Tuesday, November 18, 2008
10:04:00 am
Taken from some books Roderick lent me
It's inexpensive and requires minimal gear. You can run almost anytime and anywhere. And there is nothing like a good run to clear your mind and put life's problems into a more sane perspective.
It's like having an old friend that is always there when I need a lift in spirits. Once I get myself out the door, the world opens up, no matter how hemmed in or bummed out I might be feeling.
My heart gets stronger, my bone density increases, I burn a ton of caloires, and my aerobic capacity improves.
- Chi Running by Danny Dreyer
But I like this best, from Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin
In my opinion, swimming is more fun than anything else you can do with your clothes on. It feels great and, no matter how hard the workout, you're left so refreshed, so energized, that for the rest of the day no challenge seems too great.
Name one other workout that can do that. After running, I ache all day long and often into the next. Cycling is fun and is certainly fine exercise, but only as long as the sun's up and it's not cold or wet out. Weight training is excellent, but by the time I'm done, it's all I can do to carry my gym bag back to the car.
Swimming's different. I always feel better after my workout than I did before. Perhaps calling swimming "the ideal exercise" is a little strong, but it would be hard to find a better contender for the title. It makes your heart and lungs work more efficiently, enhances muscle strength and endurance, improves flexibility, and helps reduce stress. Yet swimming is easier on the joints than anything else that gets your heart rate up. And it's the only one that can legitimately make you feel weightless and free.
Swimming is about as injury-free as they come. Gone are the bone-jarring shocks of land sports, so gone too are the joint and back injuries that plague so many joggers and cyclists. The water is also kinder to your muscles. Its massaging effect and the steady, even resistance it provides eliminate much of the postworkout muscle soreness so common in land sports.
Overheating is also nearly impossible in swimming. Water conducts heat from the body twenty times better than air does, so you can train at much higher intensities without the dehydration and potential heat exhaustion common "ashore".
And swimming is an equal opportunity sport. Even if your weight, a physical handicap, or an injury would normally keep you out of action on land, you can probably swim. In fact, many land athletes use swimming to regain strenght and fitness after an injury, far sooner than they could by returning to their main sport.
This sport promotes joint mobility better than any other aerobic exericse. Regular swimmers have also been shown to have lower blood pressures, slower pulse rates, and much greater exercise tolerance than other people their age.
On top of all this, aerobic benefits of swimming one mile are equal to those of running four miles!
SWIMMING ROCKS. I so totally agree it's the best form of exericise left right up down.
Legs are starting a litttleeeee to protest from 1hr runs everyday, or almost.
How to run 5hrs lidat!
Comments:
ohhh is that considered piracy when you type seemingly more than 10% of a book out? haha. seems like you're addicted to typing these days. HMM..:p
hmmm.... well, i quoted the source! i think i overtyped already... now very sian.. no more typing games for me...
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