Swimming can be called a complete cardiovascular activity. The importance of swimming in our day to day life cannot be emphasized enough. Besides the fact that it is one of the most relaxing exercises possible, the importance of swimming can also be seen from the fact that it is a low impact exercise while being equally affective when compared with other high impact workouts. Swimming can be done in various ways possible like freestyle, backstroke, butterfly stroke and underwater swimming to name a few. The importance of swimming in different ways can be summarized as follows:

1. Freestyle Swimming

The importance of swimming in freestyle is probably the most significant. It is the most popular stroke besides being the most effective. Freestyle swimming helps gain muscular strength like no other stroke. It builds your upper body, shoulders and back in particular.

Freestyle helps in maintain the correct posture of the body even while walking. Hence the importance of swimming in freestyle is much more than just when in water. A few weeks of regular training in freestyle swimming will improve your posture and you will tend to walk with your shoulder blades kept back and your chest protruding forward. It provides toning for the shoulders as well as the chest. Freestyle swimming makes your legs and abdominal muscles stronger proving a strong support to the core of your body.

2. Backstroke Swimming

Backstroke swimming is a lot like freestyle except that it is done in a way that the body is lying with its back on the water and the arms are moving backwards unlike freestyle in which the body is lying with its stomach on the water and the hands are moving in the forward direction. The importance of swimming in backstroke can be seen from the fact that it helps build muscular shoulders while being less strenuous when it comes to breathing because while doing the backstroke one will never lack oxygen supply. Backstroke, like freestyle also helps to provide a proper workout for the complete body but are especially good for the abdominals, shoulders and back.

3. Breaststroke Swimming

The importance of swimming in the breaststroke is that it helps tone the muscles of the chest and the legs. It is one of the most difficult strokes to master. It requires a lot of breathing training. It is extremely strenuous on the arms and legs as they take most of the body’s weight in this form of swimming.