Swimming to the top

When swimming starts becoming more about strength over the competition and getting a firm lead at the start of a triathlon, and less about lazy afternoon cool downs, the sport has extraordinary benefits. If you’ve never thought of the pool as a serious workout, think again.

It engages nearly every muscle

While cycling engages the major muscles in your legs and running works in some of the smaller muscles; there’s almost no muscle group that swimming doesn’t connect with. From toes to heart, swimming is an all-over body workout in the most important ways. Swimming, unless you’re sprinting, is aerobic exercise, so it activates muscles across your body at a low intensity, helping you to burn fat and improve endurance. It is also very easy on your body as it is not weight bearing. It’s a great way to improve your fitness while still allowing sore and tight muscles from running and cycling to relax and recover.

It has further health benefits

Balance, flexibility, core strength, and good posture are all essential to all sporting disciplines and no sport trains these more effectively than swimming. Swimming, regardless of stroke, requires the entire body to engage and for limbs and trunk to work together. The timing and rhythm of the stroke helps to improve alignment of the body and body awareness. This improves balance. The twisting motion that most often occurs in the hips and spine during swimming can dramatically improve flexibility and core strength through which posture also improves. Swimming also stretches muscle fibres and the soft tissue in joints and can help reduce the swelling that can occur from running and cycling.

It’s tougher than you think

Taking a leisurely splash up a few lengths of your local pool may not sound like very hard work, but pitting your lean muscle mass up against the resistance that water offers, is quite hard work. Add to that the rhythm and timing needed to coordinate between limbs, trunk, and breathing, and you have a form of exercise that requires mind and body to be very present. Adding speed to your stroke can have you working harder in the pool than you do on the bike.

The swim leg, being the first in the triathlon, is either an easy introduction to the two tougher disciplines, or the toughest discipline to get out of the way. Many find the swim leg the toughest and most daunting. As Ceejae Miller, Biokineticist and triathlete recommends, join a club. Learning to swim in a group will ease your nerves on the day of the event and give you a good idea of what to expect. Not to mention the experiences of others who can help you improve your stroke and technique.

To find out more about Discovery, click here.