Swimming started in the 1st century.
Over 50% of world-class swimmers suffer from shoulder pain.
Swimming has been a part of the Olympics since 1896.
Some people think swimming started when a person fell into the water and panicking, he started to swim in a way we call today dog paddle.
Egyptians made a picture or symbol for swimming as far back as 2500 A.
Peanuts are a source of energy for swimmers.
Drags slow you down in swimming because they are not skin tight.
The shorter your hair is the more chance you have for swimming faster because there is less friction.
Swimming can be done for competition and it is helpful in survival.
An hour of vigorous swimming will burn up to 650 calories. It burns off more calories than walking or biking.
Swimming strengthens the heart and lungs.
Swimming works out all of the body’s major muscles.
Swimming help reduce stress.
Water’s buoyancy make swimming the ideal exercise for physical therapy and rehabilitation or for anyone seeking a low-impact exercise.
Swimming is a great cardiovascular exercise because you are moving against the water’s resistance, which is over ten times that of the air.
Elephants can swim as many as 20 miles a day — they use their trunks as natural snorkels!
The bikini swimsuit was named after a U.S. nuclear testing site in the South Pacific called Bikini Atoll.
65% of people in the U.S. don’t know how to swim.
The average person produces 25,000 quarts of saliva in his or her lifetime — that’s enough spit to fill TWO swimming pools!
In butterfly stroke and breaststroke, swimmers need to touch the pool with both hands simultaneously when they finish. Swimmers touch the pool with only one hand when they finish in freestyle and backstroke swimming events.
The most popular freestyle stroke is the crawl, considered the fastest stroke.
An hour of vigorous swimming will burn up to 650 calories. It burns off more calories than walking or biking.
Swimming strengthens the heart and lungs.
Swimming works out all of the body’s major muscles.
Swimming helps reduce stress.
Water’s buoyancy make swimming the ideal exercise for physical therapy and rehabilitation or for anyone seeking a low-impact exercise.
Swimming is a great cardiovascular exercise because you are moving against the water’s resistance, which is over ten times that of the air.
Over 50% of world-class swimmers suffer from shoulder pain.
More than 50 years later, the home or residential swimming pool is ubiquitous and even the smallest world nations enjoy a thriving swimming pool industry (e.g. New Zealand pop. 4,116,900 [Source NZ Census 7 March 2006] – with 65,000 home swimming pools and 125,000 hot tub pools).
The slowest Olympic swim stroke is the breaststroke.
The fastest and most efficient swim stroke is the crawl/ freestyle.
The turbopump on the Space Shuttle main engine is powerful enough to drain an average-sized swimming pool in 25 seconds.
Most swimmers at the highest levels of competition train from four to five hours per day and five to seven days per week. They will typically swim about six to twelve miles per day along with weight training and flexibility training.
The Olympics are swum in a 50 meter pool or long course pool. Pools used by the NCAA and high school swimming programs can be 25 yards to 25 meters. These pools are called short course pools.
An Olympic size pool depending on its size (50 meters X 25 yards or meters) can hold from 700,000 to 850,000 gallons of water.
You can swim for exercise no matter what your age. Some people teach their infants and toddlers how to swim so that they will learn to love and respect the water at a very early age. I also know people well into their eighties who swim regularly to stay in shape.
An estimated 65 thousand people in the United States alone do not know how to swim. Many of them learned as young children but never go to a pool, lake, river, or ocean anymore and have forgotten how to swim over the years. Others were never taught and continue to avoid the activity altogether. It was once thought that knowing how to swim was important for safety reasons, but now it is pretty much left up to the individual.
Swimming in extremely cold water can be very dangerous. People with heart conditions or other ailments, as well as elderly people, should avoid swimming in water that is too cold. Cold water cools down the human body 25 times faster that cold air does, so swimming in water that is below about 15 degrees Celsius should never be undertaken. This can lead to thermal shock, hypothermia, and eventual death.
Swimming is also a very safe form of exercise because it is considered to be low impact and easy on the bones and joints. You can do exercises in the water using floats and weights and enjoy a good workout without worrying about serious injury. This is especially true if you have arthritis or other types of physical limitations.
It really is true that you shouldn’t swim for about an hour after eating. This is primarily because your body is digesting your food and you may get a cramp during the time right after you eat. Allow your body to rest after eating and then go into the water.
Swimming is a good way to lose weight. This form of exercise will stimulate your entire body and could lead to an increase in metabolism over time. If you are trying to lose weight, swim for at least twenty minutes three or four times each week.
Going swimming is very relaxing and has been compared to yoga and meditation in terms of its soothing effect on the mind and body.
