Try Swimming for Fun, Low-Impact Exercise to Improve Your Health

Remember all the fun you had as a kid going to the community pool with your friends over the summer holidays? You can recapture that as an adult if you add swimming back into your fitness routine. In addition to being fun and relaxing, swimming is low-impact which makes it great exercise for anyone not used to working out.

You can even swim while pregnant, and with some types of injuries (but ask your doctor to be sure!) If you are a mom, you can take your kids along to the pool too, and have a great family outing. Many local recreation centers will have a yearly or monthly pass you can purchase, which makes swimming cost-effective as well.

Swimming is great because it is an aerobic workout that won't leave you sweating like most other forms of cardio. Because of the water's resistance, swimming also provides strength training. So, if you don't feel like going on the treadmill then lifting weights, swimming provides a great alternative that provides most of the same benefits.

It is also good for your mental health to spend time near water, so swimming can help to lift your mood as well as having physical health benefits.

Here are 9 benefits of swimming, according to Everyday Health:

1. Swimming can help you live longer

2. Swimming can help keep you lean

3. Swimming boosts heart health

4. Those laps can strengthen your lungs

5. Swimming may boost brain power

6. The water workout may put you in a better mood

7. Swimming may help you sleep

8. For people with chronic pain, swimming may help

9. Swimming is good for bone health

Every time you go swimming, you are getting a full body workout. This means, you are toning and working all your muscle groups. No more 'leg day' or 'arm day' for you!

Even if you are still doing other types of exercise on some days, adding swimming even a couple of days a week can be great for your workout routine. Swimming is great for beginners too, and there is no expensive equipment to buy. If you don't know how to swim, you can likely find inexpensive swimming lessons in your local area as well.

I hope these tips encourage you to get out and get some pool time this week! It will boost your mood and help with your health too.