Swimming Improves Health and Reverses the Effects of Aging

Are you lamenting the fact that the outdoor swimming season is rapidly drawing to a close? Me too! But, I’m not packing away my swimsuit until next summer and neither should you.

Here’s why, medical research has brought to light proven health benefits associated with swimming and particularly Masters’ swimming. Who would have thought that swimming can actually slow down the aging process or sharpen your mind? For some, it can be a spiritual experience, a time for thinking, problem solving, even meditating and praying. It turns out that swimming is a great activity at any age.  

The idea that swimming is good for you is really old news. Author David Thomas, in his book Swimming: Steps to Success quotes William Wilson who in 1883 wrote, “The experienced swimmer, when in the water, may be classed among the happiest of mortals in the happiest of moods, and in the most complete enjoyment of the happiest of exercises”

One of my favorite books that I’ve read this summer is by Lynn Sherr who authored: Swim: Why We Love the Water. Lynn interviews several doctors who all sing praises for the sport of swimming and the health benefits that go along with it. Dr. Jane  Katz is a swim fitness promoter and educator who says, “Swimming is the closest thing on this earth to a perfect sport.”  As a life-long swimmer myself, I wholeheartedly agree with Jane’s assessment of my preferred recreational and fitness activity. Dr. Joel Stager, associate director of Indiana University’s Department of Kinesiology and a director of the Counsilman Center for the Science of Swimming is described as a “boyish” looking 59 year old who is an active Masters swimmer. Could Masters Swimmers have found the “fountain of youth” that our culture is perpetually seeking? Dr. Stager seems to think so, “they [Masters Swimmers] are aging less quickly than the rest of the population.”

It may be no surprise to you that people seek the water for healing, but did you  know that swimming is good for your mood? In his book The Essential Swimmer, Steve Tarpinian writes, “Many people, including world class athletes, have used the healing properties of water to successfully recover from injuries.” Personally, I love swimming and don’t think about the health benefits as I swim lap after lap from 6 to 7 twice a week with the masters swimming team at Lifetime Fitness in St. Louis. What I can report is that regardless of how tired or grumpy I felt before a masters swimming workout, I come away feeling invigorated and energized. Tarpinian seems to feel the same way, “…I find that my whole outlook can change after a swim workout. Many times I have gone to the pool dreading my session thinking, “This is not what I need”; but I have never left the pool without feeling better for having gone.”

So, find a way to practice and improve your strokes and feel the mental uplift and the youthful joy of this sport. You might want to consider joining a local Masters Swimming team with a coach like Wayne Huckshold who embodies all the good qualities of an effective coach. Wayne is experienced and knowledgeable about swimming; teaching good technique during practices that are challenging and well thought out. Wayne is approachable, upbeat, with a sense of humor, the kind of coach you want to have for your hour-long, mile plus, sunrise swim!

Wayne is a youthful retiree who made a spectacular recovery from triple bypass surgery years ago to resume an active weekly regimen of weight training (3 times), swimming (3 times), running (2 times) and biking (2 times) with an occasional triathlon thrown into the mix. Wayne says, “Swimming is where, some days, I find my best ideas, and do my best problem solving, and other days, I just let my mind wander wherever it wants to go.”

The subject of Wayne’s age has never come up. I don’t feel the age number, whatever it is, would be an effective measurement of what he is or isn’t capable of doing. I’ve always been inspired by what Mary Baker Eddy said about age, “Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise.”  These words are from a woman who spent the first half of her life seeking health and the second half sharing the health benefits of Bible-based prayer with the world through her writings and teachings.

Experience how swimming can increase your physical and mental well-being by stopping by Lifetime Fitness on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday morning and meet Coach Wayne and his team of adult swimmers. If swimming isn’t your thing, find another recreational activity that gives you quiet time to stretch your mental endurance, to meditate or pray. It will improve your health.

Steve Drake is a health writer focusing on the leading edge of thought, consciousness, spirituality and health. He is also a liaison to the media and the government relations contact for Christian Science in Missouri.