Maintain Your Health

Freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke swimming exercises explained step-by-step. The benefits of swimming are in abundance.

Different swimming exercises

The swimming fitness is a measure of a person to perform the following swimming exercises.

Freestyle

This is the most effective, fastest and most popular stroke. Initially, imagine that a line extends along the center of the body and it is an axis around which the body moves. Extrapolate this horizontally in the direction of swimming.

• straighten the legs, point the toes outwards
• move the legs up and down for the complete time of swimming
• extend one arm in the forward direction, the other backward similar to a windmill
• cup the hands, bend the arms at the elbow
• draw the forward palm along the imaginary line from the front position backwards under the water
• as the front hand is being pulled backwards, move the back hand forward from above the water
• the head must be turned to one side to breathe

Breaststroke

• place the legs near each other and close to the chest
• the palms must be close and near the chest as when praying
• kick the legs similar to a frog i.e. first the legs kick out away from each other and then immediately come together again
• after the kick, point the toes and extend arms completely
• do a glide for a moment
• point the palms forward and move the arms in an outward and semi-circular motion, in such a way that they return to the initial position
• while the hands are being pulled, use the thrust to move the head out of the water to breathe
• when the head moves down again, the arms should be ready to move forward and the kick should also start

Butterfly

• the legs and arms must be together, with the arms above the head
• akin to a dolphin, move the legs upwards and downwards from the hip with the knees bent
• pull the arms out of the water with a big kick and drive the body forward
• breathe when the head is outside the water
• swing the arms forward and the head as well as arms again enter the water, in a manner similar to diving
• glide for a moment and have a small follow-up kick

Backstroke

• lie on the back in the water
• move the legs continuously up and down with the toes pointed out
• the legs should not create a huge splash, but a moderate churn
• place the arms in a windmill position
• extend the arm near the waist fully and move to a position above the head through the air
• the arm at a position above the head must be bent, the palm cupped and move it towards the waist from under the water
• out of both the hands, one should enter the water first
• the head must float in the water and breathing has to be normal

Benefits of swimming

There is a plethora of the benefits of swimming. Above described swimming exercises enhance the cardiovascular system, posture, muscle strength, flexibility and endurance. Particularly, cardiovascular improvement results as the heart is not overworked and still the body uses more oxygen. If the duration of swimming is increased, the respiratory rate and resting heart rate are decreased. As a result, the blood flow to the heart and lungs becomes very efficient. Another significant result is weight loss. Consider a runner who can run six miles in an hour. Also, a swimmer who swims for an hour. The calories burnt by this runner and swimmer are the same. The other benefits of swimming are

• stress reduction
• better blood pressure
• low impact workout
• less probability of injury
• conditioning of the entire body

In a nutshell, swimming exercises are simply perfect for a healthy body.

By Abhay Burande

Tags: Health Tips, Swimming For Health