legs.
3. Swimming has been proven to reduce heart disease risk and lower risk of death from all causes (something called all-cause mortality).
In a 2016 study of 80,306 individuals in England and Scotland, swimming demonstrated a significantly reduced risk of death from any cause by 28% and a significantly reduced risk of death from cardiovascular diseases by 41% (Oja et al). Cycling showed a 15% significant reduction in all-cause mortality but no significant reduction in cardiovascular mortality.
Interestingly, running showed no significant risk reduction in all-cause mortality or cardiovascular mortality in this study. In another study of 40,547 men aged 20-90 years old, those who swim were found to have a 53% lower all-cause mortality risk than those who were sedentary, 50% lower risk than those who were walkers, and 49% lower risk than those who were runners.
These results were found even after adjusting for other factors like age, body-mass index, smoking status, alcohol intake, and family history of heart disease. If the conclusions from just these two studies don’t convince you to try swimming, I am not sure what else can.
4. Swimming can improve your mental health.
Although this can be said of any exercise or fitness program, swimming has been shown to improve mood quality for both men and women and decrease anxiety and depression in patients with chronic health conditions. In one study, people who swam reduced their anger and fatigue scores by 34% and 28%, respectively.
Moreover, in the 2014 book by Wallace J. Nichols entitled, “Blue Mind: How Water Makes You Happier, More Connected and Better at What You Do” the author details the psychological, cognitive, and emotional benefits of being in or near water.
This doesn’t just apply to large bodies of water like oceans and lakes but also pools. I can attest to this phenomenon of a certain calm that comes over me when I hit the water for some laps.
I fully realize that a lot of people can’t just suit up and go to the local fitness center and start lap swimming. If you are one of those people who don’t know how to swim, there are numerous swimming coaches in the area that can help you get started. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
Otherwise, if you just want to dip your toe in the water (sorry, I had to say it), a water aerobics class is an excellent chance to get used to the water, build confidence, and burn some calories. If you don’t think that you can burn a lot of calories this way, just ask one of the Augustana cross-country runners who gets relegated to the pool for some aqua-jogging when they have a stress fracture in their foot and can’t run outside.
No matter what avenue you decide to try in order to get some water-based aerobic exercise, I promise you that having this option will pay dividends in the future.
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