Swimming, Perhaps the Best Exercise to Prevent High Blood Pressure!
The 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games officially ended on August 8. In competitive swimming events, a total of 20 countries (regions) have won swimming medals, and 10 countries have won gold medals. The United States ranked first with 11 gold medals, Australia ranked second with 9 gold medals, and the United Kingdom ranked third with 4 gold medals.
The Olympic swimming competitions are beautiful, intense and highly enjoyable, which is enthusiastically followed and loved by the audience. The swimming competition is divided into 5 categories including competitive swimming, synchronized swimming, water polo, diving and open water swimming. Competitive swimming includes four styles: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.
Freestyle
In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games was held in Athens, Greece, and the swimming competition was one of the nine major events of the Olympic Games. In this competition, not only there are no rules for swimming styles, but the organizing committee even encourages athletes to be bold and innovative. Therefore, the athletes in the swimming competitions have their own abilities, and the swimming styles are also varied. The original freestyle, an unrestricted swimming method, appeared under such free and loose conditions.
Alfred, an athlete who takes turns with his arms and kicks with his legs up and down, won the championship. Due to the low resistance and uniform speed structure, it has become the fastest and most labor-saving swimming posture in the world. Freestyle has witnessed the progress of science and appreciation of swimming events which is also a testament to the spirit that humans continue to break in the pool.
Backstroke
In the first Olympic Games, there was another special stroke that attracted the attention of the organizing committee, which was the backstroke. The backstroke is the only swimming style that keeps the head out of the water, which makes it easy for swimmers to breathe, and it is also very labor-saving to lie on the water. The combination of speed, elegance and effort-saving characteristics of backstroke also allowed it to be listed as a separate event in the subsequent second Olympic Games.
Breaststroke
On August 12, 1875, Captain Matthew Way, an English soldier, became the first person in the world to successfully cross the English Channel. He swam 34.21 kilometers in 21 hours and 45 minutes, from the Port of Dover in the United Kingdom to the Carles Waterfront in France. He used a swimming style that resembled a frog swimming in the water, which was later named breaststroke. This feat left a deep impression on the breaststroke. As a result, people began to hope that the Olympics would also include breaststroke as an independent stroke for competitions, and promote breaststroke to the world.
Although breaststroke is slower than freestyle and backstroke, it is an indisputable fact that some people use breaststroke to swim across the English Channel. The Olympic Organizing Committee decided to include breaststroke as an independent stroke in the third Olympic Games in response to the rising voices of people.
Butterflystroke
The establishment of the butterfly stroke took a long time. With the continuous development of technology, some people have begun to study how to use scientific methods to help athletes perform better. Coach David Ambrast from Iowa State University found that the movement of the arms in the water during the breaststroke greatly affects the forward speed. So he invented the movement of extending his arm forward in the air, which is the origin of the butterfly arm.
By 1938, almost all athletes used a combination of butterfly arms and breaststroke legs. After 20 years of discussion and controversy, the Olympic Organizing Committee finally established the butterfly as a separate competition in 1956. The butterfly stroke is a highly ornamental swimming style that is carried by the butterfly arms give the audience a feeling of the burst of passion. Although its practicality is not as good as the first three swimming styles, and it has higher requirements for the athlete's own quality, but it has still become the darling of photographers.
Don't like running?
Swimming can also help you relax!
Swimming is a whole-body sport. Whether it is backstroke, freestyle or butterfly, all of our arms, shoulders, back and chest muscles can be fully exercised. A short time of swimming can make our body stretch and relax to the utmost extent.
With the rapid development of technology, most office workers always look at computers with their heads down for a long time. Therefore, the cervical spine is aging prematurely, the waist is also prone to fatigue, and always feels sore after getting off work. With age, the basic metabolism of the human body will continue to decline, the body energy consumption rate will slow down, more and more people easy to gain weight after work. Obesity produces various hemodynamic changes, which can easily lead to changes in cardiac physiology and morphology, and ultimately lead to heart failure.
Therefore, it is particularly important to find a kind of exercise with reasonable intensity, moderate difficulty, and significant effect to relieve stress and fatigue.
The benefits of swimming
Swimming can relieve the discomfort of patients with cervical spondylosis
When cervical intervertebral disc degeneration, the intervertebral disc will loosen, and then compress the nerve root, spinal cord or vertebral artery. This is how cervical spondylosis arises. When swimming, the human body is affected by buoyancy, and the spine can move without heavy pressure, which is conducive to restoring to the original position and can relieve cervical pain to a certain extent.
Swimming helps to lose weight
Water has great resistance and good thermal conductivity, so during swimming, water will help the human body consume more calories. Studies have shown that the heat consumed for 1 minute in water at 14 degrees Celsius is as high as 100 kcal, which is equivalent to the heat consumed for 1 hour in the air at the same temperature. Moreover, water sports reduces the impact on the joints during ground exercises, reduces the probability of bone strain, makes the bones and joints less likely to deform, and the muscle lines exercised will be smoother than the equipment training on the ground.
Swimming can improve the cardiovascular system
When swimming, all organs are involved, and the blood pressure cycle is also accelerated. The increase in blood flow speed will increase the load on the heart, make it beat faster, and the contraction is strong and powerful. The action of water during swimming makes the blood of the limbs easy to return to the heart, increasing the thickness of the blood vessel wall and increasing the elasticity. The stroke volume of an average person is 60-80ml, while the stroke volume of a person who swims is as high as 90-120ml. In addition, when swimming, the human body is in a horizontal state, which can keep all parts of the body under consistent gravity, balance the distribution of blood circulation, reduce the burden on the heart, and prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Swimming can increase lung capacity
Exhalation is generally done underwater when swimming. The density of water is much greater than that of air. Therefore, it will be more laborious to exhale, and the contraction force of the respiratory muscles will become stronger, thereby enhancing the function of the respiratory system and increasing lung capacity. According to ScienceDirect, adult men have a normal lung capacity of 3000-4000ml, while those who swim regularly can reach 5000-6000ml.
Regular monitoring of physical indicators is very important
Coaches often measure various physical indicators of athletes before and after training, among which bloo