People Swimming
Swimming is the activity of moving through water by coordinating the movement of a person’s body and limbs. Typically performed as a type of recreation, exercise, or sport, swimming is one of the most popular recreational activities around the world and is often required as a compulsory skill within educational curricula for young children. Swimming generally refers to the entire range of activities done in water from basic treading of water and floating on pool rafts, to specialized swimming stroke styles used for competitive water sports. Swimming most commonly occurs in controlled and maintained bodies of safe water from private swimming pools, to public pools, competitive pools, lakes, seas, and oceans.
The number of calories burned while swimming depends on the individuals’ metabolism and weight. The amount of calories burned also depends on the type of swimming. Swimming breaststroke for an hour burns a similar number of calories doing a fast freestyle. Butterfly burns the most calories estimating a 130 pound person to burn 649 calories swimming an hour.
Swimming is a total body work out, and every major muscle group in the body is being worked. Upper body muscles that are being worked include the pectorals, deltoids, biceps, triceps, and wrist flexors. The calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, as well as the core, are the lower body muscles that are being worked.
To effectively breathe while swimming, the swimmer needs to be comfortable with full face submersion, and finding a rhythmic breath. During a freestyle swim, exhales need to be performed while submerged underwater; when turning to breathe, the lungs should be empty to inhale fresh air. Forcing a rhythm of the breath needs to be practiced, and this should be constant with no pauses.
