Swimming is a very complete sport that involves hundreds of muscles in a state of floating and weightlessness that provides multiple physical benefits but also psychic and emotional ones. When I am asked if swimming is the most complete sport, I prefer to say that triathlon is more complete, or quadrathlon in any case, but that is another topic.

Swimming requires exercise in water, a medium nearly 800 times denser than air. And this particular physical property allows you to obtain a wide range of health benefits at a physical and mental level compared to other sports with hardly any drawbacks.

The practice of swimming with lifeguard pretest outlines the body of swimmers, being able to appreciate its effects on the musculature of the chest and back, effects that are also appreciated, but in a different way, or in other body areas, as is the case of cyclists or athletes. . But there are some benefits that sometimes go unnoticed, which are those caused at the brain level, which swimming provides above other physical activities, and are achieved in part thanks to its density, the buoyancy principle and the hydrostatic pressure that water exerts on the body. When we submerge the body in the water, leaving the head out of it, the blood flow increases through the cerebral arteries, allowing better and greater neuronal oxygenation.



SWIMMING WITH THE FAMILY

Swimming in a group open water, as long as the aquatic environment is mastered and the risks are controlled, can be a very rewarding activity and even more so if we can share it with our children. Swimming in nature allows a special bond with the natural environment, it makes it possible to obtain sensations that are not achieved with other sports. Swimming in a group open water can be an almost mystical activity. In my case, "sometimes I feel like going into the water to think, as if it were a catharsis for the soul...", something I try to pass on to my children.

RESPONSIBILITY

Swimming as a family is an extra satisfaction. On the one hand, the pride of seeing that my children enjoy swimming and practicing one of their father's hobbies. On the other, the fact of being able to share those “medicinal moments” practicing physical exercise. In addition, they result from a great emotional intensity when being together and in nature; but I am aware that this in turn entails a great responsibility. For this reason, I insist on the necessary preventive approach that parents must take into consideration in each of our family swimming sessions.

Respecting and enacting all safety measures will make open water swimming a satisfying experience. Giving them an example of how swimming outdoors should be practiced safely and respectfully with the environment will serve so that when they swim without our supervision they are also advocates and practitioners of prevention, thus reducing the probability of accidents.

ENCOURAGE OPEN WATER SWIMMING, BUT SAFELY

I love swimming. I have been linked to the aquatic environment all my life. In fact, those who have known me since I was a child know the origin of my nickname “the amphibian”. It comes because I have spent my childhood in the water of the swimming pool, the Ebro river or the Mediterranean, since before I was born, says my Dutch mother, who carried me in her womb when she bathed in the sea while my father participated in crossings swimming since the middle of the last century. And it is clear that it was my father who instilled in me the pleasure of swimming and taught me the importance of safety measures. 

For years I have trained competitive swimmers and currently I teach the specific skills and abilities to practice the profession of aquatic lifeguard requirements and swimming instructor. And I am very clear that in both training, both as a swimmer and as a lifeguard, SAFETY MEASURES and ACCIDENT PREVENTION in the water are the most important. For this reason, in this article I am going to summarize those fundamental aspects to be able to enjoy swimming in open water with the family safely. 

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