Swimming is often cited as one of the best cardio exercises around - and rightly so. It burns calories, boosts heart health, strengthens muscles, and can improve flexibility and mood. But is it beneficial to go swimming every day? I took on the challenge to find out.
About 4.7 million people swim twice or more every month, making swimming as a workout the fifth most popular cardio activity in the UK, according to Sport England. However, many of us see swimming as a holiday-exclusive activity - one reserved for hotel swimming pools and seas that have already been warming in the sunshine for at least a few months.
I have to admit - I was one of these people as I used to swim regularly, but the habit dropped by the wayside as I introduced other workouts into my life that were more convenient. Nowadays, my weeks are spent juggling work deadlines, caring for children, struggling to get enough quality sleep, and dealing with plenty of “lidmin” (life admin) before I even contemplate scheduling a swim at my local pool. Workouts like pre-work runs and strength training at the gym are more convenient.
But when I did go, I really enjoyed it. So, instead of keeping swimming on the margins of my workout schedule, I put it front and centre of my exercise plan for two weeks to see what would happen. Knowing all the many proven health benefits of swimming, would a daily dose of pool time improve my overall fitness? Would making it an evening swim help me sleep better and create a moment of calm at the end of a busy day? Would it all be manageable with everything else I have going on in life? Here's what I learnt in just 14 days.
Benefits of swimming every day
1. Swimming can help you develop a toned body
“Swimming is a great way of improving muscular endurance and producing a lean, toned physique,” says Sam Quinn, a Level 3 personal trainer and personal training lead at Nuffield Health. “The four main strokes - freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke – all require the whole body to work simultaneously, using high energy outputs from the muscles whilst burning lots of calories.”
I love a good stretch (the yoga mat is my happy place), so it felt good to reach long into each stroke, knowing this boosted my swim's impact. Whether front crawl, breaststroke or the occasional backstroke (I can’t even attempt butterfly), there wasn’t a stroke where I didn’t feel a stretch in the shoulders, biceps, core, glutes, hips and calves.
And because the water supports you, you can shift the effort into the lower body if you want to work your glutes and legs, or into your upper body if you need to strengthen your chest and arms (seasoned swimmers use kickboards and pull buoys to help here). As an alternative form of strength training for women, it's a great option.
Quinn adds that with swimming you can exercise at various intensities using interval training, swimming drills or steady-state swimming (my preference) so you can dial it up or down depending on the physical improvements you're aiming for.
The evenings I swam after a morning of weights in the gym, it felt like a suitably complementary exercise - one that helped recovery and served as a satisfying reminder of which muscles were getting a good workout.
2. Swimming can reduce stress and boost mood
Swimming is well-known for being good for our mental health. A poll by Swim England found that the sport had helped reduce the symptoms of anxiety or depression for 1.4 million adults in Britain, with many saying it made them feel happier and more motivated.
But what elevates it above your standard endorphin-boosting exercise, could be down to the watery environment itself. As reported by the BBC, a growing body of research suggests exposure to ‘blue space’ (pools, lakes, the sea) has a positive impact on our mental wellbeing. It seems being in or near water increases happy hormone levels, dopamine, and oxytocin, and causes cortisol, the stress hormone, to drop. This creates a Zen-like calm dubbed the ‘blue mind’ state.
‘Blue mind’, a term first coined by Dr Wallace J Nichols in his book of the same name, describes the mildly meditative state we can experience when swimming, floating, paddling or even simply gazing at the water. Scientists are unclear as to why water has such a powerful effect on our psyche, but theories suggest it may be down to our bodies being mostly water. We are synching, on a primal level, with our environment. One that, for our primitive ancestors, signalled a place in which to thrive.
While 'blue mind' theory normally applies to wild swimming and is often listed among the benefits of cold water swimming, I felt similar benefits stepping into the pool every evening. During every swim, I spent some time ignoring my technique and counting laps, and simply indulging in moving meditation. Noticing how the water feels as I glide through it; how it sounds as I splash and blow out bubbles; how the light reflects off the tiles; and even how the chlorine smells and tastes. It’s a great mindful exercise for an evening.
3. Swimming may improve sleep quality
With its ultra-calming, ‘blue mind’ qualities, does it follow that swimming could also help you get a better night’s sleep? Inez Griffin, senior health and wellbeing physiologist with an MSc in Sport and Exercise Science who works with Nuffield Health, says: “We know that daily exercise can help us sleep better, but it’s important to consider what time of day we’re exercising, and how vigorously.
“High-intensity exercise can cause increased adrenaline levels, heart rate, and body temperature which isn’t ideal right before bedtime. A light to moderate-intensity swim could be a good exercise choice in the evening, but you should consider how far and fast you swim, and which stroke you choose. Try a stroke you find easier and swim comfortably to help keep it relaxing,” she suggests.
