Is swimming the best form of exercise?

With all this lovely sunshine and holidays coming up patients this week have been talking about wanting to go swimming. Quite often the believe is that swimming is the best form of exercise especially if you have problems with the back. This may not necessarily be the case.

For most people the breast stoke swimming technique is the first choice when swimming. A common problem with this technique is that people have the head lifted out of the water. This places huge amounts of compression on the base of the neck. This overtime can cause joint and disc problems and even lead to nerve pain in the arm and headaches. The extension of the neck also puts the lower spine (the lumbar spine) out of line causing similar problems here. If you suffer from pelvic problems then the action of the 'frog-legs' places a large amount of rotation through the joints which can cause further problems and pain.

If however you have good technique, strong abdominal muscles that support the back and use goggles especially if swimming breast stroke then swimming is ok.

Just as a note if you have been advised that your bones need strengthening eg./ that you're at risk from brittle bones or osteoporosis then swimming will not, unfortunately, help. You need an exercise that is weight bearing and for that walking would be good to do.