Open Water Swimming, a big yes or a bigger no?
Many people don't like the idea of swimming in the lake where there are fish and weeds but when you look past all of the negative aspects of swimming outdoors there are in fact many health benefits both mental and physical. A big benefit of open water swimming is that it enhances your happiness, it releases more endorphins into your bloodstream along with this they can help improve the function of your vital organs with improvement to your circulation, increases your metabolism and provides boosts to your immune system.
Phil (an open water swimmer/competitor) comments on how it has helped improve mental health. “I was working in India and I was in a tiny hotel in the middle of a tiny city. There were very few sports opportunities there, the only sport I could do was swimming. We had an outdoor pool at our hotel and I could swim, I worked really long hours and I could swim every night even if it was dark. I could jump in and go for a swim and I did that nearly every other day. It was the one time I could really turn my brain off, stop thinking, and mulling things over about work. Just being able to do exercise was as much a physical thing as a mental thing just to switch my brain off and let me mentally relax as well and that has been important to me.”
Phill’s wife, Kath also commented on how open water swimming has helped her with physical injuries “I just think it's an overall body exercise and it's non-weight bearing and even if you've got an injury you can still sometimes do it, for example I had a knee injury for a while and just because I was wearing a wetsuit and it was compressing my knee [so] I didn't have to kick because of my wetsuit and a buoyancy in it.
With all these benefits to both mental and physical health, what's not to love? Yes the cold water may be a shock on your first few swims but your body will acclimate to the water very quickly.
Louise started swimming at a local lake when the water temperature ranged from 17°c, to 23°c, after falling in love with swimming in nature she began competing in competitions in the most famous in the Lakes in the Lake District. Then continued her swimming throughout the winter in the sea and local lakes she even swam through a thin layer of ice on the surface of water.
Louise's top tip is “don't be afraid of beating time or your competitors, just do it for yourself and have some fun. Whether you swim competitively or just for fun, enjoy it. You get to experience some of the world's most beautiful bodies of water. So take up the opportunity and jump in.”
For those who want to start swimming in the open water Phill and Kath recommend going with friends or a group that do open water swimming. Wirral Leisure run organised open water swimming sessions details can be found here. Always remember if you are a child then please get your parents or careers permission before entering any open water and make sure you have support and supervision. Also check out swimming.orgs website on how to get into open water swimming.