I have referred quite alot of friends and colleagues to swimming as one of the best natural solutions to weight loss and many ailments and I'm so glad it worked for them more than our expectations.
Personally, the options I give to people seeking weight loss are visiting the gym and swimming. Visiting the gym is by far the fastest way of losing weight but requires quite alot of motivation and people sometimes give up on their goals because of the pain that comes with going to the gym and lifting heavy weights.
Swimming on the other hand is one of the calmest ways one could lose weight dramatically and here's why. Swimming could look so easy but the amount of calories burnt on every lap when swimming some strokes is just outrageous. Like I mentioned earlier, I advice both visiting the gym and swimming for more effective weight loss program, but introduce swimming first to folks who feel the gym maybe too tough for them. I introduce them to the gym and when they've gotten used to the stress that comes with exercising after a couple swim sessions.
There are two major swimming strokes well known for their use in weight loss programs and they also hold the reputation for the toughest swimming strokes to learn. These are the freestyle (front crawl) and the butterfly. They are the most powerful and fastest swimming strokes with a long time reputation for dramatically building muscles of those who engage in them unlike the other two strokes (breastroke and backstroke). For weight loss programs, swimmers aren't really required to learn the essential techniques for the swimming these strokes. The focus are mostly on the key areas that perform the most work while swimming these strokes. To carry our these strokes, all you need is your comfortable swim wear, swim goggles, a kick board and an instructor.
The freestyle (front crawl) focuses on building the entire body. Every part of the body works at the same time and the shoulders, biceps and triceps do the most work. Of course the legs aren't left out and they perform alot of work as with the hands. For effective weight loss program with this stroke, the swimmer holds the kick board with their hands and do a series of scissor kicking with both hands stretched out.
They do this for some minute to work out their legs and then switch to the working out their arm by keeping the kickboard between their legs, holding it tight and doing a series of the front crawl pull while facing the bottom of the water. This is one the easiest and fastest way to lose weight in the water while having fun at the same time.
Weight loss with the butterfly stroke is tougher to execute but follows the same process as the freestyle. The swimmers uses the dolphin kick here instead of the scissor kick and this works out the entire torso and limbs of the body. It helps to burn alot of belly and leg fat. The pull is tough to execute and it involves the swimmer keeping their head in the water while using both hands to pull simultaneously unlike the freestyle when one hand goes in and the other comes out.
Like the mentioned earlier, these actions don't require the swimmer to have the technical knowledge of the strokes. With the help of a swim instructor, the process of weight loss using these strokes would be faster than one can imagine.
Thanks for reading. Feel free drop your suggestions and thoughts in the comments section. I hope you found this post helpful and educative. See you in the next one. ❤