For individuals seeking to shed pounds and enhance their overall fitness, both walking and swimming emerge as excellent choices. These activities offer unique advantages and cater to diverse preferences and physical conditions. This article delves into a comprehensive comparison of walking and swimming, examining their calorie-burning potential, impact on the body, and suitability for various individuals.
Calorie Expenditure: A Comparative Analysis
The number of calories burned during physical activity hinges on several factors, including an individual's weight, height, fitness level, and the intensity of the exercise. Generally, swimming tends to burn more calories than walking, particularly when performed at a higher intensity, such as swimming laps.
To illustrate, consider the following estimates of calorie expenditure for a 30-minute session of walking, swimming, and swimming laps, as reported by Harvard Health Publishing:
- Walking: The number of calories you burn during any activity varies depending on a variety of factors, including your height, weight and fitness level (among others), according to Harvard Health Publishing. So, one person may burn more calories after a half hour of swimming than another.
- Swimming (leisurely pace): Burns more calories than walking, especially if you're swimming with a little extra intensity (like swimming laps, rather than a leisurely dip).
- Swimming laps: Especially if you're swimming laps with a little more intensity, you can burn some serious calories.
Moreover, according to Endless Pools’ swimming calculator, a 154-pound freestyler swimming 2-minute 100s for an hour uses 721 calories; a breaststroker uses 750 calories; a backstroker burns 778; and a butterflyer burns 872. Running or jogging for an hour at 12 minutes per mile expends 500 to 600 calories, and running 9-minute miles burns 650 to 1,200 calories. Walking at a good clip for an hour burns about 300 calories.
It's worth noting that swimming in cold water may stimulate appetite due to the body's increased energy expenditure to maintain its core temperature.
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The Benefits of Swimming
Swimming stands out as a comprehensive full-body workout, engaging both the upper and lower body. Since swimming is classified as a total body workout, it allows your upper body and lower body to be fully engaged and benefit from the exercise that swimming provides, raising your heart rate and allowing you to burn calories. Water provides resistance, further enhancing the workout's intensity and promoting strength building. Water creates 12 to 14 percent more resistance than air.
Low-Impact Nature
One of the key advantages of swimming is its low-impact nature, making it an ideal exercise for individuals who are out-of-shape, getting older, or are prone to pain in certain areas of your body such as your joints or back. A 2016 study found that swimming, as an exercise intervention, resulted in a reduction in stiffness and joint pain. It is also a safer way to exercise if you’re recovering from an injury. Swimming is also a popular choice for people who are recovering from injuries, especially lower body injuries. The buoyancy of water provides more support for your muscles and joints versus working out on land. This allows you to work out harder and put less impact on your body than you would on land.
Cardiovascular Health
Like walking, swimming is an excellent form of cardiovascular activity, contributing to overall health and reducing the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Benefits of Swimming vs. As mentioned above, both swimming and walking are forms of cardiovascular activity, which is necessary for overall health, helping decrease your risk of developing chronic disease, like heart disease and diabetes, according to the CDC. Moreover, swimming has also been shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels; and 2017 research shows that swimming regularly decreases one's risk of early death by as much as 28%.
Variety of Strokes and Workouts
Swimming offers a diverse range of strokes, each engaging different muscle groups and varying in intensity. There are four types of popular swimming strokes that are beneficial for losing weight. These strokes include:
- Breaststroke: Slow-burning cardiovascular workout. Average of 250 calories burned during a 30-minute workout. Assists in strengthening the heart and lungs and toning the thighs, triceps, upper back, lower legs, and hamstrings.
- Backstroke: Slow-burning posture-improving workout. Average of 250 calories burned during a 30-minute workout. Assists in lengthening your spine and helping with your posture while toning the stomach, shoulders, arms, legs, and buttocks, and also developing the flexibility of your hips.
- Freestyle: A faster workout with a high-calorie burning potential. Average of 300 calories burned during a 30-minute workout. Assists in toning your shoulders, buttocks, and stomach and has the best impact of these four strokes in toning the muscles in your back.
- Butterfly: The butterfly stroke is difficult to learn and master and, as such, is not recommended for beginners. Average of 450 calories burned during a 30-minute workout. Effective in building and toning muscles, increasing upper body strength, and improving flexibility.
In addition to varying the swimming stroke, varying the intensity of the workout is also an option. Other types of water-based workouts fall into the low-intensity, moderate-intensity, and high-intensity categories. For the best balance and the best results, it’s recommended that a mix of intensities be used. The basics of these three types of workouts are as follows:
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- Low-intensity: These exercises are great if you have a good chunk of time to spend working out or if you’re looking to improve your stroke or need a recovery day. With low-intensity workouts, you’ll be able to maintain correct techniques for a longer period of time. This helps increase your heart rate and get your body moving. It is perfect for weight loss. You’ll be working at intervals and an effort level of 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.
- Moderate-intensity: Moderate-intensity workouts are the most popular workouts amongst swimmers. These workouts are mainly aerobic and will require you to work anywhere from 70% to 80% of your maximum effort, or a level of 7 to 8 or a 1 to 10 scale.
- High-intensity: These workouts are not for the faint of heart and should not be attempted by beginners. All-out swimming is alternated with periods of rest or recovery swims. With high-intensity workouts, you’ll be swimming more yards in less time, which will require either a 9-or-10-level effort.
The Benefits of Walking
Walking presents itself as a readily accessible and budget-friendly exercise option. Walking is a budget-friendly activity, too. You don't need a facility or any extra equipment - a good pair of walking shoes should do the trick. And you can easily increase or decrease the intensity, depending on your current fitness level. It requires minimal equipment and can be easily incorporated into daily routines.
Cardiovascular Fitness
Walking is a steady form of movement, swimming incorporates your entire body, which is more strenuous. Walking is a steady form of movement, swimming incorporates your entire body, which is more strenuous. Like swimming, walking is a cardiovascular activity that contributes to overall health and reduces the risk of chronic diseases. Walking is a budget-friendly activity, too. You don't need a facility or any extra equipment - a good pair of walking shoes should do the trick. And you can easily increase or decrease the intensity, depending on your current fitness level.
Weight-Bearing Exercise
Running allows you to increase your bone density through weight-bearing activity. Swimming doesn’t allow for this. Weight-bearing exercises like jogging, walking, and hiking are the best bone-building activities, as they require you to work against gravity. Walking, as a weight-bearing exercise, helps prevent bone loss and strengthens the lower body.
Accessibility
Unlike swimming that requires a pool, running only requires a good pair of shoes and access to the outdoors or a treadmill. Walking only requires a good pair of shoes and can be done virtually anywhere, making it a convenient option for many individuals.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Between Walking and Swimming
When deciding between walking and swimming, several factors should be taken into consideration:
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- Personal Preferences: Ultimately, the most effective exercise is the one that you enjoy and are likely to stick with consistently.
- Physical Conditions: Individuals with joint pain or injuries may find swimming more comfortable due to its low-impact nature.
- Goals: If your primary goal is to build bone density, walking may be a better choice due to its weight-bearing nature.
Incorporating Both Walking and Swimming into a Fitness Routine
For a well-rounded fitness routine, consider incorporating both walking and swimming. Cross-training with different forms of exercise is an excellent way to add variety to your workout routine while also decreasing your chance of injury. This approach can provide a multitude of benefits and cater to diverse needs and preferences.
The Importance of Diet
While exercise is crucial for weight loss, it's essential to maintain a healthy diet as well. While having a good exercise routine is crucial for weight loss, so is having a good diet. Combining a consistent exercise routine with a balanced diet will yield the best results.