Being comfortable in your skin is often easier said than done. Too often, and with the current standards for the ‘perfect body’, many people get caught up in the habit of criticizing their bodies and feeling ashamed of who they are.

Nevertheless, body confidence isn’t just about appreciating the shape and size of your body; it goes further into appreciating how far your body can go and the amazing things it can do.

Whether you have just swum your best lap in months or won a swimming competition, give your body credit and appreciation it deserves. That is what body confidence is all about.

Can Swimming Help You Gain Confidence?

Did you know that just 30 minutes of swimming can convince you that you look better- whether you are fit or not?

One of the reasons people engage in swimming is to feel better about themselves. A study by the University of Florida revealed that the act of exercise is in itself more important than your fitness level. And more often than not, people who exercise get to feel better about their appearance even if they have not achieved their fitness goals.

How Does Swimming Help Boost Your Body Confidence?

Swimming helps rejuvenate your mind and body while at the same time, giving it an amazing workout. Even with moderate swimming exercises, people have reported a boost in their positive body perceptions. It is important to understand that your confidence ‘battle’ takes place in your mind. Once you have a positive perception of yourself, you will automatically feel better about yourself.

While there are so many products in the market to help you lose weight, swimming offers a healthy scientifically-backed alternative. A 30 minutes’ worth of swimming can burn more than 300 calories making swimming the go-to exercise for people battling excess body weight. The more intense your swimming exercises are, the more weight you will lose. And if your weight is the barrier to feeling confident, then losing it will help you get your confidence in check.

We all know how great we feel when we look and feel fit. Swimming is one way to accomplish this. The natural resistance of the water will increase your strength levels. It will also accentuate your six-pack (if you have them) and help tuck away the little fat pockets on the sides of your tummy. The afterward toning effect will make you want to rock that beachwear you have been keeping away for so long. To get the most out of your swimming routine, you can decide to drag along a friend to keep you motivated even during your bad days.

Being comfortable in your skin isn’t something that happens overnight. Sometimes you have to work on it. When everything about you exudes confidence, you will have an enhanced quality of life, socially, mentally, and even physically. Remember, most often than not, how you perceive yourself determines how other people perceive you. So swim your way to self-confidence and rock it as you own it!

Guest post by David Cappetto / Nereids Aquatic Coaching

Swimming is the best workout you can continue for a lifetime. You get all the benefits of an aerobic workout without any kind of damaging impact on your joints. Moreover, you don’t require any equipment to do it just you and water. Swimming is called a perfect exercise and keeps you fit and healthy. It’s, in fact, a low-impact activity that has many physical and mental health benefits.

Athletes do swimming to stay strong and keep fit when recovering from injury. Experts recommend adults to get 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week. You can work your entire body and cardiovascular system. The fun exercise has numerous benefits so that you can incorporate it into your routine. We have discussed here the 6 amazing health benefits of swimming.

1. Helps in improving muscle definition and strength

Swimming helps strengthen muscles throughout the entire body. Runners see muscle build only in their legs while swimmers utilize more muscle groups to move through the water. Water is 12 times denser than air, so while swimming you have to fight the water resistance. You kick with your legs and the arms are pulled. As your back reaches and rotates, the stomach tightens to power the legs and stabilize the core. This makes swimming one of the best aerobic exercises giving you a total body workout. The entire body benefits from the resistance and you don’t have to worry about counting or equalizing repetitions.

2. Appropriate for people with injuries, arthritis and other conditions

Swimming is found safe exercise option for people with arthritis, injury, disability and other issues that make high-impact exercises difficult. Swimming can even help reduce pain or improve recovery from an injury. People with osteoarthritis reported significant reductions in joint pain and stiffness and experienced less physical limitations after engaging in activities like swimming and cycling. Swimming seems to have many of the same benefits as frequently prescribed land exercises.

3. Can improve exercise-induced asthma

Swimming can improve the overall condition of the lungs. It increases the overall lung-volume and teaches good breathing techniques. Swimming is a great exercise for people with asthma because of the humid environment of indoor pools. The breathing exercises associated with the sport, like holding the breath, helps in expanding lung capacity and gain control over-breathing.

However, some studies suggest that swimming may increase risk of asthma because of the chemicals used to treat pools. So talk to the doctor about the potential risks of swimming if you have asthma, and, if possible, look for a pool that uses saltwater instead of chlorine.

4. Helps you stay flexible

Flexibility is the ability to move the joints to their full range. While swimming you reach, stretch, twist and pull your way through the water. The ankles become fins and are stretched with each kick as you push off against the liquid pressure. This repetitive stretching found in various strokes helps with flexibility. If you swim every day, your whole body flexibility will improve which in turn will reduce the joint pain.

5. Lowers stress and depression

Swimming has a similar relaxation response as you feel in yoga. Swimming constantly stretches the body and when you combine this with the deep rhythmic breathing, you experience a relaxation rush. It calms you down and is meditative. The sound of your breathing and the water rushing by helps you focus inward and drown out all other distractions. This naturally lowers stress and depression.

6. Aids in weight loss

Swimming is a great exercise to burn calories and is as efficient as running on the treadmill. It can help you burn equal or greater calories than running depending on the stroke you chose and your intensity. Like for 10 minutes of swimming, one can easily burn 60 calories with the breaststroke, 80 calories with the backstroke, 100 calories with the freestyle, and an impressive 150 with the butterfly stroke. If you run for 10-minute mile, you can burn around 100 calories. A strong 30-min butterfly speed session can help you burn 150 more calories than running a 5K in the same time frame. As you burn more calories, more fat gets mobilized. So you start losing the fat mass in your body.

Article contributed by Hari babu from GoFameUs.com!