Fitness and Well-being

How swimming helps in injury recovery and rehabilitation

Most people don’t realise this: swimming helps in injury recovery. Yes, Swimming is an amazing sport, but its benefits are beyond that.

Swimming is one such activity that physiotherapists suggest when one is suffering from muscular/tissue related issues. Furthermore, swimming is the only physically challenging activity that doesn’t load our joints.

Aquatic therapy is highly beneficial and one doesn’t need to be a professional swimmer to be able to use this tool.

So why use swimmings a tool for injury recovery? Here’s why..

Benefits of Swimming-

1.Low impact in nature-

After encountering an injury it is important to stay active. In fact, stay put can do more harm than good. However, putting too much load on your body can cause issues.

Here’s where swimming solves that issue. It is a low impact exercise that strengthens your whole body.

2. Speeds up recovery-

The first thing one wants to do after getting injured is, bouncing back. To help you get back faster, swimming can play a huge role. It prevents our muscles from stiffening and ensures that muscles don’t deteriorate.

3. Swimming helps in cardiovascular health-

A very frustrating result of getting injured is the inability to stay active. However, swimming is one activity that helps you stay active and fit. Just like running, swimming offers a great platform to improve your cardiovascular health.

To emphasize, it helps one stay fit during an injury.

4. Swimming may promote nerve regeneration-

In a small study conducted, it was found that swimming may promote nerve regeneration. It is said to accelerate the healing process, specially injuries like sciatic related.

5. Swimming is not weight bearing-

Swimming is an exercise. Nevertheless, it is not a weight bearing one. When injured, the doctor advises us to not load our joints by physical activities. To clarify even though swimming is a physical activity, it doesn’t put any pressure on the body.

In essence, swimming makes you weightless.

Conclusion-

To summarise, when injured, consider swimming. Swimming helps in injury recovery and rehabilitation. It isn’t weight bearing and doesn’t load your body. This is great to stay fit even when injured!

Nidhi Patel