Many people claim that nothing is more relaxing than swimming. It is difficult not to agree! We go swimming all year round, but especially holidays and weekends are the time that swimming lovers spend at the pools, even with their whole families. A family trip to a swimming pool is not what “true” sportsmen do? You couldn’t be more wrong!
During swimming you can burn 350 kcal within 30 minutes.Sounds promising, doesn’t it? Sure it does! When coupled with the information that it also reduces impact on your joints (in water we feel lighter – the Archimedes’ principle) and significantly improves body capacity (a standard lung capacity is about 5 liters, whereas professional swimmers have the capacity of up 11 liters) – relaxing in the pool will prove not only amusing but also effective!
Swimming is a sport for everyone. You are not a top-class sportsman? Choose the right swimming style and during your first encounters with this sport spend less time in the pool. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Need encouragement? Here it is! Only 10 minutes of popular breaststroke allows you to burn 60 kcal. A more demanding butterfly style - as many as 150 kcal [Otylia Jędrzejczak won gold in Athens in 2004 using this very style]!
[Translate to English:]
[Translate to English:]
Pływanie pozwala spalić aż 350 kcal w ciągu 30 minut. Zachęcające, prawda? Jasne. A jeśli dodamy, że dodatkowo odciąża stawy (w wodzie czujemy się lżejsi – prawo Archimedesa) i bardzo poprawia wydolność organizmu (standardowa pojemność płuc to ok 5 litrów, podczas gdy zawodowi pływacy mają pojemność do 11 litrów) – „basenowy relaks” okaże się nie tylko zabawny, ale i efektywny!
Pływanie to sport dla każdego. Nie jesteś wyczynowcem? Wybierz odpowiedni styl pływania i na początku przygody z tym sportem wchodź do basenu na krócej. Nie od razu Kraków zbudowano. Potrzebujesz zachęty? Oto jest! Już 10 min pływania popularną „żabką” to spalonych 60 kcal. Bardziej wymagającym „motylkiem” – to aż 150 kcal [to właśnie pływając stylem motylkowym Otylia Jędrzejczak zrobiła złoty medal w Atenach w 2004 roku]!
Swim as you can manage, and if you lack the skill, remember about lifebuoys, noodles and kickboards. These are for safety. What is there for fun? Fins! Why not? You can use them to encourage the youngest to swim. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin, the President of the United States, is regarded as the inventor of the first fins?
Talking about fins, remember that swimming is not only an investment in your health and slim body, it is also good fun! Doctors confirm that swimming increases the levels of serotonin – the “happy hormone” - in the blood. This hormone has a positive impact on our nervous system, emotions, concentration, sleep and appetite.
Summing up, swimming is a sport that impacts your health and physical condition, it allows you to maintain weight and stay slim. And the best part is that you do not need to be a top-class swimmer looking like a fitness instructor to feel at the pool like a fish in water!
Did you know that...
- Swimming has been an Olympic sport since 1908.
- Under the law, a 25 m length swimming pool should be guarded by one lifeguard, a 25-50 m pool by two guards at the same time, and an over 50 m pool - by three guards at the same time.
- Divers are record-breakers in holding their breath. The world record of 24 minutes 3 seconds is held by a Spanish diver Aleix Segura Vendrell.
- Actor David Hasselhoff, who played the part of Mitch Buchannon – the world’s most famous lifeguard, has a fear of water.
- The first rubber swimming goggles were made in the 1930s.
- The world’s deepest swimming pool is found in Belgium. Its deepest level reaches 33 meters!
- Currently, the largest swimming pool entered in the Guinness Book of Records is the facility in San Alfonso del Mar [Chile]. The pool is 1,013 meters long and covers 8 hectares.