Lengthen Your Life Expectancy Through Swimming

We are always looking for a magic pill…
Or a special work out…
Or a diet to help us live longer.
We spend TONS of money on cures and surgery but we don’t know if it really works. We know we have to do something. We’re just not sure what that is. Well, I may have the answer for you. Let me tell you how you can lengthen your life expectancy through swimming.
 

let’s talk studies

So, before I wrote this blog post, I did some research and a lot of articles have been written on this subject but they all tend to quote the same couple of studies.
One was preformed by Jeremiah Stamler, M.D., of Northwestern University in Chicago. It concluded that living an active life can extend life expectancy by as many as 10 years. It also concluded that living a sedentary life will shorten life expectancy.
The other study was preformed by Nancy Chase, Xuemei Sui, and Steven Blair and was called “Research Swimming and All-Cause Mortality Risk Compared With Running, Walking, and Sedentary Habits in Men.” This study looked at around 40,000 men for over 30 years.
What the study found was pretty crazy. In the 13 year study, 11% of the people in the sedentary group passed away, the folks who walked lost 7.8%, the runners lost 6.6%, and the most surprising statistic was the swimmers they only lost 1.9% during the study.
I would say that is a pretty big gap!
So swimming wins if you want to live longer, it would seem. But how much and what kind of swimming is my next question?
 

How much

So what do you need to do to get these life extending benefits from swimming?
Studies have shown that swimming just once a day for an hour will gain you the maximum benefits.
Many people try to work out too hard and burn themselves out.
Swimming at a fast enough pace while maintaining your form the entire work out is the best bet.
 

what kind of swimming?

My next question was what type of swim stroke I should be doing?
Is there some magical swim stroke I haven’t heard of that will let me swim to the fountain of youth?
The answer is: all of them. Each stroke, whether it’s the freestyle, the backstroke, the butterfly, or the breaststroke, work different muscles.
Going through each stroke will give you a strong workout and help to gain you more years.
 

One last thought

While you’re trying to swim to the fountain of youth, make sure you are also eating right and staying away from bad habits.
Well… at least do your best to stay away. Sometimes, you’ve got to have a doughnut.
Whatever you do, make sure to take your Underwater Audio waterproof iPod Shuffle with you.
With a waterproof iPod from Underwater Audio, you can take the soundtrack of your life wherever that life takes you. And nothing beats rock and roll as you swim towards a healthy life.
If you have any comments please leave them in the section below and swim safe!