So, what does a gym and swimming workout look like? Does swimming help weight loss?
The Benefits of Swimming for Weight Loss
1. High-Calorie Burn
Is swimming good for weight loss? Well, the caloric burn might say it all.
For a 170-pound individual, 30 minutes of swimming can burn up to 300 calories. In contrast, 30 minutes of weight lifting will only burn around 134 calories. However, it’s important to note that weight lifting will increase muscle mass more and improve your resting metabolic rate, burning more calories at rest.
2. Low Impact
The buoyancy of the water supports your body and joints by alleviating some of the pressure and stress. This can allow individuals, such as those facing an injury or with chronic pain, an option to move their bodies without discomfort.
3. Builds Muscle
Swimming will also build muscle mass. While it won’t do this to the extent that weight lifting does, swimming engages the entire body, including the core, shoulders, legs, and more. This means it can strengthen and tone your whole body, supporting your goals.
4. Improves Your Cardiovascular Health
Swimming before or after weight lifting will offer you cardiovascular effects you can’t get by simply lifting weights. It often increases your heart rate further, working the most important muscle in the body: your heart.
In turn, this will contribute to overall good health and also potentially lower your risk of cardiovascular disease or a heart attack.
5. Relieves Stress
This can further your weight loss efforts by helping you avoid stress eating or chronic health conditions that may arise from excessive stress.
Gym and Swimming Tips for Weight Loss
- Stay consistent. Consistency is key for any weight loss regime to work. With a gym and pool at your disposal, try to keep a regular routine. For instance, you could lift weights three times a week and swim daily, depending on your fitness level and abilities.
- Use swimming as a form of active recovery. After a particularly heavy weight-lifting session, lactic acid and other byproducts can build up in our muscles, leaving us sore and achy. However, moving is one of the best things you can do – and swimming offers a low-impact way to get your blood moving, facilitating recovery.
- If your goal is to build muscle, swimming post-workout is best. Muscle is important for healthy weight loss as it will help burn more calories at rest. It will also help you maintain any weight lost. Since building muscle mass is often the priority, swimming afterwards can help optimise for this, without leaving you fatigued and unable to lift your personal bests.
Still have questions about combining swimming and the gym? Let’s talk them through.
Is Swimming Good for Gym Recovery?
Yes! Swimming is a wonderful gym recovery routine. Swimming and the gym on the same day can even help you recover faster, helping you get back to hitting your personal bests on the squat rack.
Does Swimming Burn Fat After a Workout?
Swimming will burn calories. As mentioned above, a 170-pound individual may burn up to 300 calories in one 30-minute session. In turn, this may help you burn fat. When combining swimming and the gym, you get the best of both worlds; you increase your muscle mass while burning fat.
Can Swimming Replace Weight Training?
If you’re wondering about gym or swimming and which one is best, the truth is that you can do both. However, it depends on what your goals are.
What Burns More Calories, Swimming or Gym?
This depends on how you measure it. In the moment, swimming burns more calories than the gym. Yet, the gym’s effects extend beyond the workout. In the gym, the goal is to build muscle, and muscle burns more calories at rest. Thus, overall, the gym might actually burn more calories in the long term than swimming.
Is It Better to Swim Before or After the Gym?
If your goal is to lose weight and build muscle, it’s better to swim after the gym. This will allow you to put all your energy into stimulating your muscle tissue, which will have more weight loss benefits in the long term.
Can You Swim and Workout on the Same Day?
Yes! Swimming can offer a great recovery routine after lifting weights. Combining a swim and the gym covers almost all your fitness basics, helping you develop a well-rounded routine.
Can I Work Out and Swim Every Day?
This depends. Rest is always important. However, swimming can be a form of active recovery. If you’re working out different muscle groups each day, you can do both. For example, you might do a shoulder workout and swim one day, then a leg workout and swim the next.
Can I Do Gym and Swimming Together?
Sample Gym Workout for Swimmers
Aim to perform about eight to 15 repetitions and two to three sets of each of the moves above. Afterwards, you can recover and refresh with a dive into the pool.
Combine Your Gym and Swim with Aura Leisure
So, which is better for weight loss: gym or swimming? The answer is both!
While swimming is good for cardio, it also burns major calories. Yet, weight lifting in the gym is important for building ample muscle, which burns more calories at rest.