In our opinion, swimming is an extremely underrated exercise. It is truly a luxury to be able to dive into a body of water and have all your problems left on land. Let's talk about the three benefits of swimming you might not have known before:

1. Swimming is shown to improve mental health because it literally demands you to leave the outside world, outside. It actually increases production of endorphins and other mood boosting hormones in your body. Swimming is an amazing way to alleviate stress, some have even compared it to yoga. It can be a really relaxing exercise, to the point where you forget you’re even exercising. 
2. Swimming also improves your physical health. The entire time you are swimming you are going against the resistance of the water but at a very low impact, It’s super safe for achy joints & muscles. It also is good for cardiovascular fitness because you are keeping your heart rate up. It has been proven that just 2 and a half hours of swimming a week can significantly decrease the risk of chronic illness. It is an especially good exercise to build lean & toned muscle mass.
3. There are different varieties of exercise within swimming. There are different strokes you can do to customize your workout and target different muscles. The four strokes in total including- Freestyle, Breaststroke, Butterfly and Backstroke. I know alot of us, including myself, don’t always love getting our hair wet so this wouldn’t be the exercise you do everyday but it would be a nice switch up in your routine. There are also ways you can avoid getting a wet head during swimming- you can wear a bathing suit cap, modify the stroke so your head is not under water, or use a kickboard so the upper part of your body is lifted out of the water. 

Overall, swimming is an amazing way to workout your body and align your thoughts. Which we all could use! hoping to see you all wearing HCM during your swim activities this summer :)