Swimming for Weight Loss: The Best Workouts To Achieve Your Fitness Goals

Becoming fit and healthy is not just a choice but a necessity in today’s dynamic and fast-paced lifestyle, filled with challenges and barriers. Maintaining peak fitness is not only essential for managing a hectic work life but also for coping with constant environmental changes like extreme heat and pollution. As the saying goes, the strongest will always be the survivor. Similarly, if you want to achieve fitness by building a strong core, swimming workouts are an excellent option.  

This full-body workout not only engages multiple muscle groups but also enhances balance and stamina. With its diverse range of workouts, swimming is a great way to accelerate your weight loss journey. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, one should incorporate a 30-minute swim workout at least twice a week. Swimming not only helps you lose weight but also strengthens core muscles and cultivates mental resilience to overcome any obstacle.

Why is swimming the best activity for weight loss?

While swimming one can engage almost every muscle and promote overall health. From your arms and legs to your core, each of the swimming strokes helps in building strength and endurance. By incorporating its various strokes such as freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly, you can burn up to 700 calories per hour while keeping your workout exciting and enjoyable.  

Best swimming workouts for weight loss

If you are a beginner, aiming to achieve a holistic approach to fitness by burning more calories, it is recommended to combine a strategic swimming regimen with a balanced diet for sustainable results. Transform your fitness journey by integrating this expert-curated swimming routine ensuring overall health and vitality.

  1. Warm-up

Unlike any other exercise workout, a warm-up is essential to loosen up the body and muscles and it helps to prevent injury. Typically, 5-10 minutes to warm up is advisable during a swimming workout regimen. Try to incorporate one easy lap by walking in the pool. You can also include some simple stretch exercises of the back, shoulders, chest, and legs.

  2. Interval workout 

A simple swim workout can be done with intervals that can be adjusted based on your ability and progression.  Try to alternate between high-intensity sprints and moderate-paced swimming. Once you advance, you can increase the reps (number of times) by using a kickboard.  

• 1 lap, rest 15-30 seconds x 4 times

• 2 laps, rest 15 seconds x 4 times

• 1 lap with kickboard, rest 15-30 seconds x 2 times

• 2 laps with kickboard, rest 15-30 seconds x 2 times

  3. Distance swimming

Distance swimming is a great exercise for weight loss due to its ability to burn calories while building endurance. When you swim longer distances, your body starts using the stored fat and converts it into energy thereby promoting fat loss. By boosting your overall metabolism and enhancing cardiovascular health, distance swimming is a sustainable option for beginners.

• 1 lap easy swimming, rest 5 minutes  

• 2 laps, rest 10 minutes x 2 times  

• Gradually increase your distance aiming for 800-1000 metres over time.

• Take 30-60 seconds rest between each lap to recover.

  4. Sprint set

It is an excellent way of swimming for weight loss as it typically combines high-intensity bursts with rest periods, effectively boosting metabolism and calorie burn. Sprinting in the water is a balance of excellent body position, strength, technique, and speed.  

• 1 x 1 lap of easy swimming,5 minutes rest

• 5 x 25 metres, taking 1-minute rest between each rep

• Try to incorporate a sprint set at least once a week for significant weight loss

  5. Water Aerobics

By combining resistance training with cardiovascular exercise, water aerobics are excellent weight loss swimming workout options in a low-impact environment. This exercise is based on the theory of resistance exerted by water that results in toning our muscles while burning calories, making it suitable for all fitness levels.

• 1x 30 seconds side-to-side hops, rest 30 seconds

• 3 x water jogging or running in place, rest 1 minute

• 3 x 30 seconds of arm curls with water dumbbells.

• Cool down for 5 - 10 minutes

Conclusion

By incorporating these highly recommended and expert-curated swimming workouts into your fitness routine, you can achieve your weight loss goals effectively. However, it is always important to focus on the technique and proper form of swim strokes as each of the strokes is targeted to a specific muscle group. When you swim according to the given schedule your body muscles help maximise efficiency and reduce energy expenditure. So, dive into the pool and make your fitness dream a reality.