With so many ways to improve your property and upgrade your home, why choose an inground swimming pool? No landscaping project or kitchen renovation stands to positively impact your physical and emotional health — or that of your entire family — like a swimming pool can. Sure, you can swim at a public pool; however, not only are there some health risks involved in that, but sheer convenience means that you’ll be far more likely to regularly enjoy the many benefits of swimming if you have your own swimming pool right outside your own back door. While there are many types of activities that can positively impact your physical fitness level, swimming offers a rare opportunity to improve physical fitness in a variety of ways.

Improving Muscle Tone

One of the many ways that swimming can improve your physical health is through how it improves your muscular strength and muscle tone — which in turn helps you burn more fat. Unlike many forms of activity that engage certain muscles, swimming engages a remarkable number of muscles all over your body. Depending on your skill level and the stroke you’re using, you could actually be working 48 muscles at the same time. Each of the four basic swim strokes will allow you to utilize all the major muscle groups: shoulders, legs, and core. Depending on which swim stroke you choose, though — front crawl, breaststroke, backstroke or butterfly — you’ll emphasize different muscles.

For instance, the front crawl (or freestyle) stroke chiefly works your biceps and triceps, while the breaststroke primarily works your pectoral chest muscles as well as your quadriceps and glutes. The backstroke is particularly effective at engaging your arm muscles as well as the latissimus dorsi muscles, which are located in your lower back. The butterfly stroke helps tone your neck muscles as well as strengthen your upper back.

Benefiting Joint Health

As a person ages, joint health often becomes more of a concern; however, at any age, the way swimming helps preserve joint health will be a benefit both now and down the road. Unlike jogging or running, which are hard on joints due to the shock involved, swimming is a low-impact exercise that prevents straining your joints. Because the water supports your body weight, risk to the joints is greatly reduced. This well-known benefit of swimming is why it’s often recommended by physicians and physical therapists even when a person cannot safely participate in other types of exercise. For those with bone conditions or injuries to the joints — or those who wish to prevent such trauma to their bodies — swimming is an amazingly safe option.

View available swimming pool financing programs for California Call Lyon Financial today at 877.693.8812 for the financing you need to make the memories you deserve!