‘Swimming can be a challenge but may be the best winter exercise’

Regular swimming can banish the blues, damp down anxiety, and improve your lung capacity. Now we are learning that it can reduce the risk of chronic illness, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke, and even delay cognitive decline.

Actress Natalie Portman credits swimming with helping her focus in Black Swan, the role she won an Oscar for, as a psychologically frayed ballet dancer. She called her swimming work-outs a valuable, impact-free, cardio and endurance-building alternative to ballet training.

Nicole Kidman credits swimming for her physique and her health, specifically a daily 30-minute session with her sister. She says it’s her favourite way to stay in shape.

Jennifer Aniston, the beloved favourite from the long-running series Friends, gets in three sessions of freestyle swimming a week in workouts ranging from 20 to 40 minutes. Her secret to maintaining the habit for decades is that she does it for fun.

For the last two years, I have combined swimming lengths for about 30 minutes three or four times a week into my weekly habit. Swimming freestyle helps me to banish worries, build stamina, prepare or refine my thoughts before putting them on paper, and sleep like a baby.

High on the list of benefits is the impact of swimming on anxiety and depression. Regular swimming, as with many forms of exercise, releases ‘feelgood’ hormones or endorphins that reduce both anxiety and depression.

A study published in Frontiers In Psychiatry (2022) reported that swimming is particularly effective at reducing anxiety. The review found that water-based activities were more effective at reducing anxiety than land-based activities such as aerobics, and meditation. Hitting the pool has been found to be comparable to yoga in reducing anxiety and stress over a 12-week period.

Several studies have shown the impact of water-based activities on boosting mood. The sensation of water flowing over the skin while moving through water is a key aspect of the mood-enhancing effect. The reduction in gravity also reduces the load on the spine, knees and other pain-prone areas.

Swimming can be a challenge for some people, especially in the sea. But confronting challenges is key to the impact on mood. Moreover, outdoor swimming serves to connect and convey a sense of nature.

Swimming is one of the sports that demands you leave the outside world behind. You physically cannot check your social media while in the pool, so it is a great opportunity to empty your brain and leave all that digital stimulation behind.

HSE guidelines recommend adults aged 18 to 64 do at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week to stay healthy. This includes running, walking or swimming. If you choose to do more vigorous activity like fast swimming, you can cut this to 75 minutes, which is just over an hour each week or 15 to 20 minutes four or five days a week.

Swimming for fitness is easy to build up. It is a great activity for toning muscles, particularly in the upper arms and body as well as the core and thighs. The consistent resistance pattern of swimming through water taxes muscles and causes them to tone up.

Sore knees, hips and ankles can make running increasingly difficult as we age, and weight-bearing joints limit the ability to partake in running or other land activities. However, swapping walking or running for a few lengths in the pool can make all the difference by reducing the impact on muscles, joints and bones.

The real benefit of swimming is that it keeps the heart rate up without stressing the body. A study in the Journal of Rheumatology (2016) found that regular swimming for people with osteoarthritis could cause significant reductions in joint pain and stiffness.

A 2023 study in Experimental Gerontology found that moderate to high intensity aerobic exercise, like swimming, can benefit people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Aerobic exercise, including swimming, has also been linked to better sleep quality as well as improved duration of sleep.

Swimming is safe during pregnancy. The water supports your bump and can help to reduce swelling in the ankles and feet. There is also some evidence that regular swimming in early to mid-pregnancy can reduce the risk of pre-term labour.

A key advantage of swimming over other forms of aerobic activity is the variety of strokes you can use to keep your work-out fresh and increase the number of muscles that are being worked. Certain strokes, such as the front crawl, lend themselves to faster work-outs, whereas the breast stroke allows for a more low-intensity, steady state work-out.

The backstroke is thought to be the most elegant stroke, which improves overall posture. It is also key to strengthening the core and opening up the chest muscles as well as working out muscles in the back and thighs.

Many people suffer from both niggling injuries and impaired mobility, that makes exercising difficult. Because of the reduction in body weight and stress taken off weight-bearing joints, swimming offers the opportunity to move in ways that are no longer possible on land, owing to the support provided by the water.

This allows people to build cardio and muscle strength without the risk of injury. If you do have an injury or impaired mobility, it is a good idea to check with a health professional to identify the best swimming programme for your needs.

The value of swimming also goes far beyond physical and mental health. Learning how to swim and having the water safety knowledge to be safe in and around the water is a lifesaving skill.

The unique magic of swimming is that there is some form of aquatic activity to support people at every stage of the life cycle, from parent and baby sessions through dementia- friendly and impaired mobility sessions, and everything in between.

Our swimming pools and leisure centres and blue spaces play a vital role in local communities. They are where children and adults learn a vital skill, as well as helping people to lead happier, healthier lives while reducing the burden on health and social services.

Pools are homes to aquatic clubs that offer much-needed opportunities for socialising and supporting people to reach their full potential both in and out of the water.

Swimming can offer a myriad of physical and mental health benefits, including supporting your heart and lungs, maintaining a healthy weight, boosting mood and reducing anxiety, potentially delaying the onset of cognitive decline, at the same time as offering opportunities to strengthen friendships and social ties.

As long winter nights close in, it might be just what you need to banish the blues, improve your health, and leave your worries behind as you put everything on hold while you glide rhythmically and smoothly through the water.

• Dr Catherine Conlon is a public health doctor in Cork