|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 9 January 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Swimming - a good form of exercise
Swimming uses all the major muscle groups and helps to keep your heart and lungs healthy. Swimming also helps to keep your joints flexible, especially in the neck, shoulders, hips and groins, as your limbs and body move through the water.You can increase your level of physical activity by swimming and therefore increase the amount of energy you burn. Your body shape will, however, determine how fast you can swim. So, try not to worry about the speed of other swimmers around you. What is important is improving your own speed and swimming for a reasonable length of time.Of course, many people like to just splash around in the pool, and enjoy themselves. But those who want to gain the maximum health benefits from their time at the pool should decide on a more energetic programme, beginning with a warm up. This could be simply walking the route to the swimming pool, a few minutes on an exercise bike, or just swimming with easy and gentle strokes. This will warm the muscles to reduce the risk of damage and increase the heart rate.If you are beginning a swimming-for-fitness programme and aren't very fit, start by swimming a length, followed by a rest for 30 seconds to a minute. Over a few weeks you can increase the time you spend swimming. When you have developed a certain level of fitness you can adopt a programme of warming up with slow strokes for 5-10 minutes, followed by 20-40 minutes of continuous swimming with different strokes, ending up with a five minute cool-down period with slower, gentler swimming. **** Swimming strokes Swimming strokes should ensure smooth forward motion with least possible resistance to water. The freestyle stroke is also referred to as the dog crawl and enables a swimmer to move very fast. This stroke is characterized by synchronized moving of hands and body to facilitate easy breathing. The breaststroke is a relatively restful stroke and involves coordinated movement of arms and legs. Did you know that the breaststroke takes more strength and energy than other strokes? This stroke is swum more in and under the water. Swimmers using this swimming technique face more resistance from the water. The backstroke is the only swimming stroke performed on the back and therefore the swimmer cannot see where he or she is heading. Since the swimmer's head is above the water, no special breathing techniques need to be applied for the backstroke. The butterfly stroke is a difficult and exhausting stroke that is mastered by excellent swimmers. The butterfly is by far the most powerful and graceful stroke that is swum with an undulating motion **** History of swimming Ancient Babylonian and Assyrian wall paintings are indicative that swimming skills were present among humans nearly 6,000 years ago. A study of ancient civilizations shows that the Egyptians, Persians, Romans and Greeks swam. The restorative power of water has always been recognized by ancient cultures in Rome and Greece. Julius Caesar was noted for his swimming skills. Mosaics from Mid-Eastern civilizations depict men swimming using a dog stroke. Swimming was not included in the ancient Olympic games. Competitive swimming can be traced back to English clubs in the 1830s. Computerisation of starting pistol Formerly in races, when the starting pistol was fired, the athlete closest to the pistol heard the sound a fraction of a second earlier than the athlete farthest away. This gave him or her a slight advantage over the others. This advantage was more marked in short distance races in which the difference between the first and second place can be as little as 10 mm, a distance a world class runner can cover in one-thousandth of a second. Today, computerisation ensures that all athletes hear the starting pistol at the same time. The starting pistol is connected to a sensor that sends a signal along cables to loudspeakers immediately behind each athlete. The starting blocks against which the athletes press back with their feet to get a flying start are also connected to a computer. The fastest a person can react to a sound is about one-tenth of a second. If the computer records a time faster than this, it means the athlete has jumped the gun - he has started running before the pistol was fired. In such cases the computer sounds an alarm and the starter calls the athlete back. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Politics | Produced by Lake House |
Swimming is one of the few ways of getting exercise that improves your
all-round fitness because it can boost strength, good health and
flexibility all at the same time.
