As a college student, it’s pretty hard to find the time to study, eat, socialize, and work out. For most students, studying takes up most of their time, while socializing and eating takes up a sizeable chunk as well. Everyone knows the importance of exercising regularly, but there are so many different exercises out there it’s hard to decide which one to do. With my mom calling me every other day reminding me how important it is to work out, I decided to research the best types of exercises to do.
According to the Harvard Health Publications from Harvard Medical School, swimming is considered the perfect workout. It’s been said that swimming is a full body workout, since it exercises your entire body. “The buoyancy of the water also supports your body and takes the strain off painful joints so you can move them more fluidly.” It also brings cardiovascular and respiratory benefits, since if you’re swimming at a fast pace your heart will work faster and generate more energy, and your lungs will also work faster and strengthen.
Studies conducted by the Cooper Clinic in Dallas researched this topic extensively. One of the studies “compared measures of cardiovascular health, such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and maximum energy output, across nearly 46,000 male and female runners, swimmers, walkers, and people who don’t exercise.” Swimmers and runners had the best results, which means there could be a correlation between swimming and improved cardiovascular health. The other study conducted by the Cooper Clinic looked at deaths of 40, 547 men ages 20 to 90. “Over an average of 13 years of follow-up, only 2% of the swimmers died.”
While many might consider swimming to be the best form of exercise, it might be harder to find time to go swimming as a college student, which is why I decided to research other effective forms of exercise. According to Runners World, running also has numerous health benefits such as the prevention of obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, stroke, high blood pressure, and the improvement of your mental health. However, a study conducted by the Frederksberg Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, states that running too much might be detrimental for a person’s health. Researchers concluded that while jogging and being active is good for you, running more than three days a week for 1 to 2 hours each time, might not be good for you.
“Dr. Jacob Marott and his colleagues followed 1,100 healthy joggers and 413 sedentary people out of approximately 5,000 healthy Danish adults for 12 years.” They took into account variables such as their perception of their pace and their hours and frequency of jogging. Marott and the other researchers found that the strenuous joggers were as likely to die during that time period as the sedentary non-joggers, while light or moderate joggers weren’t. Marott believes that “long-term strenuous endurance exercise may induce pathological structural remodeling of the heart and large arteries.” However, since the joggers self reported their perception of their pace, the results might not be as accurate since people have different perceptions of what is considered “strenuous jogging”.
My final takeaway on this topic is that swimming might be the form of exercise that is less risky and brings the most benefits, closely followed by non-strenous jogging. While the Danish study might have skewed results due to the anecdotal responses, it still might be a good idea not to overdo it while running or jogging. However, I can conclude that there is a possible correlation between exercising and health benefits.
Picture links:
https://colliersmagazine.com/sites/default/files/running%20dude.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/231000_-_Swimming_Daniel_Bell_reflections_action_-_3b_-_2000_Sydney_event_photo.jpg
Right when I saw the title of this blog my mind automatically said “Swimming.” I’m glad you brought up the point about jogging not being so good for you after all. A lot of people especially college students are under the assumption that running is the perfect exercise, it helps you burn calories and gain muscle as well as has cardiovascular benefits, but it really isn’t the best. A few years ago I was in a play with an older gentleman who really wanted to lose weight, so he ran….a lot. He did lose the weight like he wanted to, but not only can he not run anymore but he has terrible knee issues. A lot of people aren’t aware of how strenuous running is on joints. I was curious to see what I could find because swimming is so difficult to count on as a workout, and I already knew of this, but found it maybe to be helpful here, but interval training. Instead of straight running for instance it’s actually more effective to throw in walking or what doing exercises in the gym to also mix in less strenuous activity with the harder stuff because not only will your body thank you, but you’ll actually be working out effectively. Over working out is one of the main causes of problems active people can face.
Link: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/interval-training/art-20044588
I found this blog very interesting because I have never really considered what is the most effective way of working out. I always thought running was the way to go, because it seemed to be the workout that pushed me the most and made me sweat a lot. I did some research and surprisingly walking is at the top of the most effective workout list. Scientists claim that you can burn up to 500 calories per hour with a brisk walk. Swimming is also up there on the list, and I have known it was a very effective way of working out. I also found online like you said that swimming is the healthiest option out of most working out methods. I think it comes down to the fact of whichever method you enjoy the most because most workout methods are too dangerous. I found my research here (http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/7-most-effective-exercises?page=2).
I found this blog very interesting, because I often have a hard time fitting exercise into my daily routine. When it is a nice day outside especially right now in fall, I try to go for a run outside. However, with colder weather around the corner, it will soon be that I can only run on a treadmill or the elliptical. I looked into seeing which was a better workout, running outside or on the elliptical? I found that there really isn’t a solid answer one way or the other, but that if are trying to prepare for a race like a 5K or even a marathon, the best exercise is running outside.
For more information on this topic:http://www.outsideonline.com/1783781/elliptical-vs-running-same-workout