Are you still wondering why swimming is such a great hobby? Let’s take a look into the everyday life of a person, whose hobby is swimming, just to see what all the ‘fuss’ is about. Hopefully by getting a glimpse, you can convince yourself of the many benefits. So let’s try to implement swimming in your regular day.
The name of our protagonist is John. John is 28 years old and he has a 9 to 5 office job in the city. So let’s see how an average Monday looks like in John’s life.
Morning
The alarm sets off at 7 o’clock. John wants to push the snooze button, but knows that’s not an option, because it’s Monday, so he should definitely not be late. He wakes up, does the usual morning routine: shower, breakfast, getting ready for work. Then, at 8 am he is off to work. You see, John lives pretty far from his workplace, so he has to go by his motorbike to get there in time. Thus, he neither exercises in the morning, nor takes a walk.
At the office, he sits at his desk all day. It’s a usual Monday; people are in no mood for jokes, still longing for the weekend that went away too quickly. John takes his lunch break and his coffee break, but since work is piling up, he has no time to get up from his chair as often as he should.
Regular day exercise
5 p.m. finally arrives when he can get off from work and start enjoying this beautiful Monday. What changed his attitude? That’s very simple: he knows he will soon be on his way to the swimming pool for his regular exercise and he can’t wait to get there. Even the thought of swimming relaxes him a bit, like that’s what he waited for all day long.
He gets on his motorbike and heads straight to the swimming pool. When he arrives, familiar faces greet him, including that of the swimming instructor, who is happy to see John did not fail and it has been 6 months since he regularly trains. Of course he has to change and then the fun begins.
Not such a long time ago, if anyone would have told John that he will become such a ‘swimming geek’, he would have found that sentence extremely hilarious. Now, he cannot imagine a week without coming to this pool and without swimming. Yes, it was because he lost a bet. That’s why he joined this swimming club. But now, he’s so grateful that he received this as the ‘punishment’.
He is well aware that this was the plan all along. He knew the whole bet was because she wanted to get him to do some form of exercise. After all he couldn’t take the stairs to the 4th floor without breathing heavily, not to mention the continuous fatigue, back pain and the other symptoms. While he knew what was happening to him was not normal, he didn’t give it such importance. However, seeing the difference in how he feels now and how he felt then, he is convinced this was the solution.
The swimming class
The swimming class is about an hour and a half. The others seem to enjoy it every bit as he does. Granted, he feels like every bone in his body is getting exhausted, but in the same time, he is so relaxed and happy. He forgets about the problems, he doesn’t think about work or anything remotely related to it … and what an achievement this is for him. He can just swim, feel free and not think about anything else for the time being. He literally feels how much good this does.
After the swimming class, he stays to talk a bit with the fellow ‘geeks’, then heads home, takes care of some light dinner and ends the day thinking it was great. He is glad that he got to do something for himself as well, something that his body and mind will thank him for. Of course, he is too tired to do anything else at the moment, like going out; but he would not treat the sweet muscle pain and exhaustion for anything else.
Summary of a regular day
So, why do all that? Why go to such lengths to regularly swim? Why not just go and grab a beer at a pub, like the rest of his co-workers? Why is John getting so excited about being exhausted and having to do physical exercise? The answer is simple and yet so many of us forget.
It is because physical exercise is the best medicine for getting rid of all the mental stress of the day and staying healthy in the process. Since we know how bad stress can be and where it can lead, I think it’s pretty safe to say, we should do everything in our power to avoid it. Whichever your hobby is: swimming, going to the gym, running, dancing, cycling or something else, keep it up! Let those endorphins out and make sure you are happy and healthy, without being stressed.
If you would like to take on swimming as a beginner here is an article about “What should a beginner’s swimming equipment contain?”