The Health Pros and Cons To Going For A Swim

Swimming is both an exciting pastime and an incredible form of exercise. Like everything else in life, swimming offers both pros and cons when it comes to your overall health.

For example, while swimming can be a great stress reducer, it can cause all sorts of damage to your hair. The hair damage being especially true if you happen to be wearing a weave, according to LumiBloomWeave 101.

So, should you go swimming or hang up your poolside towel forever? Unfortunately, this isn’t a question with a concrete yes or no answer. What you’ll need to do is look at the pros and cons of swimming and make that decision yourself.

Pro: Weight Loss

Everyone wants to lose weight. If you don’t, there might be something wrong with you. But, that’s a different story. For now, let’s focus on how you can shed those annoying pounds by taking a dip in the pool.

Basically, swimming is considered a low-impact exercise. You feel weightless while swimming, so you assume you aren’t doing much of anything. Truthfully, you are burning a significant number of calories every time you go for a dip.

Con: Chlorine

The chlorine found in a swimming pool should actually be considered several downsides wrapped up as one. Why? Well, there are a lot ofdangers involved when swimming in a chlorinated pool.

Chlorine has a strong and unpleasant smell, it irritates your eyes, has been linked to cancer, causes allergic reactions, and causes major health issues. Did you know it can dry out your hair and skin? It also causes wrinkles and can turn your hair grainy. Excessive exposure can even result in birth defects and reproductive issues.

This chemical is popular because it sanitizes and oxidizes the pool while preventing algae from growing. It, however, is still a chemical and chemicals generally aren’t good for the human body. Remember to shower after you go for a swim to get the chlorine off your body and out of your hair.

Pro: Stress Relieving

Swimming is a great activity for releasing the stress on both your mind and your body. Technically, that makes it two benefits as you are getting relief from the stress on your joints and your brain at the very same time.

Con: Drowning Risk

This downside to swimming isn’t a very pleasant one to think about. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it any less real. Those who have been following the news lately know you have more than one type of drowning to worry about.

In addition to worrying about preventing everyone from drowning while swimming, you also have to make sure your children don’t suffer from dry drowning several hours after swimming either. Dry drowning – also commonly referred to as secondary drowning is especially terrifying. Basically, it means your child can drown while on dry land. As if you didn’t have enough to worry about.

Dry drowning occurs when someone took a small amount of water into their airway. This water makes its way to the individual’s lungs and it becomes difficult – or in some cases impossible – for the individual to continue to make oxygen. This, in turn, causes the person to suffocate. Dry drowning can occur several hours after you’ve stopped swimming.

Swimming is pretty evenly balanced when it comes to pros and cons depending on who you ask. You can lose a lot of weight and experience a lot of relief, but you could also damage both your skin and your hair or worse. Whether or not swimming is an activity you wish to continue is a decision only you can make.