Swimming is a safe and effective method of losing weight. The force of water combined with the movement of the whole body helps the muscular system become fitter, while also helping with blood circulation and, most notably, reducing excess fat.
1. Swimming and some popular swimming styles
Swimming is a method of exercising underwater and it is an ideal way to lose weight and increase height. Water is 800 times denser than air, so when you kick, pull or push water, you will consume much more energy and accelerate the metabolizing speed to reduce your overall fat. Using proper swimming technique, one can balance and float on the water surface instead of sinking, while the cooperative movements of the limbs smoothly push the swimmer forward.
Currently, there are many swimming styles suitable for different purposes. Here are some of the most common swimming styles:
- Freestyle swimming, or front crawl, is the fastest swimming style. When swimming this style, people can swim in their preferred way without following any specific rules. The only criteria used to evaluate this style is speed and time;
- Breaststroke is a swimming style that imitates frog movements;
- Dog paddle is considered as the easiest swimming style;
- Backstroke is a unique style, when your face doesn’t stay in contact with water as in other styles
- Butterfly stroke is also known as Dolphin stroke;
- Dolphin kick.
2. Can you lose weight by swimming?
As proven in many studies, swimming is an extremely effective way to lose weight, even consuming more calories than jogging or running. It is a sport that help burn your overall calories. However, the amount of calories burnt also depends on the intensity of your daily swimming exercise
The average swimming speed of about 50 yards/minute, burns around 625 calories per hour. At the speed of a professional athlete of about 75 yards/minute, 750 calories are burnt per hour. To lose 1kg, you need to burn about 7000 calories. So, if you swim for 1 hour per day, 6 times per week, you can lose 1kg in 2 weeks with the current diet.
Any kind of exercise is better than merely sitting still. If you have not exercised regularly, a 20 to 30-minute swimming session can burn a considerable amount of calories.
3. Can swimming reduce your belly fat?
Swimming brings a lot of benefits to one’s health in improving the musculoskeletal system, keeping the body in good shape, and especially reducing excess fat in the belly. The water force, together with full-body exercising helps burn calories and quickly release energy. In fact, swimming burns much more calories than racewalking or running. For example, freestyle swimming when maintained in a fast speed can burn up to 300 calories in 30 minutes, under the condition that
Swimming requires every body part to exercise, which is why the amount of calories burnt is relatively high. Because of that, swimming not only helps reduce belly fat but also decrease your overall body weight
4. How to swim to lose weight and burn fat
Swimming to lose weight and burn fat requires a more regular, longer, and more intense practice session.
For any kind of exercise, patience is the key to lose weight successfully. Actually, according to swim coaches, an athlete who wants to swim better and faster should swim more often but for a shorter amount of time. One can swim for a longer period when their technique gets better. Therefore, swimming more regularly can result in better weight loss comparing to having a longer swimming session. When your technique is maintained throughout the process, you can swim for a much longer time than other exercises. This not only helps burn more calories but also increases your stamina and improves your strokes, gradually increase your pool time by each practice session.
To burn more calories in a shorter period, you can practice interval training. Instead of swimming the whole time at 65-70% of your heart rate, divide it into smaller sets. Try swimming for 4 rounds at 70% of your speed, 4 rounds at 80%, and 4 rounds at 90% with a break between each of those 4-round sets. Then work your way back down (4 rounds at 90%, 4 at 80%, and 4 at 70%).
We hope that the above information has given you more options and solutions to quickly burn excess fat. Always maintain a balanced diet and we wish you a productive and healthy life.
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Reference source: menshealth.com