What is better, swimming or a workout at the gym?

Question

I'm want to try and improve my fitness and lose weight - what is the best form of exercise to do?

How much should I be doing?

Answer 1

swimming and walking best u can do they don't strain muscles like you can at the gym

Answer 2

Swimming exercises all muscles of the body while the water supports you which is good for people with injuries and arthritis and such like but it doesn't burn up as many calories as a work out at the gym but the gym puts more of a strain on you muscles, joints and probably will wear them out more quickly but obviously not for years. It doesn't matter what exercise you do as long as you do something. As for how much you should do well start of slowly and work up over time it is harmful to over do any exercise especially at the beginning when you are not used to it.

Answer 3

I would say a workout at the gym, you get tired very easily when you swim and if you keep going you lose your form and swim all wrong making it hard to breath and do an ineffective routine.

With the gym you can workout any muscle you want and work it until you just can't go anymore, but unlike swimming you just move onto a different muscle group and do the same with that and by the time you have done your routine the first muscle will be back to normal.

For me swimming is to relaxing and I just wanna mess about in the pool, I don't treat it as a serious workout and i've never had the soreness I do when I have been on the weights, so I say the gym is a lot better.

Answer 4

SWIMMING, by far is the best form of working out ALL the muscles.

In the water, you use more of the major muscle groups, which raises your heart rate and metabolism.

The AMOUNT and type of swimming depends upon yourself and the facilities where you swim.

Aim to extend your in-pool time each time you swim.

Swim the full-length of the pool, using an American crawl stroke, which uses all your major muscle groups; your legs, arms, chest, etc.  vs. a Butterfly stroke, which uses more chest muscles in a "static"-motion.

Answer 5

If you want to lose weight don't start weight lifting. Weight lifting will definitely put weight on. It will tone up your muscles and make you fit, but it will build muscle. I don't recommend it for weight loss.

If you know how to swim just go out and swim a few laps. Professional athletes may have a way of making it look easy, but just several laps of the pool and be very exhausting. If you can do that and still want to do more, go ahead. But if you do too much you're going to feel sore and burnt out. Take it a little at a time. You can always do more next time.

After you have worked out for a while and you are in better shape, you might want to consider weight training. It might be a nice break from all that water. It's messy and requires a lot of clean up. It can dry out your skin and strip your hair its healthy color and shine. In time, weight training could strike a nice balance between the two. You could even have the convenience of having some equipment at home, so you can do it while watching a ball game and save time and money.

It can grow tiresome doing the same thing all the time. Some variety can add some spice and convenience. In the end, as long as you do a workout, you may have something in your daily routine that you look forward to and keeps you feeling up and motivated. It may make you eat better food and eat more healthy food.

When you feel better, people can tell, your attitude can really reflect that. You may want to lose weight now, but once the weight is lost, you will want some other motivation to keep your interest. A workout can be very addicting. You may find you don't want to have to miss it. That's when you know it's no longer about weight loss.

Answer 6

Swimming is the best kind of sport.Just look at the athletic figure of the American Olympia swimmer and 8 gold medals winner, Phelbs.

And his forerunner at Munich was Mark Spitz winner of 7 gold medals.

Just do the same!

Answer 7

Swimming is one of the best exercises for toning up and improving fitness.  It works all the major muscle groups and encourages you to regulate your breathing.  With gym work-outs you have to do specific exercises.  This is great for targeting specific groups, but can mean a lot of time taken to cover the lot.

Walking, cross-training, rowing, and cycling are also good for all-round work.  You should be looking to do an hour of exercise, 3-4 times a week.

Good luck, be sensible with it.

Answer 8

Hi

The best form of exercise for you is whatever exercise YOU enjoy!

Too many people take up exercise regimes that they think they should be doing rather than what they enjoy doing.

Swimming is obviously a great form of exercise so if you enjoy a swim, go for it.

Answer 9

Honeslty, technically there may be "better" excercises than others, in fact there are...but its not really a this or that kind of situation. Swimming is a great overall excercise for cardio and toning. Circuit training at the gym is also great. The important thing really is to find excercises or workouts you enjoy, will do consistantly, and then make the time to do them....