Tomorrow is Family Health and Fitness Day! There are lots of ways your child can stay healthy with kid-friendly fitness routines, but today we are going to focus on swimming. We are Life Saver Pool Fence, after all!
Swimming is not only a way to stay cool in the summer months. It is a way to instill fitness practices that your child can carry with them into adulthood. Swimming can help to introduce healthy habits at a young age, and in a fun way. In fact, this fun activity can benefit kids (and adults!) in many different aspects of their life. So join us in the water for Family Health and Fitness Day!
Swimming Together for Family Health and Fitness Day
First, swimming as a family can be tons of fun! It is also the safest way to engage in pool time. Supervised swimming allows you to keep an eye on your kids to ensure their constant safety. Swimming as a family also reinforces healthy activities, so you stay healthy together as well. Babies can be introduced to the pool earlier than you may realize.
One option for parents to consider is a program called Infant Swimming Resource (ISR). ISR lessons are designed to help get babies into the water when they are as young as six months old. You can learn more at ISR’s official homepage.
Even more interesting, did you know you can begin swimming together before your baby is even born?! The benefits of swimming for pregnant women have been well documented – and have been discussed on this blog in the past as well. Read our linked article to learn more.
Here are several ways swimming can benefit your child’s health:
Physical Health
Swimming has countless benefits for the body, from muscle strength to heart health. Here are just a few of the areas in which you can see results from active swimming:
- Strengthen muscles: Help kids build a strong foundation for strength and stamina. Strong muscles helps to maintain healthy posture and determine readiness for completing everyday tasks such as walking and climbing.
- Healthy heart: Speaking of muscles, don’t forget that the heart is a muscle, too! Routine aerobic exercise, like swimming, demands coordination of organs, mainly your heart and lungs, to control your blood and oxygen. This keeps your blood pressure and heart rate stabilized.
- Prevent diabetes: Diabetes is a growing concern in the U.S. Regular exercise and staying active helps kids to burn calories and accumulate less fat. In turn, they prevent obesity and all of the pitfalls that come with it.
Social Skills
Accomplishing the task of learning to swim can provide confidence that can carry over into other parts of a child’s life. Swimming also allows for an easy and fun way to interact with other children, creating social opportunities. These social skills can also be applied to areas of other activity, such as the classroom. What better time to exercise these skills than Family Health and Fitness Day?
Emotional Health
Exercise relieves stress. It’s proven science. You see, exercise releases endorphins, the feel-good chemical, which in turn reduces cortisol, the stress hormone. That’s all just a scientific way to say – exercising makes you feel good! It improves mental health by lowering anxiety and helping you to feel happier. After all, isn’t that what we want most for our children? Even more than regular exercise, swimming removes pressure on the body due to the buoyancy of the water, providing a weightless and stress-free experience.
That’s all it takes! Hop in the pool and bring the whole crew for Family Health and Fitness Day.
