20 Reasons Why We Love to Swim

Whether it’s to de-stress, to escape, or just for the hell of it. Here’s 20 reasons why we LOVE to swim.

1. Swimming is for everyone! It’s one of the few activities you can do from 0 to 90+!  It’s good for the heart, a great cardio exercise, and perfect for elderly people, pregnant women and those recovering from injuries. 

2. Just 30 minutes of exercise in water is the equivalent of approximately an hour’s non-water exercise. 30 mins of steady swimming can burn between 200 and 350 calories! You even continue to burn calories even when you’ve gotten out of the pool. 

3. Swimming is a genuine full body workout, making it the perfect exercise for toning up and burning fat. It’s low impact, so you can take pressure off your joints by working them in the water, which can improve resistance and recovery. Swimming reduces the impact on your joints by 90% compared to land-based exercise.

4. Because it’s a full body workout, swimming pumps blood hard to the arms and legs, meaning it’s a great way to improve circulation.

5. It builds endurance: Controlling your breathing in the pool can help improve your endurance on land by improving lung capacity. It helps you achieve a higher level of fitness in your everyday fitness routine.

6. We love the community. You get to know the lifeguards, the managers, the staff and the rest of the swimmers who get up when you do. Your squad, your teammates, even the swimmer just cutting their laps next to you.

7. It’s a really important, lifesaving skill. We love lifesavers!

8. It’s a great way to cool down after other forms of exercise. Nothing beats a post workout sauna and swim with your gym buddy.

9. You can swim all year round. It warms you up in winter and cools you down in the summer! It’s the best way to cool down on a stinking hot day.

10. Because it makes us happy. Swimming can help improve mental well-being. It significantly reduces tension, depression, anger, confusion and increases vigour. Due to rhythmic, aerobic exercise and use of large muscle groups – it can be mood altering. Swimmers really do "feel better".

11. It’s a fun activity all the family can do together!

12. It brings back memories of childhood fun in the water.

13. You can do it in so many locations, inside and outside, beaches, lakes, rivers and pools. 

14. Swimming opens up so many sports; water-polo, surfing, triathlons, scuba-diving and synchronised swimming to name just a few! 

15. Because the feeling of floating in the water is like no other. Think holiday pool, in the sun, on an inflatable. Nothing beats that feeling!

16. Muscles relax in a heated pool, which is great for stretching and improving flexibility.  Swimming can significantly improve flexibility. Smoothness of movement also helps lengthen and stretch muscles making them toned, healthy and strong.

17. Swimming helps improve your co-ordination. 

18. Because water is denser than air it can provide greater resistance to breathing compared to land based exercise.

19. Swimming can provide lots of  variation in training regime, making training less monotonous and more interesting.

20. We LOVE swimming because it’s a way of life… and the coffee afterwards – well that just tastes better after a swim.

So what are you waiting for? Take some time on this day of love to do something you’ll love… We’ll meet you at the water. #LoveToSwim #Speedo