// Summer Swim
Swimming is an excellent form of exercise. It’s very easy on the bones and joints because your body is supported by the water. If you switch up your stroke, then you can also avoid overuse injuries. When you compare swimming to running and biking, it’s hard not to put swimming on top. Running produces tremendous stress on your bones and joints, and biking is a continuous movement that may cause injuries of overuse. Furthermore, if you compare the calories burned from each exercise, swimming competes with both running and biking. When a 185 pound man runs vigorously for 60 minutes, he’ll burn approximately 844 calories. When that same man bikes vigorously for 60 minutes, he’ll burn approximately 733 calories. Finally, when that same man swims vigorously for 60 minutes, he’ll burn approximately 821 calories. Obviously, it’s hard to define “vigorous” and these numbers will change for different people, but you can see that swimming measures up very favorably to the more traditional physical activities of running and biking. I’m an above average athlete. I played 5 years professional basketball in Europe. I finished top ten in three international fitness model competitions. I’ve been active my entire life, and nowadays I keep my bodyfat consistently at a lean 6%. I run, I bike, and I crosstrain on a daily basis, but there’s one exercise that always kicks my butt: swimming. From experience, I know any physical activity that is that challenging to me must have its benefits. Unfortunately, you can’t always swim (unless you have an indoor pool in your area). You should never swim in a thunderstorm, but you could conceivably run or bike in storm conditions (although it’s not advisable). Swimming is also limited to the summer months, while running and biking can be done during all seasons. But when the conditions are right, nothing beats swimming. You’ve got warm weather and sunshine, you can work on your tan while building a healthy, strong body, and you can enjoy the greatest of scenery: girls in bikinis.
