Is Swimming Effective For Weight Loss And Tone Muscles?

February 14th, 2007

Is Swimming Effective For Weight Loss And Tone Muscles?

Author: Chris Chew

Well, most people think swimming is effective to tone muscles
and lose fat and that is why the swimming pools everywhere are
always packed in the evenings and weekends. Well, I must first
declare that I am not anti-swimming. In fact, I swim regularly.
However when I researched materials for my articles, I came
across some negative aspects of swimming from the scientific
community.

Swimming is considered as one of the best exercises to lose
weight and also to build and tone muscles. Not surprisingly so
because when you swim, all your major muscles are called into
action. It also has an aerobic effect, so heart and lungs get a
good workout too.

However, a research published in the American Journal of Sports
Medicine shows that in the absence of a controlled diet,
swimming has little or no effect on weight loss.

Professor Grant Gwinup conducted an experiment with the
following results.

* Test subjects following a walking program lost 17 pounds of
weight during the three-month study.

* Those following the cycling program lost 19 pounds of weight.

* However, subjects following the swimming program actually
gained 5 pounds.

Astonishing isn’t it? I was surprised too when I first read the
report.

Professor Gwinup then assumes that swimming in cold water
stimulates the appetite to increase caloric consumption.

Professor Louise Burke, Head of Nutrition at the Australian
Institute of Sport, pointed out that competitive swimmers
typically have body fat levels that are higher than those of
runners or cyclists who expend a similar amount of energy when
they train.

Many people feel hungry after swimming and may simply replace
all the calories they’ve burned with a large meal after their
swim.

“Some research suggests that this is due to the cool
temperatures in which swimmers train. By contrast, runners and
cyclists usually experience an increase in body temperature
during training, which may serve to suppress appetite - at
least in the short term” said Professor Burke.

Professor Burke further said that competitive swimmers are less
active outside their training sessions. They are so tired from
the hours spent training that they sleep, sit or otherwise
avoid any real physical activity outside their sessions.

Now on building muscles, because most of the work your body
does when swimming involves positive muscle actions, like
pushing up a bench press, there is no negative action like
lowering the weights during a bench press at all. We know that
the negative move during weight training is important to build
muscles and burn fat.

Doing any exercise is better than not exercising at all. So go
ahead and swim so that you can have various forms of exercises
to beat the boredom of doing the same things all the time. Just
make sure that you don’t eat more or become more sedentary after
your swim.

About The Author: Chris Chew is a personal trainer of actors,
pageant winners, models and other celebrities. Read more of his
articles at http://www.sgfitness.com and
http://www.sgfitnessonline.com

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