Swimmimg for Physical Fitness

Swimming is a technique that humans use to move through water using only movements of the body. This article concentrates on human swimming, a recreational activity and a competitive sport which has some great benefits regarding weight loss. There are many health benefits of swimming. The human body is composed primarily of water, and thus has a very similar density to water. Since only roughly 70% of the body is water, it is slightly less dense than the surrounding water, which exerts a buoyant force on it. Thus staying afloat requires only a slight propelling of water downward relative to the body, and transverse motion only a slight propelling of water in a direction opposite to the direction of intended motion. This propelling is accomplished by cupping the hands and using them as paddles, and by kicking the legs to push water away from the body.

Principles of Swimming

• The torso and the legs should be kept as parallel as possible to the surface of the water. Dropped legs or a slanted torso dramatically increase drag. The hand should be extended forward of the head as much as possible. This increases the average length at the water-line, substantially increasing speed.

• The time spent on the side should be maximized because the torso is narrower front-to-back than side-to-side on most swimmers. This reduces the frontal cross-section, reducing drag further, and also increasing the ratio between the body's water-line-length and width. Similar improvements are possible by orienting the narrowest direction of head, hands, legs and arms into the water. The torso is by far the most critical.

• The motion of the hand, arm, and leg from the back to the front should be in the air for as much as possible, and in the water, oriented as perfectly as possible, because the returning appendage has to move at least twice as fast as the swimmer, and in the water generates eight times the drag (which increases with the cube of the speed) of an equal amount of torso frontal area.

Benefits of Swimming

• Swimming exercises almost all muscles in the body. Usually, the arms and upper body are exercised more than the legs. In competitive swimming, excessive leg muscles can be seen as a disadvantage as they consume more oxygen, which would be needed for the muscles in the arms, although this depends on the swimming style. While breaststroke generates significant movement with the legs, front crawl propels the body mainly with the arms.

• Sometimes the swimming consists of swimming laps using a conventional stroke, such as the front crawl; other forms can include different forms of exercise performed in the water, such as water aerobics. Swimming may be good for asthma sufferers.

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This section is full of information on Exercising Tips, Physical Exercises you can do at home, Yoga Exercises, Benefits of Yoga, Healthy Body Benefits and lots of other do's and dont's you should follow while exercising.