I enjoy swimming for the benefit of my health and well-being. After doing lengths and aqua jogging it is great to relax in the spa pool. Swimming helps me feel relaxed, energised, happy and ready for other things especially if I have a comfortable swimming costume.
On one particular day when I was in the warm therapeutic pool for aqua jogging, I noticed a group of young mothers all lined up with their adorable toddlers in arms taking instructions from 2 swimming instructors. They were in the shallower learners pool next door to the therapeutic pool and they all looked like they were enjoying themselves.
The toddlers were being moved in all sorts of directions- in and out and around. The group did activities in lines, circles and even had some freer moving around the pool.
After about 15 minutes doing aqua jogging I hopped into the spa pool. Then I heard some sounds…
“Roll Over”
I turned around in the direction of the adult-toddler group, along with someone else in the spa pool. All the adults were singing and moving the toddlers over in time to words and music. It was Soooooooo Cute. The two of us looked at each other and smiled.
The song they were singing was called “Ten In A Bed“
This group looked like they were having fun.
The benefits to this group is social interaction, giving toddlers some enjoying water fun in a playful way as well as giving them confidence about being in the water. Singing and moving in the water stimulates the brain getting the right and left brain working. After the class was finished some mums and toddlers enjoyed a relaxing moment in the spa pool too.
Anyone who does water activities such as aqua aerobics, aqua jogging, water yoga, swimming lengths benefits from a wide range of factors.
Take swimming lengths for instance.
When you swim length after length after length it gives you a chance to reflect, think of your next meal, build a blog or even plot continuing chapters in a book. Whilst you are deep in thought you can clock up many lengths without realising how many!! And this extra exercise must be good for you.
However some say it is best to focus on the Now rather than what has been or what is going to be.
So you can focus on:
~ the power of your arms and legs as they move against the resistance of the water thus increasing your strength.
~ your breathing.
Feel a regular pattern of breathing in when your head is out of the water and breathing out slowly and evenly, creating bubbles, when your head is in the water. It feels better to exhale constantly in the water rather than holding your breath in the water as this makes one tense up more and want to breathe more. Getting a flowing breathing pattern leads to a more relaxed smooth rhythmical stroke free from tension.
Swimming can be beneficial to anyone who plays a wind musical instrument eg flute, as it helps increase your lung capacity by strengthening heart and lungs, increasing delivery of oxygen and making your muscles’ use of oxygen more efficient. Thus making it helpful for wind players to play longer phrases.
~ mixing up your strokes ie freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly. Moving your arms and legs in different ways can build up your muscle strength. Combine this with aqua-jogging, aqua-aerobics for a full muscular workout.
With every stroke you take you are moving the entire body. This is great for increasing the circulation of the blood throughout. It is hard getting blood to circulate from the lower parts of the body to your heart and this gets worse as we age. Therefore if one exercises, like swimming, then the muscles around the veins, which are working more, can push the blood up to to heart more easily.
After lapping up the lengths and aqua-jogging in the warm hydrotherapy pool I like to relax in the spa pool. It is soooo relaxing and peaceful just to shut your eyes and feel the bubbles flow over your entire body … a great stress release. When I have my eyes open in this tub of blissful happiness I can see many people of all ages exercising, cooling off or relaxing in the heated pools, having fun and enjoying the social interactions with their friends and families.
There you have it – a session of aqua therapy.
So why not
Take The Plunge
Move Every Muscle
Feel Every Breath
Aqua-jog With A Friend
Take Tots To A Class
Combine It With A Mental Workout
and
Create A Blog In Your Mind
The benefits of swimming begin when you are little and carry on for life
SWIM FOR LIFE TODAY
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