Swimming is one of many sports that helps you improve cardio fitness, build strength and burn calories. It’s low impact, invigorating and accessible all year round, but can we measure its effectiveness on both physical and mental health? Find out how your typical swimming session stacks up and whether it really counts as a workout.

All-over benefits

In a nutshell, swimming is a fantastic all-over body workout. It increases lung capacity and heart rate and nearly all muscles are used and strengthened. As water is around 12 times more resistant than air, swimming recruits the whole body to propel you through the water effectively. Another unique advantage is the feeling of weightlessness. Compared to an activity like running, the strain and impact on the body is very low, so those with injuries (or rehabilitating), limited mobility, joint conditions, pregnant or who are overweight are likely to find swimming more accessible than other activities. A regular swim can help reduce your risk of serious illness including stroke, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and promote weight loss. But just how good is it?

Different strokes for different folks

Whether you swim in a pool or in open water, the intensity of your session affects the fitness benefits – just like any sport. The swimming stroke(s) you perform have a profound impact. Out of the four main strokes (butterfly, freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke), butterfly is arguably the most strenuous, in terms of energy needed and the demand for excellent shoulder mobility. Interestingly, Harvard research revealed that butterfly and freestyle (front crawl) are pretty much equal in terms of burning calories. Breaststroke takes third place and backstroke fourth.

Compare your swim to other sports

Harvard researchers compared how many calories were burnt in 30 minutes for a wide range of activities and body weights. Impressively, 30 minutes of swimming for a 185-pound person burned 488 calories (butterfly or freestyle), outperforming many other intense activities including cross-country skiing, football and even running at 9-minute mile pace.

It should be noted that many factors affect this sort of comparison, including age, sex, weight and swimming intensity. For example, 30 minutes of breaststroke typically burns more calories than cycling at 10/12 mph, whereas leisure swimming does not. It’s fairly obvious that splashing about in the pool does not really count as a serious workout, as fun as it is.

Use the handy Just Swim calculator to work out approximately how many calories your swim session is crunching and how it compares to running, cycling and walking for the same duration.

Swimming counts as strength training

Swimming makes you stronger due to the number of muscles used to counter water resistance and the fact that you need to keep moving to stay afloat. What’s more, there is minimal wear and tear on the body, especially the joints and bones, compared to other strength workouts. The range of muscles that leap into action during a swim is impressive, including abs, back, forearms, shoulders, hamstrings, quads and glutes. Mixing up strokes and regular swimming sessions will produce the best results. Whilst swimming is a fantastic stand-alone workout, it’s also a great cross-training exercise to complement other sports. It’s even proven to be better than straight-up rest for exercise recovery, according to the International Journal of Sports Medicine.

Swimming has very few drawbacks

Admittedly, it’s difficult to pinpoint disadvantages of swimming, but its low impact also makes it a non-load bearing exercise. This is beneficial to some, but it’s not great news for others, such as menopausal women susceptible to osteoporosis. Those seeking load bearing activity should still swim – absolutely – but top up their session with workouts such as strength training, yoga, walking or gentle aerobics. Finally, as with all sports, there is always risk of injury. Swimmers can encounter shoulder, back, neck or knee issues through over training, lack of rest or poor technique. Be aware of niggles that could be early signs of injury.

And what if you can’t swim?

There are plenty of coaches/swimming clubs offering adult lessons, but there are also ways to enjoy and benefit from the water without swimming lengths, including:

• Aqua aerobics, which works muscles hard as they’re up against water resistance. Equipment may be used to intensify the workout including weights or pool noodles. Non-swimmers are fine to participate as the water is standing depth
• Aqua jogging / pool running, performed in deep water with an optional belt float. The range of motion and muscles used are the same as when running on land, and it can even be more demanding on the cardiovascular system. In fact, replacing an easy run once a week with aqua jogging can mean you’re getting 95% of the same aerobic benefits, with zero impact on the legs.

 Mental health benefits of swimming

“Almost half a million British adults with mental health problems have stated swimming has helped to reduce the number of visits to a medical professional regarding their mental health.” (Source: swimming.org)

Swimming ticks the boxes when it comes to physical benefits, and it’s positive for mental health too. Staying active through swimming is a great mood lifter, releasing endorphins (happy hormones), slowing dementia, alleviating stress and is a welcome way to cool off on a warm day. Swimming can help improve sleep quality and be a relaxing and soothing activity as well as an exerting calorie burner. According to swimming.org, swimming has helped to reduce the symptoms of anxiety or depression for 1.4 million adults in Britain.

Swimming certainly counts as a workout, but it doesn’t only count as a workout. It’s therapy too.