I kept pace and intensity fairly slow and low during my swims as I was swimming beyond 9 pm. I stuck to an easy front crawl, mixing it up with slower laps in the breaststroke to avoid any spikes in heart rate and help dial down the cortisol. The ritual of the post-swim shower and changing into comfy loungewear suited the pre-bedtime routine.
However, when it came to improving the quality of my sleep, my Fitbit (taken with a pinch of salt as even the best Fitbits and other trackers lack complete accuracy) told me my nightly swims didn't impact the length or quality of my sleep. Longer periods of deep sleep still alluded me but my sleep quality wasn't any worse - perhaps I was offsetting any potential benefits by catching up on swim stats and social media much later in the night...oops.
4. Swimming can help with weight loss
As with any aerobic activity, it’s no surprise that swimming is an effective calorie burner. How many calories swimming burns will differ for every person but Harvard Medical School estimates that during a 30-minute low-intensity swim a 57kg woman can burn around 180 calories, a number that rises with body weight as an 84kg woman could burn 266 calories in the same session.
Switch it up to a vigorous 30-minute swim using, say, front crawl over breaststroke, and the same women could be burning around 300 and 444 calories respectively. It's not as intense as HIIT or running - which is where running wins in the swimming vs running debate - but it's decent. However, to lose weight you would still need to pair it with a calorie deficit over several weeks, something my two-week-long swim challenge didn't allow for.
As I was swimming in the evenings and keeping the intensity low, this meant my calorie burn was on the lower end of the scale. It still proved a much better replacement for what I would usually do around the same time - sitting on the sofa at home.
Adding aerobic exercise into my evenings (an often fairly inactive period), resulted in me hitting my calorie burn target every day, according to my Fitbit. This surprised me as I usually hit it four or five days out of seven (due to rest days), and during my swimming fortnight I even skipped a couple of gym sessions to make time for the pool.
5. Swimming is good for your joints and your posture
The supportive nature of water means that swimming is the kind of exercise you can do on an active rest day or if you have an injury. Jonathan Kibble, Head of Exercise and Physical Activity at Vitality, says, “As swimming is low impact compared to, say, running it’s a great way to get your heart rate elevated and improve your fitness without putting too much pressure on your joints. This is great if you have any pre-existing injuries or want a gentler workout.”
I welcomed the opportunity to offset the hours spent working at my laptop. Kibble adds, “Swimming can be a great way to help alleviate any problems surrounding your shoulders and neck. This is particularly relevant as many of us spend time hunched over our desks. Studies [by the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt and others] have shown that swimming regular lengths will strengthen your muscles, assisting you in standing straighter."
6. Swimming can boost stamina and endurance
I’m not one for long, marathon-level exercise but I would like more stamina. In the pool, I tried to keep stoppage to a minimum and maintain more of a constant, steady flow to meet my minimum target of one kilometre (40 lengths in my 25m pool) without feeling too puffed out.
Quinn suggests that time and effort are key to improving stamina and endurance. He says, “You need to practice your technique so regular swim sessions will be beneficial for new swimmers to achieve cardiovascular adaptation before moving on to higher intensities or longer durations.”
Aside from a couple of evenings of interrupted flow (in a public pool you have to accept you won’t always have the luxury of a lane to yourself), I found myself swimming further, more easily as the weeks of swimming every day progressed. Pacing my breathing with my strokes helped leave me with fewer ‘out of breath’ moments. Studies from the University of Belgrade have also shown that swimming is great for increasing lung capacity and efficiency – something that will benefit me in other types of exercise.
As Quinn explains, being able to swim further for longer requires practice, so while my ‘swim weeks’ were too short to see noticeable improvements, I feel I’m heading in the right direction.
The bottom line
I certainly enjoyed indulging my love of swimming every day (mood booster? Tick!). However, I must admit that collapsing on the sofa seemed more tempting on a couple of evenings. Outside of the workout itself, simply “going swimming” takes effort and, much like any other kind of exercise, getting out of the door is the hardest part about swimming every day. Travelling to the pool, changing in/out of your swimwear, thoroughly rinsing the chlorine out of everything, etc, etc. Very few of us have private pools either - where many people choose to invest in a running machine, indoor cycling kit, or a yoga mat and workout app if that's their chosen activity - so it’s not something you can do from home.
But every time I got into the water, I forgot about all of that. The pool environment is a very immersive experience, so it helps you get into a different headspace than when you’re at home or even in a regular fitness class. It also meant I was spending at least an hour or more completely screen-free during my evening. As we know, blue light-emitting devices disrupt our sleep patterns, so this can only be a good thing.
While I didn't experience any magic changes in my sleep routine, overall, my fortnight of swimming every day was hugely positive. It reminded me to make more time for this water-based exercise that I love and is so complementary to my fitness routine. Sometimes the best workouts are those where you feel most ‘at home’ – and for me, that’s swimming. But if I go swimming more often, I need to learn from my final observation – a daily dunking in chlorine means I also have to invest in some intensive moisturisers for my hair and skin!
